The Peterborough Century 21 Lakers are right where they want to be: heading back to the MSL Finals for the 11 th consecutive season. The Lakers eliminated the Oakville Rock from the on Tuesday night with a 14-8 win at the Memorial Centre, taking the best-of-five series 3-1. The Lakers won games one and three on the road. Ryan Lanchbury and Rob Hellyer combined for 18 points; half of those were assists from Lanchbury, who had his best game as a Laker since he was acquired from Oakville in a three-team swap earlier this summer. Lanchbury, who led the NLL in assists this past season, has translated his abilities well to the Lakers’ right side along with Hellyer and Thomas Hoggarth. Lanchbury is tied for the playoff scoring race with Oakville’s Alex Simmons at 20 points each, though Lanchbury leads with 15 assists. The first period was wildly back and forth with neither team gaining much ground. The Lakers led 5-4 after the opening period, then upped their lead to two goals after the second. Defender Alex Pace scored a highlight reel goal, his first of the season, as he picked up a Hellyer rebound and nimbly jumped to avoid the crease while shooting.  In the third, the Lakers pulled away completely, outscoring Oakville 5-1 as momentum and experience took over. Drew Hutchison made 48 saves as he turned in another stellar performance between the pipes. The Lakers played hard but clean after being spending too much time in the penalty box during their prior three games. It’s a formula they’ll look to perfect against the Six Nations Chiefs, who they will meet in the final for the sixth season in a row. It will be a full best-of-seven series. The winner of the MSL Finals will host the 2026 Mann Cup Canadian championship. Peterborough last hosted and won in 2022. The Chiefs have won the last three. They were nearly undefeated during the regular season but finished with two losses – one a forfeit to Oakville, the other an overtime loss to Peterborough – the only team to legitimately beat them on the floor. And since then, the Lakers have only gotten stronger. The schedule will be announced shortly! Post-Game Quotes “It’s a good battle. Ive grown up playing with Hutchy since the junior days so it was nice to get to battle against him. It would have been nice coming out on the other side of this series but someone had to lose and Hutch played great this series and he deserved it.” – Landon Kells, Oakville goaltender “It’s what we hoped. Robbie had a dynamite winter and I think he’s carried it forward here for us. And Lanchbury, I have history with him and I like the way he plays. They play the same position to a certain degree but they’ve figured it out with Hoggy and the three of them are working really well together.” – Lakers head coach Mike Hasen, on the chemistry between Rob Hellyer and Ryan Lanchbury “Atmosphere was great, we kept our composure, we did a great job taking the game to them and it worked out when we stuck to the game plan. It was a great series both ways. I thought Hutchy played awesome, we have the utmost faith in him.” – Lakers defender Matt Gilray “It’s going to be good lacrosse. Oakville got us ready at the right time, to be prepared to the best of our ability for handling the juggernaut. They’re the best team in lacrosse by any stretch of the imagination and we’re going to battle them.” – Hasen, on the Six Nations Chiefs “Looking for guys and trying to find sticks and if there’s a little gap just trying to hit the stick. Everyone did a really good job getting open tonight and made my job easy.” – Lanchbury on how he is able to assist on so many goals Of Note - Attendance at the Memorial Centre was 2,337. - Peterborough fired 56 shots on goal while Oakville had 50. - Jake Withers won 22/25 faceoffs in Game 4. Oakville won three faceoffs in Game 4 but only four overall in the series. - Peterborough was 2/2 on the power play Oakville was 0/3. Full Lakers Scoring Rob Hellyer 4-3 Ryan Lanchbury 2-11 Thomas Hoggarth 2-2 Justin Sykes 1-3 Mike Robinson 1-2 Jordan Stouros 1-0 Alex Pace 1-0 Brad McCulley 1-0 Colton Armitage 1-0 Robert Hope 0-1 Dustyn Birkhof 0-1 Colton Armstrong 0-1 PHOTOS BY DAVID PICKERING @PICKS_PICS

Home floor has not been kind to either team in the Peterborough Century 21 Lakers vs Oakville Rock best-of-five semifinal. It’s a streak the Lakers are hoping to break on Tuesday in Game 4 after winning Game 3 by a score of 7-3 on Saturday night at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre, giving them a 2-1 series lead. Game 4 is set for 8 p.m. at the Memorial Centre. Tickets are available online at Ticketmaster or through the Doane Grant Thornton box office by phone or in person. Once again, it was a quiet start for the Lakers – offensively, anyway. The defence and goaltender Drew Hutchison, who made 51 saves, were wide awake off the hop, blocking shots and moving the Rock exactly where they wanted them. The first period ended in a 1-1 tie with Colton Armitage getting the Lakers’ goal. A burst of offence late in the second period gave Peterborough a 4-1 lead heading to the third. Ryan Lanchbury scored twice in a minute and eight seconds, first firing in an outside shot using a defender as a screen and then floating the ball into the corner with a low shot. Armitage scored his second of the game 36 seconds later, darting in towards the crease. Alex Simmons scored twice for Oakville in the third period, but the Rock were outdone by a heads up pass from Brenden Boyle, who intercepted the ball on a three-on-one break, to Thomas Hoggarth, who scored the Lakers’ fifth goal of the night after taking a hard hit from a defender. Matt Gilray added two empty netters for insurance. Peterborough was missing several regulars from the lineup but battled through both that and some adversity with discipline as they gave up six power play opportunities – however, they held Oakville scoreless on the man advantage. It will take much preparation and focus to beat Oakville on Tuesday and secure the series win, and one other ingredient, according to the rookie Armitage: the fans. “I expect a lot of energy from the crowd to get us going,” he said after the game. “All gas, no breaks and we’ll finish it off on Tuesday.” Post-Game Quotes “We gave it our all throughout the whole 60 minutes. I was given the opportunity to have the ball in my stick a little bit more tonight and we all clicked well. Everyone was pitching in from the start of the game through to the end so it was nice to see.” – Colton Armitage, two goals “They left everything on the floor here tonight. I don’t think there’s one guy without an ice bag, not one guy that’s not a little bit tired. They played well and that’s what we need and we’re going to need it again Tuesday. Give these guys credit, they keep coming and coming and Tuesday is going to be the same thing, they’re just going to keep coming at us.” – Mike Hasen, head coach “The refs loved to blow the whistle tonight. It was tough but they boys battled hard and they killed them all off, and gotta give kudos to Hutch… You have to play tough, you have to play hard but you gotta know that once you get the lead you have to eat a couple and keep your composure.” – Dustyn Birkhof, defender Of Note - Peterborough fired 44 shots on goal while Oakville had 54. - After two perfect games in a row, Jake Withers won 12/13 faceoffs in Game 3. The only faceoff he lost was called on a procedural, meaning the referee decided he committed an infraction and the faceoff was awarded to Oakville. - Shortly after losing that faceoff, Withers’ left shoe blew up. It tore on the inseam right from the toe to the heel. Luckily, Dustyn Birkhof was able to loan Withers an old shoe (he got fancy new ones for playoffs!) - Peterborough was 1/4 on the power play Oakville was 0/6. Full Lakers Scoring Ryan Lanchbury 2-1 Matt Gilray 2-0 Colton Armitage 2-0 Thomas Hoggarth 1-0 Rob Hellyer 0-4 Dylan Hutchison 0-2 Jake Withers 0-1 Robert Hope 0-1 Colton Armstrong 0-1 PHOTOS BY ANNA TAYLOR & RYAN MCCULLOUGH/OAKVILLE ROCK