It was a record setting weekend for the Peterborough Lakers as they picked up their 18th Mann Cup on Saturday, more than any other team has won since the trophy’s box lacrosse era began in 1932.
The Lakers also joined the 1954 Peterborough Trailermen in the history books as the only two teams in history to win four straight championships. That 1954 team featured lacrosse legends such as Bobby Allan, Curly Mason and Moon Wooton.
It wasn’t just the team re-writing the Canadian Lacrosse Association (CLA) history books. Shawn Evans, who was forced to miss game seven due to injury, won his eighth Mann Cup, all with the Lakers, moving him into a tie with John Tavares for most Mann Cup wins as a player.
Along his way to the trophy, Evans also set the all-time Mann Cup points record, passing John Tavares who had originally set the record in 2012 before retiring from playing. Tavares’s final game of lacrosse was as a member of the Lakers, as a teammate of Evans, winning his eighth and final Mann Cup, while setting that points record, in a six game series against none other than the Langley Thunder.
Tavares was at game six this year, along with another legend, John Grant Jr., to present Evans with a framed picture to commemorate his historical accomplishment. Evans finished the series with a five point cushion on the points lead.
Evans wasn’t the only member of the Lakers setting individual records. Assistant Coach Bobby Keast picked up his ninth Mann Cup as a coach, more Cups than anyone else in the trophy’s 90 year, indoor lacrosse, history.
The Mann Cup will make it’s way around Peterborough over the next few weeks, as players and coaches continue to celebrate with friends and family, before heading back to the Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame where it will be housed until next season.
(Written by: Scott Arnold)
