Yeah, losing isn’t so much fun. But as head coach Joe Sullivan put it, he doesn’t mind a loss five games into the season. Let’s get it out of our systems now, learn the lessons, and put it behind us.
That’s what the Peterborough Timbermen have to do after a dismal 22-11 loss to the Six Nations Snipers on Saturday afternoon in front of a Covid-restricted capacity crowd at Millbrook Arena.
“We stuck with one of the best teams in the league for the better part of two-and-a-half quarters. We just ran out of steam,” said Sullivan. “They were able to find second gear which good teams do. We fell flat in the second half. We’ll get there but it won’t be without a lot of hard work and commitment.”
Things were looking good at halftime. Peterborough held a 9-8 lead. They had fought for it, after falling behind 4-0 very early in the game.
Shell-shocked and just pissed off enough that someone was getting the better of them, that’s when the Timbermen woke up. Cameron Simpson took a hard hit to get a pass to Konner Sunday, who got the Timbermen on the board halfway through the first period. Brine Rice scooped up a loose ball in his own end and ran the length of the floor for a breakaway goal to cut the deficit in half. Six Nations’ Vern Hill scored shorthanded late in the period but Peterborough popped in two more in the last minute of play. Aaron Woods scored and then showed off some soft hands with a lob pass to Simpson who buried the ball. Six Nations led 5-4 after the first 15 minutes.
Woods blasted in a power play goal to tie the game at five early in the second. Mitchell Geoffroy then scored a pair back-to-back, with Lyman Beatty assisting on the first goal and celebrating even harder than Geoffroy. The Snipers went on a mini three-goal run to take the lead back at 8-7, with Mike McGlaughlin scoring the go-ahead goal on a fast break after a Woods goal was called back on a crease violation.
Simpson then took another one for the team, receiving an elbow in the head from Hill that saw him head to the box for five minutes. Fred Hartley scored even before the whistle had blown, and Rice scored on a 5-on-3 before the period was out to give the Timbermen the 9-8 lead.
But that was where the magic ran out.
“Coming into the second half we felt like we had some momentum. But play-by-play it slipped away,” said assistant captain Steve Bourden. “The more we tried to do, the more it hurt us. That’s the way the game goes sometimes; it’s bad bounces, it’s this or that, and when you run into a hot goalie the defense gets a little more confident so it felt like they turned it up later in the game.”
Konner Sunday scored the only goal for the Timbermen in the third quarter while Six Nations scored five to lead 13-10. Not an insurmountable lead by any means, especially considering Peterborough had already come back once in the game.
But, Six Nations piled on nine goals in the fourth quarter, and made no effort to hide their sarcastic cheers when Will Johnston was pulled in favour of Marko Ćelić.
With some veterans out of the lineup, the coaching staff called up Jensen Walker from the developmental league. He made an immediate impact, getting under the skin of several Snipers and drawing more than one penalty as they seemed to zero in on the rookie with their fists.
Walker was at a loss to explain the physicality Six Nations tossed his way.
“I guess I was just playing tough D, getting under their skin,” he said. “The first half I didn’t get on the floor as much as the second half and I felt I played a lot better in that second half. Hopefully I will get a regular spot on the roster and play every game.”
Bourden was impressed with Walker’s debut.
“He’s a gritty young kid and he didn’t look out of place tonight so that’s a testament to his development,” he said. “Moving forward it feels like he could be a mainstay here. You like to see a young kid come in and hold his own.”
Sullivan said Walker played like he was a young guy trying to earn his spot.
“He was a real agitator out there,” Sullivan said. “They didn’t like that he played the body really strong on Del Zotto.
From the outside, a lopsided loss doesn’t make the Timbermen look like a cohesive team, but whoever gets into the lineup next will be joining exactly that: a cohesive, close-knit team.
With no chance of coming back, late in the game the Timbermen were still intent on at least making the score more respectable, encouraging each other on the bench to take the game five minutes at a time, then a shift at a time, and keep trying to go out and pop one in. The score doesn’t reflect that the team never stopped trying.
“In the third quarter it was like holding onto sand in your fist. It didn’t matter what happened. In the fourth, not that the score changed, but the guys came together as a group and sometimes you need those family issues to happen early to move forward,” Sullivan explained. “Now we have to focus on next week.”
The Snipers temporarily took over top spot in the ALL on Saturday by virtue of their goals for/against differential, but a loss to Oshawa on Sunday means that Peterborough once again is number one.
“This core group of guys has been together for a few years. Call it friendship, call it maturity, but this is a group that genuinely wants each other to succeed,” Bourden said. “This league is so short, that if you don’t have that at the end of the season, it’ll be the difference. This team is so skilled but I really feel the tightness and camaraderie is going to be what sets us apart.”
