The junior-A Lakers open their season with road loss
St. Catharines Athletics score six short-handed goals in 9-5 win
THOROLD The Peterborough Merit Precision junior-A Lakers opened their 2022 season Wednesday by dropping a 9-5 decision to the St. Catharines Athletics at the Canada Games Park Arena in Thorold.
The Thorold facility is the new home for the Athletics, who previously played out of the Jack Gatecliff Arena in downtown St. Catharines, which is closing after 84 years.
Short-handed goals proved costly for the Lakers.
The Athletics jumped out to a 2-0 lead and were up 3-1 heading into the second period.
They opened the middle frame in the whistle-to-whistle victory with a four-goal run, the first three while playing a man down.
St. Catharines allowed three power-play goals, but more than made up for it by scoring six while playing short-handed, including five in a row.
The final score wasn’t indicative of scoring chances in the season opener for both teams.
Peterborough outshot St. Catharines 46-44, including by a 37-24 margin over the final two periods.
Tye Steenhuis, the son of former longtime Peterborough Century 21 Lakers fan favourite Mark Steenhuis, scored three goals and added one assist.
Jordan Porga, with two goals and four assists; Colton Armitage, with two goals and one helper; Keaton Zavitz, with one tally and three assists; and Alex Pelisorto also scored for the Athletics.
Jackson Webster and affiliated player Kaden Smith contributed four and three assists, respectively, to the victory.
Zack Thompson, with a pair, and Tyler Hendrycks, Jacob McLean and Adam Thistlethwaite found the back of the net for the Lakers.
Goaltender Austin Paddy stopped 41 shots to get the win between the pipers for St. Catharines.
Porga was called up from the Welland Generals, while Armitage and Pelisorto started the junior-B season with the ex-St. Catharines Athletics, formerly the Spartans.
This year, the Ontario Junior-A Lacrosse League is playing a regular season — with home and away games — for the first time since 2019. The 2020 season was cancelled due to COVID-19 and a single-site championship tourney in Oakville took the place of a regular schedule in 2021.
St. Catharines edged Brampton 14-13 for the title after compiling a 6-2 record over two weekends of qualifying and sending the Mimico Mountaineers to the sidelines with a 7-6 victory in the semifinals.
The junior-A Lakers play their home opener Monday at 8 p.m. at the Healthy Planet Arena against Kitchener-Waterloo.
Tye Steenhuis, the son of former longtime Peterborough Century 21 Lakers fan favourite Mark Steenhuis, scored three goals and added one assist