Athletics fall in overtime

The St. Catharines Athletics took two of four periods Saturday night when they hosted the Burlington Chiefs, but not the ones the junior A lacrosse team needed to win.

Bookending their control of the second period, 3-1, and the third, 2-0, were a slow start and lack of a strong finish.

Burlington took a 4-0 lead into the first intermission and outscored the A’s 4-1 in overtime to clinch a 9-6 victory in the battle of unbeaten teams.

St. Catharines, which fell to 3-1, outshot the Chiefs 52-44, but it was the visitors, not the hosts, who excelled on special teams before an announced crowd of

426 at Jack Gatecliff Arena.

In addition to going 2-for-5 on the power play and holding the A’s scoreless on 10 opportunities with a man advantage, the Chiefs scored two short-handed goals.

Tyler Brown paced St. Catharines in points with three goals and an assist. Kyle Kilgour, Kealon Pilon, each with a goal and an assist, and Owen Friesen found the back of the net for the A’s.

Burlington was 51 seconds away from winning in regulation when Brown, with Nick Damude out of the St. Catharines net to provide an extra attacker, beat Chiefs goalie Drew Hutchison to force overtime.

Providing the offence for the Chiefs, who improved their record to 3-0, were Matt Anderson (three goals, four assists), Ryan Lanchbury,(two goals, three assists) Trevor Barrett (two goals) and Matt Harris and Matt Marinier (one goal apiece).

Hutchison stopped 46 shots, including 10 in overtime, for the win. Tagged with the loss was Damude, who fell to 3-1 on the year. The Chiefs duplicated their start to the game by scoring four goals to start the 10-minute overtime period.

A Tuesday road game against the Whitby Warriors begins a busy stretch that has the Athletics on the floor four times in six days.

They host the Oakville Buzz in a 7:30 p.m. start Wednesday before hitting the road to face the Barrie Lakeshores (8 p.m. Friday) and the Toronto Beaches (3 p.m. Sunday).