The Langley Thunder beat the
hometown Peterborough Lakers 13-12 in game one of the 2012 National Mann Cup
lacrosse championship.
“I didn’t really know what to
expect coming into game one, ” said Langley coach Rod Jensen. “We didn’t play a
perfect game but we did enough good things to make it happen.”
The Lakers John Grant was fired up
in the first period, firing a hat trick from beyond the shooters circle and
lifting his team to a 5-2 lead after one.
The Lakers came out flat in the
second period and the first seven minutes the Thunder struck 5 goals in seven
minutes, to take 6-5 lead. The Memorial Centre was eerily quiet and the Lakers
had to regroup down 8-6 after two.
The Lakers managed to salvage
things in the third and Grant tied things at ten but Langley would get two back
of their own.
The Lakers would get their chances,
but the bounces weren’t going their way.
Cory Vitarelli had some shots point
blank but was held scoreless, by Langley goalie Brodie MacDonald’s right hand.
MacDonald, who won a Minto Cup with
Jensen in Coquitlam in 2010, is still looking for experience.
“I haven’t got too much time in the
NLL, so I haven’t faced many of those shooters,” said MacDonald, who rebounded
well after his team got down early. “As a goalie you always want some back but
you have to forget about the last goal and go for the next one.”
The Lakers managed to salvage
things in the third. Shawn Evans scored two big goals late and the Lakers tied
things 10-10 but Langley answered back quick, never loosing the lead.
“We thought we had the Mann Cup won
in the first period,” said Lakers assistant captain Kyle Sorrensen. “We stopped
playing for 20 minutes and we tried to crawl back but it was little too late.”
The Lakers look like machine when
their on but tonight things looked a little loose.
“We have to make a couple adjustments,” said Lakers GM and
head coach Jamie Batley. “The guys already know what they are going to do.
Defensively our guys need to trust each other and perhaps with the time off we
stopped communicating.”
Langley forward Athan Iannucci
thinks his team are coming together at the right time.
“We have spent a lot of hours together off the floor and I
think the hallmark of a good offence, is to be in sync and on the same
wavelength and were fortunate to be there or as close as we can be right now.”
Everything is different on the
road. Langley had a lot to get used to tonight. “We have never played on a
floor with the benches opposite sides like this before,” said Iannucci. “We had
to adapt, this is a loud arena, we couldn’t hear ourselves that well.”
Langley thought they had to be
perfect to win. They didn’t. The last team from the West to win game one in the
east was the Victoria Shamrocks defeating the Peterborough Lakers in game one of the 20004 Mann Cup but the Lakers would get the last laugh winning the series in six games.
No comments:
Post a Comment