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| Shawn Evans was quiet early, but scored a pair of beautiful third-period goals to lead the Lakers to a 9-8 win over Brampton. (Photo: Tim Prothero) |
The Brampton Excelsiors had traded away
six of their best players two days before they met the Peterborough
Lakers at home Sunday. Brampton had only 13 runners for the game and
no backup goalie. And yet, they came out and played “probably our
best game of the year,” as head coach Paul Stewart put it.
The effort, especially on defence and
from goaltender Tyler Carlson, allowed them to hold an 8-4
lead after 40 minutes. It took five almost perfect third-period goals
from the Lakers to come back and earn a 9-8 win that keeps
Peterborough atop the Major Series Lacrosse standings.
All in all, it turned out to be a much
more exciting game than anyone had the right to expect, with
outstanding performances in stretches from both teams.
It all started with Carlson for the
Excelsiors. The defence took a few minutes to find its form against a
Lakers team that had five junior callups in the lineup because
players were missing with other commitments. During that time,
Carlson made a handful of excellent saves to keep the game scoreless.
Then Phil Caputo scored his
first of 3 goals in the game to go with a pair of assists. A few
minutes later, Carlson started a breakout with a pass to Matt
Spanger, who sent Zac Reid in alone to make it 2-0.
Disbelief gradually grew into
excitement as Quinn Powless, the only one of the players
Brampton acquired in the slew of July 1 trades who was able to make
the game yesterday, scored a pair of goals including a gorgeous
behind the back shot in off the post to make it 4-0.
When Josh Currier buried a back
door quick stick on the power play and Turner Evans followed
with a goal three minutes from the end of the first period, there was
a sense that the seemingly inevitable response from the Lakers was
underway.
The Excelsiors kept working hard on
defence, limiting the Lakers high-quality scoring chances, and Mike
Burke extended their lead to 5-2 before the first period ended.
If not for Evan Kirk playing well in the Peterborough net, the
lead could have been even bigger. The score was not misleading;
Brampton had thoroughly outplayed Peterborough through 20 minutes.
As Lakers assistant coach Bobby
Keast put it, “We did not play well at the start. I thought
Kirky played well all game. Defensively, we were just kind of going
through the motions and offensively I think we just thought they were
going to roll over and let us score at will.”
The tone changed a bit in the second,
with Peterborough creating better chances and limiting Brampton's
opportunities, but the Excelsiors still outscored the Lakers 3-2 in
the frame. The score stood 8-4 for Brampton. The big question was,
could the underdogs with only 13 runners hold off the defending
league champions.
The answer would be no, but by the
slimmest of margins and only because of a series of near-perfect
plays, in particular a pair of goals by Shawn Evans.
Evans didn't start out helping in the
third period, though, because he was still in the penalty box after
taking a 10-minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty with four minutes
to play in the second. “I know he probably wants to take back the
10-minute penalty because he knows that hurts us and he's developed
into a great team guy,” Keast said. “He let us down and he knew
and he apologized with his effort in the third.”
Before he could do so, though, a couple
of other Lakers got the ball rolling. Jake Fox, a junior
playing his fourth game with the senior team this year, created an
opening to the net with a lightning-fast first step to the outside
and buried a shot to make it 8-5 just 1:11 into the third.
Just past the midway point of the
period, Turner Evans cut
around a screen and released a quick shot a fraction before Sandy
Chapman was able to jump out on him. Carlson had left him very
little space but Evans found the spot just where the post and
crossbar meet on the far side of the net.
Third-year junior Dylan Hutchison
helped Shawn Evans start to make up for his penalty when he got the
ball to Evans in the slot. Evans somehow fought through a pair of
defenders, got his stick up in a twister position and managed to
throw a slight fake to open up barely enough space to drop the ball
in over Carlson's shoulder.
It was the kind of goal that's almost
hard to believe someone could score. As Stewart said, “Where he put
that ball, there's only a handful of guys who could have scored those
goals.”
Evans earned an assist on the next goal
as Currier cut open and received the ball close to where Evans had
scored the previous one. Currier had more time and space available,
though, and used it to throw a couple of subtle but effective fakes
that froze Carlson just enough to let Currier tuck it past him stick
side. The goal came 50 seconds after Evans' and tied the game 8-8.
With 4:55 left to play, the Excelsiors
bakers' dozen runners visibly tiring and all the momentum with the
Lakers, it didn't look like there was much doubt that Peterborough
would come back to win the game. Brampton's squad did all it could,
though, and the players should definitely not hang their heads.
At 17:21, Evans received the ball close
to where he had scored earlier, again with plenty of defensive
attention, and exquisitely placed another twister into a tiny
opening.
The game wasn't over, though. Brampton
pushed for the final two and a half minutes and had some chances. The
best was a quick stick by Mike Burke on top of the crease on a pass
from along the goal line. Kirk slid across the concrete crease on his
knee pads to make a sensational stop.
“That was a really nice save, that's
a game-saver right there,” said Currier.
“It was a really slow start, but we
just kept saying stay the course and bounces are going to go our way
eventually,” Currier added. “We just kept pushing and eventually
came out on top. It was good to see, it was a relief.”
It was the second straight game in
which the Lakers found themselves in a hole but fought back, having
outscored Oakville 5-1 in the third period last Thursday to pull out
a 10-9 win.
“It's definitely a situation you
don't want to be in,” Currier said. “But we were in it before, we
were in it last week, so we knew what to do. It's just nice to come
out on top, there.”
It was a big win for the Lakers to
maintain their lead atop the standings, albeit one that was much more
difficult than anyone anticipated before the opening whistle.
For Stewart, the effort in the loss
reinforced his belief in his team's potential. “Obviously a lot's
happened this week, but we came together and we're sort of feeding
off it,” the coach said. “Part of the reason we did what we did
[in trading away half a dozen players] is so that guys will have a
chance to play and they stepped up. Some of the guys had their best
games of the year. We're rallying behind it and it's brought us
together as a team.”
Chapman had said before the game that
it had been a strange year for the Excelsiors, that where in the past
they would seem to be able to bounce back from momentum swings, this
year they just couldn't seem to overcome them. Still, he saw
positives in the loss.
“It was a good effort. We were
talking before about the whole momentum thing.” Chapman said.
“Again, we just can't hold it in the third period. Hopefully these
younger guys can learn and hopefully we take a little something out
of that, but right now it's definitely frustrating.”
Chapman didn't feel like Brampton's
defence “was that much worse, it's just that they hit a few shots.”
He did suggest the team may have backed off a bit with the lead and
being short players.
“It came down to, on defence we've
got to make our stops. But we don't play to just win 8-7 or 8-6,”
he said. “If we had of scored a couple, which really has to be our
mantra...keep on going on offence, keep pushing in transition even
though we're tired. We've got to keep on going, keep on playing the
way we did to get there.”
With seven games left to play, Chapman
sees growth on the horizon. “As a group, we have guys here who are
committed and guys who know our defence, particularly,” he said.
“Guys on offence are going to start clicking. You saw some of them
working together real well out there. As these games roll on and we
kind of play out the string, hopefully we develop some chemistry and
maybe get a few wins here.”
The teams have a rematch this Thursday
in Peterborough at 8pm.
