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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
The Peterborough Century 21 Lakers knew it wouldn’t be that easy. The Lakers fell 11-5 to the Oakville Rock at the Memorial Centre in Game 2 of their best-of-five MSL semifinal series. The series is even at one game apiece after the Lakers took Game 1 on Tuesday 10-7. Game 3 is Saturday in Oakville, and Game 4 back in Peterborough Tuesday. If necessary, Game 5 is Wednesday in Oakville. Tickets for Game 4 are on sale now via Ticketmaster and the Doane Grant Thornton Box Office. “We got outworked out there,” said goaltender Drew Hutchison, who made 43 saves. “We started the game asleep. We didn’t have a good start to the game. We had a good second but in the third we kind of fell asleep again and weren’t dictating like we normally do on defence and forcing them into the positions we like to get them. Myself included, I didn’t have a good game.” After Game 1’s slow opening period, the Lakers had wanted to start the game well but couldn’t execute the game plan. “We’ve been a slow starting team all year. I’m not sure why that [is] but we have to find an answer pretty quickly,” said Holden Cattoni, who returned to the lineup. The Lakers were held scoreless in both the first and third periods, a rare occurrence. “The way that we played in the first and the third is wildly different than what gave us success in the second,” Cattoni continued, “so we have to try to find that energy and that line of being aggressive and putting them on their heels [to create] opportunities for us. [Oakville] played well, you have to give them credit for sure but we proved in the second period that when we do the things it takes to be successful, we can be successful.” Oakville led 4-0 after the first. Thomas Hoggarth and Ryan Lanchbury scored 21 seconds apart to open the second before Cattoni closed the gap to one with a shorthanded marker. Justin Tavares and Alex Simmons scored 4-on-4 to re-up the lead but Hoggarth scored his second and third of the period 39 seconds apart, late in the frame, to close the gap once again. The Rock scored five times in the third. Alex Simmons’ hat trick goal came on a penalty shot when three Lakers took minor penalties at the same time. Hutchison was called for roughing on a crease dive by Carson Moyer and Dylan Hutchison came in to defend him, with Colton Armstrong then mixing it up with Dawick. To a man every player was subdued after the game, but Hutchison did give a small chuckle when asked about his brother coming in to defend him. “I guess he still likes me because he’s still out there trying to protect me,” the goalie smiled, while acknowledging with the sobering thought that “it’s frustrating for everyone when we’re not playing well and tempers tend to boil when that happens, myself included with a penalty near the end. “When we’re playing five on four on the O side it’s not very good for our offence. They’ve been clicking the last while and being really good for us so on the D end we need to bail them out when they have a slow start but unfortunately it was all of us tonight.” The Lakers were handed 11 minor penalties plus a misconduct for Jake Withers. Landon Kells made 44 saves. Simmons, Dawick and Tavares scored three times each for Oakville. Of Note - Attendance was 2,215 - Peterborough had 49 shots on goal while Oakville had 54 - Jake Withers was perfect on faceoffs for the second game in a row, winning all 19. - Peterborough was 1/4 on the power play with one shorthanded goal and Oakville was 3/7 with one penalty shot goal Full Lakers Scoring Thomas Hoggarth 3-0 Ryan Lanchbury 1-2 Holden Cattoni 1-2 Rob Hellyer 0-1 Jake Withers 0-1 Mike Robinson 0-1 Justin Sykes 0-1 DJ Clark 0-1 Colton Armitage 0-1 PHOTOS BY ANNA TAYLOR
The Peterborough Century 21 Lakers didn’t steal a win from the Oakville Rock on Tuesday evening at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre; no, they took it. The Lakers prevailed 10-7 over the Rock in the opening game of their best-of-five semi-final MSL series. The third-place Lakers and second-place Rock ended the regular season separated by only two points as the Lakers finished July on a four-game win streak while Oakville lost five of their last seven after a strong start to the season. This was the first time the Rock had faced Jake Withers on the season, and only the second time for Robert Hope and Thomas Hoggarth. Oakville took the season series 3-0, but those three players made a major difference in Tuesday’s game: Withers won every single faceoff for his first perfect outing of the season, Hope blocked shots from getting to Drew Hutchison, and Hoggarth led the Lakers in scoring with two goals and three assists. It was a slow start to the game, with the teams feeling each other out. Each team only capitalized once in the first – Carson Moyer cut across the top to beat Hutchison and Matt Gilray finished a long transition run by throwing enough fakes to confuse Landon Kells. “We did not start well,” stated defensive coach Bobby Keast after the game. “Our captain (Hope) talks about starting on time; we clearly did not start on time. However, credit to that group, defensively, they got better as the period went along and we started on time for the second and third.” The game went back and forth for the first 15 minutes of period two – three goals came in the first 1:14 as Peterborough built a 4-2 lead on two goals from Mike Robinson and one from Justin Sykes; Oakville’s goal came from Jake Darlison. Josh Dawick got one back for the Rock, and eight minutes later, Alex Simmons tied it 4-4 on a power play. The last five minutes of the period belonged to Peterborough, and they went to intermission with a 7-4 lead. Ryan Lanchbury found a streaking Hoggarth, and although Hoggarth’s shot was stopped by Kells, Sykes cashed in the rebound. Rob Hellyer followed that up with a sidearm from the outside, and Hoggarth caught Kells napping on a Colton Armitage rebound. “As soon as we started moving the ball and the defence settled in, we played our game and that’s what we came here to do,” said Hoggarth. With the game tied again six minutes into the third, Colton Armstrong found Brad McCulley to finish off a transition run to put the Lakers up 8-7. Gilray then found himself back up in the offensive zone, spun off a defender and crashed the crease for a goal. Lanchbury found Hoggarth on the doorstep to put the Lakers in double digits with 10 goals. Drew Hutchison made 44 saves, from every angle. He squared himself up, threw out the leg for several kick saves, and smothered the ball when necessary to prevent valuable rebounds. “That’s nothing new for him this year,” said Keast. “He’s really elevated his game and has really focused on doing the best job he can each and every game. Not that it’s easy to play defense, but defensively, you can take some chances knowing that the guy behind you is going to stop the ball.” Alex Simmons led Oakville with a pair of goals and four assists. Kells made 46 saves. Game 2 is on the Lakers’ regular Thursday night at the Memorial Centre, August 6, at 8 p.m. Single-game tickets go on sale this morning (August 5) at 10 a.m. via Ticketmaster or by phoning or visiting the Doane Grant Thornton Box Office at the PMC. Game 3 is back in Oakville on Saturday at 7 p.m., and if necessary, Game 4 will be on Tuesday, August 11 at the PMC. Of Note - Peterborough had 53 shots on goal while Oakville had 54. - Jake Withers won all 20 faceoffs. - Peterborough was 0/2 on the power play and Oakville 1/4. - The Rock’s lineup featured two sons of former Lakers: Tye Steenhuis, son of Mark, was a regular in the lineup this season, and Justin Tavares, son of John, played as a call-up since his Jr. A Oakville Buzz were recently eliminated from the OJLL playoffs. - A small but passionate group of fans made the trip to the TRAC and made themselves heard throughout the rink and on the FloSports broadcast all game long. Full Lakers Scoring Thomas Hoggarth 2-3 Justin Sykes 2-1 Mike Robinson 2-0 Matt Gilray 2-0 Rob Hellyer 1-3 Brad McCulley 1-2 Ryan Lanchbury 0-3 Jake Withers 0-1 Colton Armstrong 0-1 Dylan Hutchison 0-1 PHOTOS BY RYAN MCCULLOUGH/OAKVILLE ROCK AND ANNA TAYLOR/PETERBOROUGH LAKERS
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