The Peterborough Timbermen saw their 2022 season come to a premature end on a Sunday afternoon at Memorial Arena in Brampton as they fell 20-12 to the Oshawa Outlaws in the Arena Lacrosse League’s quarterfinal.
The first half was back-and-forth, not unexpected from the fourth and fifth place teams that finished with identical records. Over two contests, Peterborough edged Oshawa in the season series by a single goal. However, they were plagued all season long by weak second halves, and that haunted them in the playoffs.
“In the first half I thought we were playing fine. With a couple of errors here and there on the defensive side, our offense was able to keep us in there,” said captain Brine Rice. “The second half seemed to be the same as it was all season. We came out flat footed with no energy to compete and Oshawa jumped all over us when they had the chance.”
The loss wasn’t for lack of talent. Peterborough’s offense was led by Aaron Woods, who finished second by two points in the league’s scoring race and finished first in goals. In this game he scored four times and assisted twice.
And it wasn’t for a lack of leadership or hard work, either. The Timbermen are as tight-knit as a team can be, continuously staying positive and propping each other up when necessary (see: Jordan Hendrycks calming down Joel Wright in the penalty box in the second quarter, or Joel Matthews slinging an arm around Riley Thompson during a timeout, just because). They did well at keeping the mood light when things got tough.
AND it wasn’t for a lack of available players, which impacts the team a few times each season. There were a couple of players out with Covid, and a couple more with injuries, but the Timbermen were still able to floor a lineup of full-time players, although they lost three players during the course of the game to injury.
But Oshawa had all those things, too. The two teams were too closely matched coming into the game, and one of them had to lose.
“It came down to who wanted it more and [in this game] that was Oshawa,” said Rice.
Aaron Woods made quick work of a power play after Joel Matthews was hit with a cross check in the face. Oshawa scored a pair 30 seconds apart for a 2-1 lead but then Skkylar Thomas found Mikael Chullen on Nagy’s doorstep to tie the game at two.
Oshawa’s Josh Gilray scored his first of the game on a nifty backhand move. Thomas picked up his second assist passing the ball to Mitchell Geoffroy who put the ball over Nagy. Geoffroy almost scored again on the next possession, opting for a low shot, but Nagy was ready. He gave a up a juicy rebound though, that Matthews picked up and put in. Gilray scored his second for Oshawa, faking to one side and then beating Will Johnston on the other.
Perpetual pain-in-the-Timbermen’s backside Niles Cyr made his presence known then, throwing Geoffroy down to the floor, then pushing him again after he got back up. Mikael Chullen came in to defend Geoffroy and nearly squared off with Cyr, who was ready to fight and kept talking as the pair headed to the penalty box.
Tied at four late in the period, Oshawa got a lucky break when Ryan Nolan picked off an attempted Timbermen pass. He and Will Cecile streaked down the floor. Nolan was taken down by Matthews but not before he passed to Cecile who buried it. The Timbermen then pulled Johnston for an extra attacker but the gamble backfired and Oshawa went up 6-4 at the end of the first.
Cyr scored 35 seconds into the second after a bad bounce saw the ball hit the boards in Oshawa’s end and fly all the way into Peterborough’s end. Cyr got to the ball first and Johnston just wasn’t ready for it. Peterborough got that one back on a spectacular Woods crease dive.
Johnston then made a pair of great saves, stopping a backhand attempt from Nick Andreoli and a point-blank shot from Taite Cattoni.
Gilray scored his third of the game on an Oshawa power play, but then the Timbermen got hot and rattled off four in a row in a span of less than three minutes. Woods came up with the ball after a scramble in front of the net and faked a low shot before going over top of Nagy to kick it off.
Joel Wright then went in for a crease dive after the ensuing faceoff, but was pushed by Cyr and ended up interfering with Nagy, who took exception. Cyr and Wright came out of that fighting, with Wright taking several hits to the head that forced him from the game. Colour commentator Blair Campbell said on the broadcast that it looked like Nagy “tried to run [Wright’s] head into the boards,” but Nagy went unpenalized.
The Timbermen made the Outlaws pay for it on the scoreboard. Brine Rice threw several nice fakes on Nagy, converting a long pass from Johnston. Woods then made a flip pass to Matthews who went high. Thomas then made a low pass to Woods who sent an underhand rip into the net for a 9-8 Peterborough lead.
Unfortunately, that was the last success the Timbermen had in the game. Oshawa went on their own four-goal run for a 12-9 lead (we’re still in the second here, folks). Fred Hartley got one back for the Timbermen on the powerplay, after Matthews parked himself behind the net and made a heads up pass out front. Oshawa scored one more before the half ended for a 13-10 lead.
When the teams came back out for the second half, Nagy had reenergized himself, leading the Outlaws from the net. He stopped all but two Timbermen shots in the half while Oshawa’s transition game pushed the pace.
Matthews completed his hat trick in the third quarter; then Thomas, after assisting on eight goals, picked up one himself, and it was maybe the goal of the game: a targeted backhand that no NLL goalie could stop. Thomas actually had the time to spot the goal before he flipped his body around to get the best angle for the shot. Johnston followed that up with a great save but the momentum ended there.
Peterborough had ample opportunity in the fourth with Oshawa only scoring twice more. There were some great moments, like when defender Casey Swamp made a great stick check that led to his first breakaway of the season, or when Skkylar Thomas looked poised to score a wraparound dunk goal. Both times Nagy made good saves.
“The game was exactly what we expected; it was a fast playoff game,” said assistant captain Steve Bourden, who left the game in the fourth with a lower body injury. “Coming in without Braggsy (Justin Bragg) was tough and losing Carter (Badour) and Joel mid game were some very unfortunate bounces. Oshawa has a solid offense and unfortunately we didn’t do enough as a unit to slow them down.”
Oshawa went on to fall in the semifinals to Whitby, who subsequently fell to the Six Nations Snipers in the championship game.
Bourden says that the players were left unsatisfied the way the season ended, because they had the talent to win.
“Every year the goal is to win it all so anything short of that feels disappointing,” he remarked. “This is the only team I’ve ever been on where I hope I never play with the same guys again, because so many of them deserve to be up in the NLL.”
The Timbermen will be back for the 2023 season for another crack at the ALL championship. Thank you to our fans who cheered for us this season at Millbrook Arena and on the road, and to our game day volunteers – we can’t wait to see you all again soon.
