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| The Victoria Shamrocks continued to employ a physical approach to defence and held the Peterborough Lakers to 5 goals in Game 5 of the Mann Cup. Victoria won 7-5 in overtime to take a 3-2 series lead. (Photo: Kevin Light Photography) |
Both goalies were stopping almost
everything they were seeing in Game 5 of the 2015 Mann Cup, so it
makes sense that the pair of overtime goals that eventually netted
the Victoria Shamrocks a 7-5 win and a 3-2 lead in the best of seven
Canadian senior lacrosse championship both came on screened shots.
Victoria came close to getting a pair
of goals earlier in the overtime but both were waived off as crease
violations. Jesse King was the first to have a goal nullified
as his leg appeared to touch down inside the crease before the ball
got across the goal line, although it was very close. The second one
wasn't close—Scott Ranger drove in from the wing and buried
the ball past Matt Vinc but his lead foot was clearly well past the
crease line before the ball went in. In CLA play, the foot crossing
the cylinder of the crease means it's no goal.
There was no question about Corey
Small's goal at 5:15 of the extra frame, though. He took a pass
from Dan Dawson and stepped into a low shot between two
Peterborough defenders and past the legs of teammate Daryl
Veltman. The ball skipped into the far corner and the soldout
crowd at the Q Centre erupted in cheers that finally wouldn't be
quashed by a referee pointing towards the crease.
In the final half minute, Dawson ended
any hopes of a Lakers comeback with a straight overhand past another
pair of defenders tied up with teammate Cory Conway that
banked in off the far post.
Victoria started off the game looking
like they wouldn't need overtime to take the win. They jumped out to
a 3-0 lead and were up 4-1 when Rhys Duch drove low to the net
for a shorthanded marker 18 seconds into the second period. The
Lakers battled back, though, as each team has done all series long
when faced with a challenge.
Goals from Cory Vitarelli and Curtis Dickson pulled Peterborough within one, then a Dicksonesque effort from Turner Evans evened things up. Evans fought through a double team along the boards and eluded another defender en route to the net before reaching across and tucking the ball in far side past Aaron Bold.
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| Scott Ranger's foot clearly crosses the cylinder of the crease, resulting in a no goal after he put this ball past Matt Vinc in overtime. (Photo: Kevin Light Photography) |
Ranger made it 5-4 for Victoria before
the end of the second period with a goal stemming from yet another
drive underneath a defender for a Shamrocks goal. Both teams clamped
down big-time in the third, but Shawn Evans scored a power
play goal on a brilliant spinning shot after he had stayed behind
unnoticed in the Victoria end and took a breakout pass from Nick
Weiss.
Dawson said the Shamrocks were glad
they had won the game, but they were far from satisfied. “It’s
definitely a good feeling right now but you have to have a short
memory whether you win or lose,” Dawson said. “We haven’t done
anything yet, it’s just a 3-2 lead. We’re going to have to be
better.”
Victoria
head coach Bob
Heyes
disagreed with part of what Dawson said. “We have
accomplished
something,” Heyes said, noting that it was a big step to get the
third win of the Mann Cup series after losing the last two years four
games to two. He reinforced Dawson's point, though, in saying that
the fourth win is even tougher and the Shamrocks know the Lakers have
a lot of character and will be coming out hard in Game 6 on Friday
night.
Lakers
forward Scott
Evans,
playing in his second straight game after sitting a pair, noted that
the Lakers don't have to look back very far to remember what it takes
to win when your'e trailing a series after five games. “We’ve
been here before. Two weeks ago against Six Nations, we were down 3-2
and won the last two so we're been here before, we know what the
expectations are,” Evans said. “We
know what it takes to win two games, so we’ll be ready to go
Friday-Saturday.”
Evans
caught Gary
Gait
to move to fifth place on the Mann Cup all-time scoring list and said
it was nice to do so but he's looking forward not backward. “It’s
a good accomplishment catching Gary Gait, but you know what, I’ve
got five Mann Cups right now and I want a sixth really bad.”
Victoria 7, Peterborough 5 OT
