Saturday night at Children’s Arena brought a comedy of errors to the Peterborough Timbermen who lost an important game 9-7 to the Six Nations Snipers.
If it could have gone wrong, it did. The Timbermen don’t want to make excuses, but sometimes you just have one of those days.
Everyone was flying high from Friday night’s 16-13 win over Oshawa, and everyone in the dressing room was ready to go on time Saturday night. Everyone, that is, except for the opposition.
The Timbermen had to combat a half-hour delay when the Snipers found themselves without a goalie. Only eight players took the Snipers’ initial warmup. Arena Lacrosse League commissioner Paul St. John tracked down local Oshawa goalie John Chesebrough at the last minute. Chesebrough entered the arena joking that he’d been “called out of retirement.” Chesebrough didn’t even have a regulation stick but miraculously a replacement was found somewhere in the arena.
“We were ready to go and then we found out they didn’t have a goalie and that made us sit and wait. None of us think that’s okay. It’s not our fault. We came prepared and they didn’t,” said captain Riley Campbell.
The Timbermen were also forced to wear their jerseys inside out as the Snipers’ orange jerseys were too close in colour to the Timbermen’s red. (Editor’s note: I’m honestly not sure why the Timbermen were forced to change jerseys. Why wouldn’t the Snipers, as the visiting team, not be forced to change theirs? The Timbermen do have navy blue jerseys but they were in Peterborough.) It was odd and embarrassing, though by the end of the game some of the players began affectionately calling their modified uniforms their “peach” jerseys.
The Snipers’ roster was a patchwork of just 15 runners and they started on the penalty kill for delaying the game, but they managed to build a 3-0 first quarter lead. Tyler Woodman stole the ball from goalie Brett Perras, who was too far out on a clearing attempt, and put the ball into an empty net behind a fallen Perras to open the scoring at 2:04.
Timbermen trainer Mike Walker had to step in to help an injured Sniper in the first, as they were without their own support staff. There was an issue with the glass to start the second half. A clearing attempt hit one of the lights in the low ceiling and knocked it loose. It dangled over the floor dangerously for the last quarter.
“It probably hurt us but they were in the same situation,” head coach Joe Sullivan said of the multitude of distractions. “We just have to be better. I think the guys have yet to really buy into how competitive this league can be. The Snipers are a team that’s in last place and they’ve beaten us twice. If you want to run with the top of this league you have to be better. We weren’t.”
In addition to everything else, the Timbermen were missing both Joel Matthews and Chris Attwood, who are second and third in team scoring, respectively, and combined for eight goals in Friday night’s win.
Campbell said missing Matthews and Attwood, who have scored 31% of the Timbermen’s goals so far, hurt the Timbermen on the front end.
“We haven’t put up the highest numbers there so we could have used them for two or three extra goals for sure.”
However, Cole McWilliams was a bright spot for the Timbermen, stepping up to lead on the right side with a pair of goals and three assists. He broke the scoring drought in the second quarter and Fred Hartley tied the game at three. The Timbermen’s transition game also had a lot of chances.
“Cole is one of the hardest working players we’ve ever put on the floor, whether he’s out the front door, back door or wherever, and he always seems to step up for us when we’re short,” Sullivan said. “Unfortunately, you need six and seven guys to do that to really compete to take the pressure off each other and when only one or two guys are doing it you’re not going to have a lot of success and that’s essentially what happened to us tonight.”
Also shining was the defensive unit. Holding any Six Nations team, however patchwork it may be, to single digits is quite an accomplishment and Sullivan was extremely happy with their play.
“I think our defense did everything they could do against some really good players,” he praised. “Allowing eight goals (the ninth was an empty netter) in 60 minutes of lacrosse is fantastic.”
The Snipers scored with 2.1 seconds left in the second quarter to take a 4-3 lead. The Timbermen never led but fought hard to keep within a goal or two in the third quarter.
Shane Francis tied the game at six early in the fourth quarter and it remained that way until the Snipers scored 43 seconds apart to lead 8-6 with 2:55 to play. Peterborough got one back as Zach Thompson finished off a two-on-one with Campbell.
Wayne Van Every led the Snipers with two goals and two assists. Tom Montour also contributed two goals. The Timbermen remain the only team the Snipers have defeated this season, but the Snipers also remain in last place.
In other ALL action, the St. Catharines ShockWave defeated the Whitby Steelhawks 13-12 in overtime. That means that the Timbermen, with eight points, are tied for third place with both St. Catharines and Whitby.
The Timbermen have five games remaining, to be played over the next five weeks. This coming Friday, February 23rd, they will host the Steelhawks back at Children’s Arena at 8 p.m.
