 |
Shawn Evans added two daughters to his family Thursday
morning and scored nine points Thursday night.
(Photo: Tim Prothero)
|
The Peterborough Lakers broke open a
tight game with six straight goals in the second period en route to a
15-7 win over the Six Nations Chiefs. Shawn Evans, playing
about nine hours after the birth of his twin daughters Ella and
Emery, led the way for Peterborough with a goal and 8 assists. Mark
Steenhuis and Aaron Wilson each had 4 goals for the
Lakers, who took advantage of Six Nations penalties by scoring on
four of their six power plays. Jeff Shattler was the top Chief
with 3 goals and 2 assists.
The Chiefs arrived late for the game
after getting caught in bad traffic on the way to Peterborough and
didn't get a warmup, but they didn't show any ill effects early on as
they were tied 4-4 after the first period and held a 7-6 lead almost
midway through the second. A couple of minutes later, with the score
tied up, Billy Dee Smith took a double minor for roughing and
Rodd Squire a slashing penalty at the same time to put the
Chiefs shorthanded. Peterborough took advantage with power play goals
by Adam Jones and Wilson, then the Lakers just kept going.
“Shawnie just played incredible,”
said Lakes coach Joe Sullivan. “I think he's taken it to a
new level in terms of sharing the ball and his work ethic and for the
most part playing pretty smart, showing his leadership.”
Evans, who missed Wednesday night's
game in Brooklin to be with his wife Kayla, said “It was a pretty
emotional day. We had two beautiful little girls added to our family
and I was pretty proud of that. My wife was great to carry those
babies for nine months and she was a trooper today. I owe her a lot
to go through all that and let me come and play the game.”
At the other end of the floor, the
Chiefs are suffering a bit of an identity crisis. “We have those
five-minute spurts where it's, there are the defending Mann Cup
champions. Then we have five minutes where it's who are those guys?,”
said Six Nations Head coach Rich Kilgour. “It's tough. We
haven't had one practice. We still haven't had our full lineup. So
it's tough as a coach. But I'm not going to make excuses. I've got to
be better, the players have got to be better, everybody's got to be
better.”
The answer to the troubles the Chiefs,
who fell to 3-4 with the loss, are facing is pretty simple, Kilgour
said. “We've got to start outworking people again. Last year we had
that attitude, we're going to win a Mann Cup and we don't care who we
have to jump over, run over, go around to do it. This year it seems
more like we won the Mann Cup and now we can just sit back and it's
going to happen again. I think we're slowly finding out that's not
the case.”
The Lakers and Chiefs play again next
Thursday in Peterborough and the Saturday after that in Six Nations.
