Lakers take a 3-0 stranglehold over BLC

Story and Photo By Anna Taylor

The Peterborough Century 21 Lakers took a 3-0 series lead in their MSL best-of-seven semi-final series against the Brooklin Lacrosse Club with a 16-7 win Sunday evening at the Memorial Centre.

BOXSCORE

Eli McLaughlin led the charge with four goals, while Cam Milligan scored three goals and three assists, including a highlight-reel behind-the-back goal. Matt Gilray scored a hat trick of transition goals with two coming shorthanded. 

"Offensively, the ball was going in the back of the net early and we had momentum from the start so that made it a little bit easier offensively to play with a bit more creativity and have a bit more of a jam out there," said Milligan.

Landon Kells made 44 saves as the Lakers were outshot for the third game in a row.

Peterborough jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first period, and led 13-6 after two period. While Brooklin worked hard to close significant gaps in the first two games, tonight the Lakers held them to a single third-period goal while scoring three late goals of their own.

Bryce Sweeting played in his third game of the season after NLL and work commitments kept him out of the lineup early in the season. He played part of the first period of one game in July before leaving with an injury and going on the IR. He played in the playoff opener and then sat for Game 2, but the Lakers are glad to have his toughness back in the lineup.

Sweeting was involved in a late-game scrum after members of the BLC went after captain Robert Hope.

"Kearnan was going after the wrong guy," Sweeting said. "He was in our captain's face so I was just out there sticking up for our players. [Hopey was just] playing solid defence. He's in their face making them really irritated so they're just trying to get their shots in on him when they can. That's where I just kinda said I'd had enough of that."

Kyle Waters and Luke Pilcher each had three goals for Brooklin. Riley Hutchcraft was lifted after the Lakers’ fifth goal in favour of Kaleb Martin. The pair combined for 31 saves.

The Lakers can wrap up the series on Tuesday with Game 4 back in Whitby at 8 p.m. If necessary, Game 5 will be on Thursday, August 10 at the PMC.

"The fourth one is always the hardest to win," Milligan cautioned. "Brooklin plays really well at Iroquois Park. It's a smaller barn and they pressure really well so they'll throw everything at us so we just have to play a full 60 minutes."

Turner Evans rotated back into the lineup in place of Mike Robinson, while Joel Tayler remained out. On defence, Jordan Stouros and Mitch Ogilvie took the places of Eric Shewell and Thomas Whitty. Blake McDonald served the first of a two-game suspension for illegal cross-checking in Tuesday's game.