Taite Cattoni plays OT her for Lakers

Story and photo by Anna Taylor

The Peterborough Century 21 Lakers finished the 2023 regular season with a 10-9 overtime win over the Brooklin Lacrosse Club on Thursday night at the Memorial Centre.

Peterborough finished the regular season with a 12-4-0 record and take the season series over Brooklin 4-0. The teams finished second and third in the MSL standings, respectively, and will begin their opening round playoff series next Thursday, August 3.

Taite Cattoni scored the game winner with 1:07 left in overtime after the Lakers fought back from a second period 7-4 deficit. Peterborough outscored Brooklin 5-2 in the third period.

“They outworked us in the first two periods and then as veteran team we kinda came alive and said ‘stop messing around’ and found a way to finish and win the game,” said Cattoni. 

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“I ran through the middle trying to clear space for Turner (Evans) and a guy opened his back and I tried to get a good pick on him and hit him well. I caught the ball and as soon as I caught it I threw a fake and saw him go down and put it top right corner,” he described the goal.

That wasn't the only memorable moment from Thursday's game featuring Cattoni. In the third period, after Thomas Hoggarth was taken down from behind, Cattoni ran in towards the scrum to avenge his teammate. But older bother Holden was already there and grabbed Taite, getting in his face and shoving him away from the fracas. It ALMOST looked like the pair would come to blows, but Holden was just being a good older brother and protecting Taite.

Taite laughed when asked what Holden said to him.

"He just told me to leave it and not take a penalty. I was pretty wound up; Hoggy had his feet taken out and it was a pretty dirty play. You have to stand up for your teammates. We talk about that as a mantra on our team that  everybody stands up for one another. Holden was smart enough to realize I was pretty fired up and got me out of there so as not to take a penalty or yell at the refs. Luckily we got the power play and scored once on it."

It was a major penalty to Brooklin. They capitalized shorthanded but Josh Currier responded 19 seconds later. Austin Hasen later tied the game, tiptoeing the crease, to send it to extra time.

Eli McLaughlin led the Lakers with a hat trick while adding a single assists. Drew Hutchison made 44 saves for his fifth win of the season.

Kyle Waters led Brooklin with a hat trick, while Riley Hutchcraft was peppered with 74 shots, stopping 64 of them.