Lakers Season Depends On Game 6

By Anna Taylor
Photo Credit: David Pickering

 

PETERBOROUGH, ON – The Peterborough Century 21 Lakers suddenly find themselves facing elimination from the 2025 Major Series Lacrosse playoffs. The Lakers let a 2-0 series lead evaporate with three consecutive losses to the Brooklin Lacrosse Club, including Thursday’s 8-7 overtime loss at the Memorial Centre.

The Lakers fought back from a three-goal deficit to force overtime, but Will MacLeod scored the game winner with 2:43 remaining in the 10-minute sudden death period. The Lakers need to win the next two games to make it back to the MSL Finals.

 

“We came together in the third period and the fans rallied around behind us,” said defender Colton Armstrong. “Obviously, it's a pretty tough loss in overtime but it's a one-shot kind of game. They had they had their runs, we had our runs, and they just got a lucky bounce there at the end… We have some time to rest up but we’ll be ready Wednesday and then we're going to make sure we're going to Game 7 back here in front of all the fans.”

 

Peterborough and Brooklin battled to a 1-1 draw after the first period. Holden Cattoni took a flip pass from Mike Robinson for the Lakers goal, and Ryan Barnable scored on a crease dive for Brooklin.

 

The Lakers ran into some trouble early in the second period, with Brooklin scoring three times in the span of a minute and 16 seconds. Eerily reminiscent of Game 4’s third-period collapse, this time the Lakers were able to rebound. Thomas Hoggarth got in close to the net and finished off the pass from Joe Resetarits to stop the run.

 

Late in the period Barnable completed his hat trick and MacLeod scored his second of the game for a 6-2 Brooklin lead, but the Lakers scored twice in the final 24 seconds to cut the deficit back to two. Joe Resetarits finished off a rush with Johnny Pearson after a faceoff win by Ben Trumble, and off another Trumble faceoff win, Hoggarth got inside to put Cattoni’s pass into the net. The Lakers had all the momentum; unfortunately the end of the period cut that momentum short.

 

“They're young, they're kind of pushing us around and I think we're sitting back, we're not being aggressive like we were in Game 1,” explained Armstrong. “We just have to get back to fundamentals and just kind of be the Lakeshow, be who we are. Get out on hands, make sure they're not shooting the ball, help Rosey out, get the ball to the offence and let them do their work.”

 

Peterborough outscored Brooklin 3-1 in the third. Connor Kearnan scored shorthanded to put Brooklin up by three but a pair of power play goals up the middle by Braedon Saris cut the BLC lead back to one. Cattoni’s second of the game sent the 2,413 fans in the Memorial Centre into a frenzy with the game tied at seven. 

 

The Lakers looked for the go-ahead goal, throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Zach Higgins. They outshot Brooklin 20-8 in the period. 

 

It was the fifth game in eight days for the teams.

 

“I think you can see on both teams, the first period, second period, you can see both teams are getting tired,” Armstrong said. “But the fans sparked us [in the third]; we were kinda lackadaisical all game and then there in the third every loose ball we were clamping down on. I think we had about four or five resets in the one end and we had offence changing (partial line changes like in hockey during extended possessions; uncommon in lacrosse) because they were tired. We kept going, we kept grinding.”

 

Higgins made 55 saves on 62 shots. In the Lakers net, Nick Rose made 39 saves on 47 shots.

 

After a frantic start to the series, the teams get a break until next Wednesday, August 13 when Iroquois Park Sports Centre in Whitby will play host to Game 6. If necessary, Game 7 will be the next night, Thursday, August 14 at the Memorial Centre.

 

 

Thomas Hoggarth (2-3)

Holden Cattoni (2-3)

Braedon Saris (2-0)

Joe Resetarits (1-1)

Mike Robinson (0-3)

Brad McCulley (0-2)

Johnny Pearson (0-1)

Dylan Hutchison (0-1)