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| Tyler Carlson, here in last year's Mann Cup, was stellar for the Peterborough Lakers in their season-opening win. |
After a shaky first five minutes, just
about everything went right for the new-look Peterborough Lakers as
they opened the 2013 Major Series Lacrosse season with a 14-4 win
over the visiting Brampton Excelsiors. The crowd of over 3,000 was
roaring in pre-game as the 2012 Mann Cup banner was raised to the
rafters, but they were eerily quiet after a pair of goals from Mark
White and Mike Burke gave the visitors an early lead. Then
the Lakers settled down and the offence got the ball moving in
vintage Lakers fashion, leading to a quick-stick power play goal by
Cory Vitarelli that started a 5-goal run from which
Peterborough never looked back.
The score was 6-3 after the first
period and the Lakers took total control in the second period,
outscoring Brampton 4-0 in the frame. Shawn Evans, fresh off
an NLL scoring title and MVP award, kept his roll going with a
10-point night (2 goals, 8 assists). For a team where much of the
external talk was about who wasn't there (including John Grant,
Jr., John Tavares and Tracey Kelusky), the player
who were there made it clear that they're capable of carrying the
load. Jordan MacIntosh scored 4 times and added 3 assists.
Vitarelli and Josh Gillam each scored twice; Vitarelli had 3
assists and Gillam 2.
But the game was about much more than
the offence for the Lakers. They are missing seven players from the
back end that helped carry them to the Mann Cup last year and have
filled many of those spots with young, local players. They also,
however, have added veteran Stephen Hoar in a trade and, in a
surprise move announced just hours before the game, had veteran
Darryl Gibson return from retirement. Hoar made an impression
with his speed and physical game while Gibson was a steadying
presence for the youngsters in the lineup.
Many fans were surprised to see Gibson
back, and they weren't the only ones. “It was kind of a surprise
for me,” Gibson said after the game. “It started about a month
ago. I was here watching my son play in a high school tournament at
Trent. I just got talking to [assistant coach Jim Milligan]
and Tracey [Kelusy]. They kind of planted the bug. I've been paying
attention and I've seen what's going on with all the injuries, and
[Chris White's] not coming back, [Kyle] Sorensen's
not coming back.”
Gibson says the coaching staff made it
clear to him that they want “to push on the young guys coming
through, let's come up and develop them. It's time for the local guys
to step up and play,” and his role is partly to be a mentor for
those young players. “They did a great job tonight,” he said. “We
all communicated well. For the first game of the year, to give up 4
goals, that's a great start.” The veteran Gibson is also valued for
his own smart, physical game that saw him named the team's defender
of the year two seasons ago.
At the other end of the floor, the
Excelsiors had to cobble together a lineup in the absence of some
injured players and other veterans who had to miss the game because
of work commitments, such as goalie Anthony Cosmo, Dan
and Paul Dawson and Kyle Rubisch. That left a young
roster that showed flashes of good play but made too many mistakes
for the liking of new head coach Clem D'Orazio. “If you're going to
make mistakes out there, that's fine. We've got a young team other
than a couple of core guys that are older,” D'Orazio said. “For a
young team, you're allowed to make mistakes but the key thing is
learning from them and that's what's going to separate the guys that
play every game and the ones that might not when we start getting
more guys back.”
A couple of the young players in
particular had some strong moments. Mark White scored the
opening goal when he broke in two-on-one in transition and made a
nifty lateral cut around a defender to get himself in position to
bury a shot past Tyler Carlson. Rookie Hayden Smith
brought the fast, aggressive game that earned him plaudits during his
Orangeville Northmen junior career, and was excellent on the faceoff
team.
Chris Attwood and Joe
Resetarits scored Brampton's other 2 goals. Burke was the only
Excelsior with a multi-point night as he added 2 assists to his goal.
For the most part, the Brampton offence struggled to generate quality
scoring chances and when they did, Carlson was superb. He was seeing
the ball well all night and had one of those games where stopping the
ball just looks easy.
