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| The Rock and Lakers are playing a physical, intense series and it's tied 2-2 after Oakville's Game 4 win. (Photo: Kendall Taylor) |
If there was any doubt remaining that
the Major Series Lacrosse semifinals between the Peterborough Lakers
and Oakville Rock is a series, it was erased with Oakville 8-6 win
Thursday night in Peterborough that tied things up at two games each.
The teams were tied 6-6 after two
periods, just the kind of situation that Lakers fans have gotten used
to seeing their team pull out. Thursday, though, it was the Rock who
responded to the pressure. They outscored Peterborough 2-0 in the
third period with a mix of stingy defence, solid goaltending by Nick
Rose and opportune scoring.
What proved to be the winning goal came
in a four-on-four situation when Mitch de Snoo found himself
up the floor after transitioning the ball.
“I tried to give the ball to Steph[an
Leblanc] and I guess he didn't like the shot and he gave it back”
de Snoo said. “I happened to get over the top and took a shot.
Definitely wasn't my most well-placed shot but it went it and I'll
take it.”
It was de Snoo's second goal of the
game. His first came in a 3-goal run to open the game. Leblanc
started things 44 seconds in when he blew past defender Nick Weiss
and bounced a shot past Matt Vinc. de Snoo ran past Scott
Self for an unassisted goal 37 seconds later. When Wes Berg
ripped a high to high laser home 1:24 later, it was a dream start for
the Rock.
The series has been chippy and
continued to be Thursday night. The Lakers grew upset when de Snoo
laid a crosscheck to the face of Cory Vitarelli. Later in the
first period, de Snoo checked a Peterborough player into goalie Nick
Rose then jumped on the player and gave him the business. Lakers
forward Joel Matthews ran from outside the restraining line to
engage de Snoo.
After the tumult settled, de Snoo and
teammate Bradley Kri received minor penalties and Matthews a
major. That put the Lakers on a power play for tow minutes or less,
with a Rock power play to follow.
Matthews coming to his teammate's
defence seemed to spark the Lakers. Adam Jones tapped home a
backdoor quick stick goal with three seconds to play in the first
period. Then the Rock went to the man advantage early in the second
but Peterborough still had that spark. Turner Evans cut to the
net, took a perfect pass from Jones and buried it to tie the game 4-4
at 1:09.
Less than a minute later, Brad Self
picked off a pass at the top of the penalty kill formation and ran
the length of the floor. He fought off checks from a pair of Oakville
players and somehow managed to slip a shot through Rose's legs to
give Peterborough their first lead.
In years past, the Rock may have had
difficulty recovering from that sequence and the veteran Lakers may
have pulled away. Oakville has built a resilient squad, though, and
is putting the experience they've earned over the past couple of
seasons to use.
When Jake Fox, a junior callup
stepping into the lineup because Shawn Evans was out with an
upper body injury, overran a forecheck at the Oakville crease, they
made the most of it. It was a minor error, one that often doesn't
amount to much, but Brad Gillies pushed the ball to Dan
MacRae and he gave it to Jeremy Noble.
Noble is a dangerous sniper and he took
advantage of the time and space the unsettled transition situation
gave him, ripping home a goal as he came across the top of the
formation. There was a seven-minute gap before any more scoring, but
when it came it looked eerily familiar as Noble again fired from the
top and found a hole.
Jones again scored a late goal, going
high to high for the tying goal with 36 seconds to go, setting the
stage for a thrilling final 20 minutes.
Oakville head coach Matt Sawyer said
his team knows it needs to earn respect, given this is just the
second time the franchise has earned an MSL playoff spot, but he said
he and his players believe in themselves.
“We've got a great team here and we
know what we're doing inside that dressing room,” Sawyer said. “We
feel we've earned it to some extent but in order to get it at this
level you need to knock off one of the big boys.”
“Our strength all year has been our
defence and our goaltending,” Sawyer added. “That hasn't
necessarily been the case the last couple of games. We were lucky to
sneak one out in Game 2. We realize what we're up against and who we
are. We try not to make too many mistakes and to be a tough team to
play against. Our defence and goaltending led the way and Nick Rose,
he's our MVP and he might be the best player in the league.”
Lakers captain Scott Self said
Peterborough's defence needs to be better prepared for what they'll
face against Oakville. “Every shift that we go out there, we've got
to be ready for anything because they are a little unorthodox,” he
said. “They don't really go out and set things up. If they see any
kind of a break in our defence they're going for it, no matter who
has the ball.”
Self agreed that the Lakers may have
been a little overconfident about facing Oakville. “I think maybe
coming into the series we were. This was the team we wanted to face
out of the other three teams,” Self said. “I think we did maybe
undervalue them a little bit. They're here to play and they think
they can beat us so we need to be better.”
Matthews said the Lakers didn't want to
use the excuse of missing key offensive players because they believe
they have the depth to be successful anyway. “We're missing Shawn
Evans and John Grant Jr. Those are two amazing players. But it's
always, who's next. The next guy, the next guy,” Matthews said.
“They just weren't falling for us tonight. You don't like to blame
things on the ref but calls weren't going our way, balls weren't
falling our way.”
Regardless of what the expectations
were going into the series, there's no question that it is up for
grabs after four games. The Lakers have a bit of an advantage because
Game 5 is back in Peterborough this Saturday and Game 7, if
necessary, will be there next Thursday. Game 6 is Monday in Oakville.
