Photo Courtesy of Anna Taylor
It took overtime, but the Peterborough Century 21 Lakers are back in the win column after defeating the Brampton Excelsiors 10-9 Thursday night at Memorial Arena. The Lakers record moves to 6-1-0 which puts them back in first place in the Major Series Lacrosse standings.
Joe Resetarits had two goals in the third period including the game-tying goal before scoring the game winner in overtime.
“We’ve all been in these games before; we just had to gut it out. They played a great game again,” Resetarits said, referencing the Lakers’ slim 6-5 win over Brampton two weeks ago in Peterborough. “(Riley) Hutchcraft played another great game. They’re fast, they put the pressure on us and they capitalized on their power [play]. We kept our composure as much as we could for those first two periods, lot of veteran players been in these situations in NLL, summer, so the experience took over.”
Both the tying goal and the winner were scored on power plays, a poetic end to a game that started the same way but saw the Lakers in a 3-0 hole early.
The Lakers were penalized 31 seconds into the game after Dustyn Birkhof laid a solid check on a player during a loose ball scrum. Two minors followed for Brad McCulley, and an unsportsmanlike conduct to Holden Cattoni, all in the first 12 minutes of the game. Carter Page scored the lone Lakers’ goal in the first period.
Eric Ward’s goal 3:38 into the second put Brampton up 4-1 on a delayed penalty. Peterborough began chipping away at the lead, with McCulley, Matt Gilray and Birkhof, on a fast break for his first as a Laker, evening it up with six minutes left. But on the ensuing faceoff, Brampton got one back, then piled on two more for a 7-4 lead. Austin Hasen threw a no-look behind-the-back shot past Riley Hutchcraft to escape the second period down just two.
Brampton kicked off the third with another power play goal, but another three-goal run from Peterborough tied the game 8-8. Taite Cattoni, Resetarits and Hasen, with his second of the game, scored. Once again Brampton quickly took their lead back, with Finlay Thomson scoring his second of the game.
Ten seconds into a power play earned after taking a slash fighting for the ball, Resetarits tied the game 9-9. Brampton captain Connor McClelland took another slashing penalty in overtime and a hard shot from Resetarits ended it.
“Just glad to finally have them go in. For two periods I couldn’t get one to go through,” Resetarits said. “He made some nice saves. Just gotta shoot to get hot. Thankfully they went in. I don’t care how they went in or who scored them, as long as we came out with the win.”
Brampton ended up scoring on four of their eight power play opportunities, while Peterborough went two-for-five. Drew Hutchison played well down the stretch and squared up to every shot in the latter part of the third period and overtime. Finlay Thomson led Brampton with a pair of goals and five assists.
The Lakers have the weekend off but are back in action Monday, June 16 for a rematch with the Rock in Oakville. That game can be seen on YourTV. They return to the Memorial Centre on Thursday, June 19 to host the Brooklin Lacrosse Club. Tickets for that game are now on sale at the Grant Thornton Box Office.
