The Peterborough Timbermen held on for a 12-11 win over the St. Catharines Shockwave on Saturday night in Arena Lacrosse League action at Children’s Arena.
The Timbermen were shorthanded for the third game in a row with just 17 of 20 allowed runners but were playing a fatigued Shockwave team, 16-11 losers to the Toronto Monarchs the previous night.
Head coach Joe Sullivan said the Timbermen battled through a tough game.
“It was sloppy,” he said of the game that featured a multitude of penalties and stoppages in play. “We have to find a better way to get up for every game. We just didn’t seem to have it tonight. When it all came down to it the guys played well, they battled, and we got two points which we needed in this very tight league.”
Fred Hartley, who had six goals on the night, opened the scoring for the Timbermen, tying the game at one 6:21 into the first. Chris Attwood and Doug Utting, on a fast-break, improved the score to 3-1 in the next minute and a half. Mark Vradenburg, who leads the league in assist totals, scored with just over two minutes remaining and Hartley added a late goal for a 5-1 lead after the first.
“It wasn’t an individual effort,” Hartley said. “People were setting picks for me, getting their passes off and getting me opportunities to put the ball in the net.”
Dan Michel scored shorthanded early in the second but the sloppy play that Sullivan mentioned saw the Shockwave close the gap to 6-4 at the half.
Hartley gave the Timbermen a 7-4 lead early in a penalty-filled third quarter. The Shockwave fought back with four in a row, three on the power play, to take a short-lived 8-7 lead before Hartley tied the game. Greg Reilly fought Josh Becker in the frame.
“We had a rough second quarter and we didn’t want to repeat that,” Sullivan said. “We tried to clean that up in the fourth quarter. We gave up fewer goals against but we did find ourselves going to the penalty box a lot, as did the Shockwave.”
Hartley put the Timbermen back on top with a penalty shot at 2:17 of the fourth after Justin Pychel jumped Attwood with two Shockwave already in the box. Attwood scored a pair on the ensuing 10 minute power play and Hartley scored the winner with 6:25 left.
Each game, someone new steps up offensively for the Timbermen. Joel Matthews and Chris Attwood lead with 15 and 10 goals, respectively, but Mark Vradenburg was a force two weeks ago. Dan Michel goes about his work quietly but scores a couple goals per game. Saturday, it was Hartley’s turn to shine.
“Hopefully we’ll have multiple people scoring every game, but if you have one guy that’s on fire you want to give him the opportunity to put the ball in the net. My teammates obviously recognized that and fed me the ball and I appreciate that,” said Hartley, who missed the previous week with a sore back.
“[Fred] came back with a new stick and a new back and just played absolutely fantastic,” Sullivan said.
The Shockwave scored two goals shorthanded and one with an extra attacker to cut the Peterborough lead to one with 39 seconds left. Matthews drew a penalty while protecting the ball on the ensuing play, giving the final possession of the game to the Timbermen.
Brett Perras was outstanding in goal, making a number of athletic saves.
Former Timbermen player Caleb Wiles led the Shockwave with four goals and three assists. Grant Crawley took the loss in goal.
The Timbermen improve their record to 3-3 which puts them into a four-way tie for second place with Oshawa, Whitby and Paris. They are back in action next Friday at Children’s Arena, hosting the first-place Toronto Monarchs at 8 p.m.
Scoring for the Timbermen:
Fred Hartley (6-0)
Chris Attwood (3-2)
Mark Vradenburg (1-6)
Dan Michel (1-3)
Doug Utting (1-0)
Joel Matthews (0-3)
Brett Perras (0-2)
Brett Coons (0-1)
Zack Thompson (0-1)
