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| Mark Steenhuis buries the winning goal in Peterborough's 11-10 victory over Brooklin Wednesday. (Photo: Tim Prothero) |
The Peterborough Lakers took care of
business on the floor Wednesday night, downing the Brooklin Redmen
11-10 thanks to a goal with just under two minutes to play by Mark
Steenhuis. The goal, driving in from the wing to tuck the ball
home as he does so often, gave Steenhuis a hat trick to go along with
an assist. Aaron Wilson led all scorers, adding 2 goals and 5
assists for the Lakers. Curtis Knight, Derek Hopcroft
and Mike Melnychenko each had 2 goals and an assist for
Brooklin while Shawn Williams had his third five-assist game
of the season for the Redmen.
The Lakers used their transition game
to lead 5-2 after the first period and stretch the lead to 7-3 early
in the second before Brooklin got its act together. The Redmen fought
back with a strong second, though, outscoring the Lakers 7-4 in the
frame to tie things up at 9-9 by the second intermission. Brooklin
took the lead again just 14 seconds into the third an stayed ahead
for 11 minutes until Aaron Wilson tucked home a quick stick on a nice
three-way passing play.
Steenhuis wasn't surprised that the
Redmen battled back into the game after trailing early. “Every time
you come here it's a hard-fought game. They play real well in this
arena,” he said. “We snuck it out in the end. We probably wanted
to win by a few but at least we were able to get the W and try to
help our record out and see what the league does with the other
games.”
The running game has been a key for the
Lakers, who have inserted some young legs into the lineup and like to
push the pace when they can. Brooklin got back into the game when
they started to contain the Peterborough fast break and turn the game
into more of a 5-on-5 contest.
“We dug ourselves a hole early. We
gave them a lot of transition,” said Brooklin forward Shayne
Jackson. “They had three breakaway goals there. But it's good
[that we were able to get back in the game]. It's early in the year.
We were able to battle back and just came up a little bit short.”
Jackson says the Redmen offence is
clicking nicely thanks to familiarity and veteran players making
everyone feel part of the team. “A lot of us have played together
before and we've got [Derek Hopcroft] and [Shawn Williams] and [Gavin
Prout] who are all easy to play with. We move the ball east and
west and we're getting a lot of good looks so far.”
Brooklin's next game is next Monday
when they travel to Oakville to play the Rock. Peterborough is right
back in action tonight, playing host to the Six Nations Chiefs.
