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| Davide DiRuscio, here starring for the Niagara Lock Monster in CLax, helped lead the Peterborough Lakers to a 9-7 win over Six Nations. (Photo: Tim Prothero) |
The Peterborough Lakers won the fights
and they won the game Saturday night, downing the Six Nations Chiefs
9-7 in a rematch of Six Nations' 10-8 win in Peterborough Thursday.
The Lakers led 4-2 after the first period in both games, but the
situation was different. Thursday they had scored the first four
goals then surrendered the next five as Six Nations grabbed the
momentum and pulled away to the win. Saturday night the Chiefs got
off to the fast start with a pair of goals but Peterborough scored
four times in just over five minutes to take the momentum and kept it
by getting the first two goals of the second, including one by Brad
Self just 13 seconds into the frame.
Six Nations did replay, though, finally
getting some balls behind Lakers goalie Davide DiRuscio, who
was excellent in his first Major Series Lacrosse start. When Craig
Point scored 51 seconds into the third period, the game was tied 6-6.
A fight between Peterborough's Andrew Suitor and David
Brock of Six Nations broke out before the ensuing faceoff. Both
players landed some punches before a right from Suitor knocked Brock
out and down. Brock was assisted from the floor but was reported
after the game as being alright. That was the second fight of the
game, as Peterborough's Nick Weiss pounded Wayne Van Every
after a goal-mouth fracas in the second period.
The Suitor fight seemed to swing
momentum back towards the Lakers and they capitalized on a beautiful
transition goal by Brock Sorensen. The big defender picked off
a pass, raced up the floor and did a swim move to try to get clear of
Kasey Beirnes running back to defend. Beirnes adjusted and
kept good position, so Sorensen went one-handed behind the back and
between the legs for as pretty a goal as you'll see.
That lead didn't last long, though, as
Cody Jamieson scored 13 seconds later. Josh Gillam and
John Grant Jr. were able to restore the Lakers lead, though,
and they hung on to earn the win. Gillam, who was named the game's
first star after scoring twice and adding 2 assists, said the Lakers
learned their lesson from the game Thursday. “”We have a group of
professionals in the locker room and you learn from your mistakes,
especially when it's two nights before,” he said. “That's just
the way good teams bounce back. We think of ourselves as a great team
and we pride ourselves on being able to fix mistakes.”
Peterborough Head Coach Joe Sullivan
agreed that it was important to take a lesson from what had happened
a couple of nights previously. “Live and learn,” he said. “That's
the kind of adversity we're going to face a lot. I talked to the guys
about how when things are going well you've got to recognize what it
is and you can't sit back and start slipping into bad habits and they
didn't tonight. Six Nations is a great team and they came back and
made a great game of it but we were able to fend them off.”
Jeff Shattler, the game's second
star with 2 goals and 2 assists for Six Nations, gave credit to
DiRuscio (named the game's third star) and the Lakers but was
confident his team will get better. “They played well. I thought we
were snake-bitten ourselves,” he said. “We hit six or seven
posts, missed a bunch of breakaways...their goalie played well. We
could have played a lot better. When playoff time comes around we'll
be a better team.”
Six Nations was playing their third
game of the week. They've had a busy schedule in order to minimize
the number of games they play while a large contingent of their
players are in Denver for the FIL World Lacrosse Championships July
10-19. They play next Thursday and Saturday then have only one game
in the following 18 days. Peterborough is back at it Monday night
when they travel to Oakville to take on the Rock. You can watch that
8pm game via live JVI webcast. Just click on the link in the
right-hand column of this web site.
