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| Curtis Dickson went around and through Shamrocks defenders for 4 goals to lead Peterborough to an 8-6 Game 4 win at the Mann Cup. He was named Peterborough's player of the game. (Photo: Kevin Light Photography) |
The Peterborough Lakers have shown the
ability to bounce back before, so it should come as no surprise that
they rebounded from a dismal Game 3 defeat to down the Victoria
Shamrocks 8-6 in Game 4 of the 2015 Mann Cup Tuesday to even up the
series at two games apiece.
As has been their habit in the playoffs
this year, the Lakers surrendered the first goal early in the first
period. This time it was Rhys Duch connecting on an outside
shot at 1:55 of the opening period. The scoring was spread out but
the Lakers responded with a goal each of the five times the Shamrocks
took the lead.
Scott Evans stepped back into
the Peterborough lineup after being a healthy scratch for the last
two games and he contributed some valuable work banging around in the
offensive zone as well as chipping in with the Lakers' second goal
and an assist. Curtis Dickson was the offensive star for the
Lakers, though, scoring 4 goals and adding an assist after getting
just a single assist before being kicked out of Game 3.
The Lakers didn't take a lead until the
18:37 mark of the second period when Mark Steenhuis put them
up 6-5. The next goal was a critical one and nobody could find it for
eight and a half minutes. It took a spectacular effort from Dickson
to make it happen. He drove hard to the net and was eventually
touched by each of the five Shamrocks defenders by the time he fired
the ball past Aaron Bold from in tight.
Jesse King tightened things up
when he got his second goal of the game on the power play with just
over eight minutes to play to make it 7-6 for Peterborough. Both
teams had chances and the 50 or so Lakers fans who have made the trip
out to see the series faced plenty of tense moments when the
Shamrocks rang a handful of shots of the iron in the third.
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| Brad Self celebrating his first of two goals Tuesday. (Photo: Kevin Light Photography) |
They suffered an instant more of
tension when Brad Self broke away with the ball and only King
between him and the empty net. Self took his time, took aim and fired
the ball past King, off the inside of one post, across to the other
post and in for his second goal of the game and the insurance
Peterborough was looking for.
It was a tough win, but a win
nonetheless for the Lakers, Self said. “A win's a win, we'll take
'em however we can get 'em,” Self said. “It was nice after last
night being that bad, then showing back up tonight and battling the
way we did. We've got to do it again tomorrow. We didn't show up for
Game 3 so we have to learn from that and make sure we're ready to go
for Game 5.”
Steenhuis is happy to be playing after
suffering what at the time appeared to be a season-ending knee injury
in Peterborough's fourth game of the regular season. He returned for
the final three games of the MSL finals against Six Nations and his
effectiveness has grown as he's gotten more comfortable at game
speed.
“That's a character win for our
team,” Steenhuis said. “We got a goal, they got a goal...they
seem to have always answered the last three games when we scored. So
breaking through there, getting the lead and keeping the
lead...Obviously I took a pretty dumb penalty at the end [an
interference call for running into a Shamrocks player near the bench
that led to King's goal], but what a fantastic third period by our
defence. Tip our hats to them. We're working our tails off on
offence, scratch and claw for whatever we can. We've got a good team
we're playing against over there. We've got to take advantage of
every one of their mistakes and that's what we're trying to do.”
Peterborough head coach Mike Hasen said
his team didn't play as badly as it appeared on Monday night so they
were confident they'd be able to come back Tuesday. “When we were
watching film last night, it's not that we were playing bad
defensively, they were hitting their shots well and [goalie Matt
Vinc] had an off night. We said just stick to the process and make
sure we're doing what we need to do and we did that and V made the
stops he needs to make.”
Bob Heyes said it was a fine
line between being tied and taking a stranglehold on the series. “We
were a little apprehensive and we didn't have that free flowing in
our offence or our transition. It's part of the maturation of our
team. We want to go to that next step. Maybe we've got to put our
foot in and get in there. I think they realize that there's not a lot
of difference between the game tonight, between going up 3-1 and
being 2-2. There's not a lot between us.”
Enjoy the rest of the series, Heyes
encouraged, because it doesn't get any better than this. “These
next three games, two games, are going to be the best lacrosse you're
going to see this year in the world. I don't care if it's NLL,
anything, you're seeing guys playing for the love of the game. That's
what it comes down to and the fans in Victoria and the fans in
Peterborough are going to love this.”
In those final two or three games,
everything means just a little more. “Every little thing, every
save, every penalty, every penalty kill, every post, everything is
going to be magnified and you just don't want those to be those
maybes or woulda coulda shoulda moments in the series,” Heyes said.
He added that winning and losing will
come down to who steps up in a given game. “You're seeing the best
players in the world out here now and it's a treat to be a part of
it. You get to see superstars out here playing and you're going to
see great performances. Peterborough had two great performances—the
goaltender and Curtis Dickson—tonight. Tomorrow [Wednesday] night
there's going to be a couple other guys who are going to stand up and
hopefully they're going to be our players.”
Game time is 7 pm PT (10 ET) again and
once again you can watch
the game live on PlayFullScreen.
