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| Dillon Ward wasn't unbeatable, but he wasn't far from it for the Chiefs as they won Game 5 8-6. (Photo: Tim Prothero) |
The aberration isn't that the Major
Series Lacrosse championship series now sits at three games to two
for the Peterborough Lakers over the Six Nations Chiefs; the
aberration was that one team won three games in a row to open the
series.
That was the underlying theme in
comments from coaches and players on both sides of the floor after
Six Nations took Game 5 in Peterborough Tuesday night to get within a
home win of evening the series up. They'll have that chance Thursday
night at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena.
“Before the fourth game I just told
them all our goals are still attainable. We wanted to win four games
against Peterborough, we can still do that,” said Chiefs head coach
Rich Kilgour. “We've got a great group of veterans in there and
they echoed the same thing: it's not over till it's over. If we get
the first one we go from there. We get the second one, I think they
might be feeling a little pressure now. We just line up and play. We
don't look behind us, we look forward.”
Dhane Smith led the Chiefs with
2 goals and 3 assists and Randy Staats chipped in a pair of
goals while Dillon Ward made 38 saves on 44 shots. Cory
Vitarelli scored 3 goals and added an assist to lead the Lakers. Matt
Vinc stopped 36 of the 44 shots he faced.
Peterborough started the game with the
lead when Vitarelli scored in bench transition on an outlet
pass from Chad Tutton then buried another shot on the run
later in the period. Smith
pulled the Chiefs within a goal heading to the intermission when he
had time to load up and rifle a shot past Vinc,
who was making the first back to back starts by a Lakers goalie in
the playoffs.
Ward
continued his strong play. After shutting out the Lakers for the
final 41 minutes of Game 4, he held them to just two goals in each
period of Game 4. That allowed the Chiefs strong second period to be
the difference in them winning Tuesday.
Smith had three straight assists as
Cody Jamieson, Staats
and Dan Dawson scored, then rounded out the 4-goal run with a
goal of his own at the 10:51 mark of the period. The Chiefs were up
5-2 and Peterborough never got closer than two goals again.
The Chiefs put themselves in a position
where they didn't have much wiggle room, Ward said. “We dug
ourselves a whole so we only had one option, we had to win. It
started with our last game at home. We had to take care of our home
floor. We wanted to steal one here to take it back home. We're
comfortable playing at home. I think we're confident going back into
the ILA on Thursday.”
The series definitely has a different
complexion than it did after Game 3, when the Lakers had blown out
the Chiefs 15-9 to take a 3-0 lead in the series. But regardless of
how they got there, Peterborough head coach Mike Hasen says he likes
the position his team is in.
“At the end of the day, we worked
hard to get home floor advantage and we still have it. We're up 3-2
in a series that we expected to go seven. There's really no panic in
the room,” Hasen said.
The coach recognizes that his team does
need to get back to what was working for them earlier in the series.
“It's simple,” Hasen said. “We've just got to move the ball and
move our feet. We've got to pass and get through as opposed to pass
and watch and hope it's going to come back to us. That's what we did
the first couple of games, kept the ball hot, and we've got to get
back to it.”
Vitarelli echoed Hasen's view. “As
long as we move the ball and move our feet we'll get good chances. At
times tonight we were a little slow-footed,” Vitarelli said.
He added that while it will be nice if
John Grant Jr. is back from Denver to play Thursday, as expected,
the Lakers believe they can win when he isn't there.
“He's one of the best but we have 20
guys in our room that we count on,” Vitarelli said. “When Junior
isn't always here we have guys that are capable of stepping up. It's
always nice to get fresh legs in the lineup and hopefully if he's in
he can give us a few.”
Austin Staats chipped in to the Six
Nations' cause with a goal and 2 assists when it looked a couple of
times like his night might end early.
“That kid is a warrior, I'll tell you
that much,” said Kilgour. “The trainer came and said he rolled
his ankle really well and might not be back. [Staats] said throw some
tape on it and he went back out there. Then he dislocated his
shoulder again at the end. But he just keeps getting up. The guy's a
crash test dummy.”
Six Nations' Paul Dawson and
Peterborough's Chad Tutton tried to make each other look like
crash test dummies when they squared off in a spirited tilt with four
seconds left to play. Shawn Evans and Brodie Merrill
were both sent off the floor at the same juncture with roughing
majors and 10-minute misconducts.
It was the third straight game where
things have gotten rough down the stretch. While all the runners on
the floor were entangled, Vinc strolled past centre, apparently
looking to engage Ward. Referees Ian Garrison and Chris
Williams stopped him and he returned to his net. At that point,
Doug Jamieson replaced Ward between the Six Nations pipes.
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| Mike McNamara and the Chiefs D didn't give Shawn Evans and the Lakers O much room to move Tuesday. (Photo: Tim Prothero) |
Ward responded to some jeering from
Lakers fans with a friendly wave. He responded to a question by
saying he didn't think anyone was getting under his skin but that he
knows where things stand.
“We know where we're at. No one's
fooling anyone,” Ward said. “We're still down 3-2 in this series
but the fans are going to get at me at the end of the game. I did my
part.”
Ward felt like he needed to do his part
better for his teammates after they had fallen behind 3-0. There's
little question that he has been a crucial part, perhaps the
most crucial part, of their success in coming back.
“That
third game was probably my worst game I've played all year...in a
long time. I knew I wanted to bounce back on that,” Ward said. “A
lot of credit has to go to my defence. They made my job a lot easier
for me, forcing shots to the outside. We know that's where I'm
comfortable stopping the ball. A lot of that credit has to go to the
defence but I also feel like I've come back on my own.”
The
Lakers will try once again to close out the series Thursday at 8 pm
while the Chiefs will try to force a seventh and deciding game back
in Peterborough on Saturday.
