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| Corey Small was named the Mike Kelly Award winner as the Mann Cup MVP as the Victoria Shamrocks downed the Peterborough Lakers 12-6 in Game 6 to take the series 4-2. (Photo: Kevin Light Photography) |
The Victoria Shamrocks are the 2015
Mann Cup champions after downing the Peterborough Lakers 12-6 Friday
night to win the series 4-2. Dan Dawson had 8 assists and Mike
Kelly MVP award winner Corey Small a hat trick and an assist
to lead the Shamrocks in a game they largely controlled from the
outset. Jesse King and Karsen Leung each added a pair
of goals for Victoria. Six different players scored for the Lakers.
Aaron Bold made made 31 saves on 38 shots for an .838 save
percentage to earn the win.
Victoria came out of the gates with a
burst of energy and controlled play almost throughout the first
period. They got on the board on yet another outside shot from Small.
A pair of transition goals from Leung opened the spread. Both times
Leung broke out of the Victoria end, the first receiving a breakout
pass from Bold and the second taking off with a picked off pass. He
bounced a shot past the right foot of Matt Vinc on the first
and ripped one past Vinc's left shoulder on the second.
The shots at one point were 13-6 and
those numbers were representative of the flow of play. Victoria was
pushing the pace and creating scoring chances at one end of the floor
with crisp ball movement and a solid screen game.
At the other end of the floor, the
Shamrocks' defence was playing even better than their offence. They
were spreading out high to pick up the Lakers well away from their
goal, which is a risky approach against a team with as much talent at
Peterborough. Victoria made it work, though, because their defenders
played athletic, tenacious one-on-one D while employing an alert and
cohesive slide game.
The Lakers finally started to find some
lanes late in the period, but weren't able to beat Bold when they did
get shots off. Brock Sorensen got Peterborough's first really
good scoring chance on a transition break with about five minutes to
play in the period but missed the net on his shot. Shawn Evans was
eventually able to find some seams in the Victoria defence but either
missed the net or was stymied by Bold.
The Lakers shifted the momentum early
in the second; Curtis Dickson took a pass from Turner Evans
and executed his patented step back shot to perfection for a goal 35
seconds in. Peterborough seemed to be energized after the goal and
kept the pressure on, creating some chances in transition but
couldn't cash in. The tide turned when Scott Evans scooped a
loose rebound and attempted to fling the ball back to a teammates at
the point. It flew over everyone and was grabbed on the run by
Victoria defender Bradley Kri, playing in just his second game
of the series, who flew down the floor and fired a goal over Vinc's
shoulder.
Chad Tutton is starting to
establish himself as a transition threat after focusing on his
defensive zone play at the behest of the Lakers coaching staff
earlier in the season. He showed his stuff again to keep the Lakers
in it, running hard down the floor, putting his shoulder into a
defender and tucking the ball home. The Lakers needed another goal
and they got it from Evans, who picked up a rebound, drove to the net
and bounced a low to low shot home.
The Lakers defence was also finding
their rhythm, working better together to keep the Shamrocks outside
and forcing turnovers. Peterborough appeared to have a turnover
coming as Mark Farthing and Tutton worked over Dawson, but the
big man managed to hold onto the ball as he went to the floor and
made a cross-floor pass to Small, whose quick shot caught a piece of
Vinc but trickled through to make the score 6-3 with seven and a half
minutes to play in the second.
Farthing
picked off a pass in the Lakers end and sprinted up the floor. He had
Brad Self running ahead of him on one side and Shawn Evans
coming off the bench on the other. With the Shamrocks' pair of
players watching those two, Farthing fired an overhand shot that
bounced in for Peterborough's fourth goal with a little over a minute
to go in the second.
King got the Shamrocks off on the right
foot in the third. With Wenster Green serving a too many men
on the floor penalty against the Lakers, King cut through the middle
and quick-sticked home a pass in the first minute. He got the next
goal as well, four minutes later on a similar shot. Victoria kept
pouring it on; Scott Ranger scored on almost a mirror image of
the King play just 35 or so seconds later.
Turner Evans scored one of the best
goals of the series to slow Victoria down. He drove to the net as
Dickson shot, grabbed his rebound and whipped a behind the back shot
into the bottom corner all in one motion.
“Amazing. All the hard work paid
off,” said Shamrocks' defender Ryan Dilks, who along with
Greg Harnett led a defensive effort for the ages by Victoria.
“Peterborough's no easy team, with all the all-stars on that team,
to beat that team was such a great feeling, such a team effort, it
was amazing.”
One of the keys for Victoria was
keeping Dickson in check. “The ball was on the right for most of
the time, so we had our slides ready,” Dilks said. “We couldn't
let Dickson shoot and not get touched. We had to finish our checks on
him so hopefully he'd wear down. The guy's such an amazing player
that we have to try to slow him down somehow.”
Head coach Bob Heyes enjoyed
finally winning the Mann Cup as a coach after losing the last two
years to the Six Nations Chiefs in six games each time. “I've won
two Mann Cups as a player and to be honest, this means more,” Heyes
said. “My coaching staff make me look good, they do all the hard
work. I'm just happy for the organization. We pride ourselves on
being a first-class organization.”
The Shamrocks are worthy champions and
the Lakers acknowledged their respect for the Victoria team. But
Peterborough also showed their frustration with officiating that was
shockingly one-sided. The Lakers were called for six penalties while
the Shamrocks received none. Peterborough was frustrated by the lack
of calls to curtail Victoria's strategy in the series of trying to
intimidate and contain the Lakers with hyper-aggressive physical
play.
“The officiating was gross. If you're
a fan of this game and you were watching this game not with
green-coloured glasses, you could see how gross that was,” said
Lakers head coach Mike Hasen. “It was atrocious. Our guys
didn't deserve that by any means. Possession calls, too many men
calls four to zero, faceoffs, it was gross. We stressed this 10 days
ago when we got in here in the first meeting that you can't have
certain people that have worn this uniform before referee in the
deciding game, and look what you get.”
Lakers forward Scott Evans
didn't see any point in lingering on the officiating after the
series. “It's over and done with now. It's a hard pill to swallow,”
Evans said. “We've got 25 guys that battled their ass off for six
games and we came out on the short end of the stick this time. We'll
get the hunger next time. We saw them hoisting the cup, we'll
remember that feeling and hopefully come back stronger next year.”
The Lakers certainly have a valid
argument that they didn't get a fair shake from the officials, but
that doesn't mean the Shamrocks aren't deserving of the win. They put
together an excellent team and worked together to make the most of
their talent. Small was a good choice for MVP, although either Dilks
or Harnett would have been a great selection.
The MVP wasn't really a big deal,
though, because it took such a team effort for Victoria to win the
championship. From an excellent performance by Bold to suffocating
play by the defence to opportunistic finishing from the offence, the
Shamrocks came into this Mann Cup determined to do what they had to
do to finally break the nine-year hold that MSL had held on the
trophy. They are great champions and they should be in a good
position to challenge for more titles down the road.
