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| Nick Rose making one of his 61 saves Saturday night in Peterborough. Rose's standout performance wasn't enough as the Lakers prevailed 10-7 to take a 3-2 lead over Oakville in the MSL semifinals. (Photo: Tim Prothero) |
Shawn Evans returned after missing a game from injury and seemed to be in the middle of all the action as the Peterborough Lakers beat the Oakville Rock 10-7 at the Peterborough Memorial Centre Saturday night to take a 3-2 lead in the teams' Major Series Lacrosse semifinals.
Evans scored 2 goals and 3 assists to
lead the Lakers and was involved in a controversial play that the
Rock felt could have changed the course of the game.
In Game 4, Oakville had taken an early
3-0 lead that was critical to their 8-6 win to even the series. In
Game 5 Saturday, Peterborough were the ones getting out in front with
a pair of goals in the first half of the first period. Oakville got a
couple back but trailed 3-2 after 20 minutes.
Evans, who sat out with what the team
called an upper body injury, missed much of the early part of the
second period. In his absence, the Rock scored three straight goals
in a span of 2:44. The latter two came just 33 seconds apart as
Jeremy Noble slid down the alley and drifted a shot over the
shoulder of Evan Kirk then Brendan Thenhaus fired a
shot at the near post that appeared to drop in when Kirk fell
backwards and knocked the net back.
Peterborough looked to have pulled
within a goal when one of their players ripped a hard outside shot
past Nick Rose. The Lakers had six forwards on the floor at
the time though, so the goal was correctly waved off.
Brad Self had a pair of
breakaway chances to try to get Peterborough closer but wasn't able
to beat Rose, who put on a sensational goaltending performance with
61 saves on the 70 shots he faced. The Lakers were finally able to
claw back within one, almost 18 minutes after their previous goal,
when Adam Jones swatted home a rebound as it rolled just out
of the Oakville crease.
During the second period, Evans took a
cross check to the face from Oakville defender Jason Noble
that dropped him to the turf. Irate that there was no penalty called,
Evans walked toward the Peterborough bench past referee Chris
Williams and appeared to lunge at the official. Members of the
Rock felt that Evans made a move as if he was going to hit Williams
with his stick. At the time, Evans had his stick in his right hand
while his left had was at his side.
Evans admitted he lunged towards the
ref but emphasized that he made no attempt to have contact with
Williams. “I took another high stick to the head. I took a right
lunge at him just cause I was mad and frustrated, but there was no
attempt to slash or whack or anything at the officials,” Evans
said. “You know you're probably gone for a couple of seasons if
that happens. There was no attempt there, but obviously I was upset
about the hit.”
Jeremy Noble said he didn't want to
comment on the situation but did acknowledge that the Rock were aware
of what had happened. “That's up to the refs, I'm not going to say
anything about that call,” Noble said. “But if you make a gesture
at a ref like that, that's up to the ref's discretion whether he
sees it or not. We certainly saw it.”
Rock general manager Josh Sanderson
felt that Evans should have been ejected from the game and he likely
would have been if the refs had seen Evans' gesture. It would have
made a big difference if Evans was kicked out; he scored a power play
goal to tie the game 5-5 four minutes after Jones had connected and
added a goal midway through the third after a Dan Lomas goal
had pulled Oakville within 7-6.
A critical play came on the faceoff
following Evans' second-period goal. While an extended scrum played
out along the boards just inside Oakville's restraining line, the
ball popped out to Lakers captain Scott Self. The defender
curled away from the pack and towards the net with a defender
maintaining position between him and teammate Zach Currier.
Self saw they were giving him the shot and took it, tucking the ball
past Rose's left side.
“It was a big play and I think a
turning point for us, I think we got a little more energy back in our
step,” said Peterborough head coach Mike Hasen.
The game remained 8-6 for almost 10
minutes after Evans' third-period goal. Both defences did a solid job
of limiting quality opportunities, although both teams did get some
chances only to be denied by sound goaltending.
Nick Weiss finally broke the
scoring drought when he took a breakout pass from Brad Self,
threw a couple of hard fakes then tucked the ball past Rose's hip to
make it 9-6 with 1:59 to play.
The game still wasn't over as Jeremy
Noble ripped home an extra attacker laser from the top of the
offensive formation with 64 seconds left.
As the Lakers were killing the final
minute, Peterborough's Joel Matthews and Oakville's Mitch
de Snoo dropped the gloves and engaged in a spirited fight at
19:24. Nick Weiss and Damon Edwards received 10-minute
unsportsmanlike conduce penalties at the same stoppage then Mark
Steenhuis and Glen Bryan also earned misconducts 12
seconds after play had resumed.
Currier removed any doubt about the
final result when he popped the ball into the empty net with 14
seconds left. The Rock's Brandon Slade was given five minutes
for slashing before play got underway again. When the clock did start
again, it rolled for only 11 seconds before Bryce Sweeting and
Eric Fannell were sent off with 10-minute misconducts.
All in all, Game 5 was an intense
contest that sets the stage for a thorny but exciting Game 6 Monday
night at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre. Noble said the Rock remain
confident.
“I don't think we have to change
much,” he said. “We're going to have a couple of key players back
in our lineup [they were missing Wes Berg and Bryan Cole
Saturday]. Listen to our coaching staff. They have a great system in
place and we're going to be fine Monday night.
Jeremy Noble and Oakville head coach
Matt Sawyer both suggested there wasn't a lot they needed to
change to be successful Monday, although Sawyer did point out one key
statistic that wasn't in their favour.
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| Billy Hostrawser about to throw Shawn Evans helmet at Evans, for which Hostrawser was ejected. (Photo: Tim Prothero) |
“I thought they owned the loose balls
in our own end, so offensive repeat possessions,” Sawyer said. “We
mentioned in [the post-game locker room], it wasn't a 55-45
difference. It was quite lopsided. We lose [Billy] Hostrawser
early [he was given a match penalty for throwing Evans' helmet at him
while the latter was laying on the carpet] so we're down one defender
and when they're working you like that with repeat possessions, we
were under siege at times and they capitalized on a couple of those
opportunities We came up here, we competed, we battled, we were happy
with our effort, not happy with the results. We plan to come up here
again. It's a nice place to play.”
A major reason Sawyer has so much
confidence in his team is the play of Rose. “I've been around Rosey
a long time. We started together back in junior” Sawyer said. “I'm
not sure if you can get a better goaltending performance than that
tonight but it wouldn't surprise me if he does it again Monday.”
Game time for Game 6 in Oakville Monday
is 8pm. If necessary, Game 7 will be in Peterborough at 8 pm next
Thursday, August 18.
