The Peterborough Timbermen fell to 0-2 in the young Arena Lacrosse League season on Saturday after a 10-9 loss to the Whitby Steelhawks at Millbrook Arena in front of about 200 fans.
It was a marked improvement from their season opening 18-5 loss to Brampton, as the team worked its way back from a 9-5 deficit in the fourth quarter. Defenceman Justin Bragg scored three times late in the game and goaltender Steven Walsh made a great save on a penalty shot with a minute left to give the Timbermen a chance.
“I think that was my first hat trick ever,” Bragg said. “Everything was falling tonight. I couldn’t do that by myself though; it started right from the back door from Walsh and Parker Sands moving the ball up.”
Bragg, and Braeden Smith, who also scored his first ALL hat trick, both agreed that Friday night’s team practice was key in their comeback.
“We’re a young organization, coming up and going local,” Bragg said. “We had practice last night and stuff is starting to come together but it’s going to take a couple of games.”
The Timbermen had a week off for Christmas, so “I think it was good that we had practice because… it really tied things together,” Smith said. “The offence played more like a team, and we’re getting to know our patterns and such and hopefully we can keep building that.”
Of their opponents, Bragg said: “That’s an organization that has been together since midget or bantam, all Whitby, Oshawa, Clarington guys, so they know how each other plays and we just have to find that.”
The Timbermen are sporting an entirely new offence this season. League MVP Aaron Woods defected to the new U.S.-based Professional Box Lacrosse Association, along with four other forwards. Joel Matthews is currently on the Buffalo Bandits practice roster. Several key defencemen including goaltender Will Johnston are out for the season with injuries.
“We make no bones about it, we are completely rebuilding with a young local team,” said head coach Joe Sullivan. “We know we’re going to be in tough and struggle up front to put the ball in the net. But what’s going to allow our offence to get better is having our D pick it up a little bit and spot us some goals while we mature as a team.”
Parker Sands finished off a shorthanded two-on-one to give the Timbermen an early lead. Whitby quickly tied it up on their power play. Smith scored his first on the power play, wiring in the ball from the top. But Whitby scored a pair of power play goals to lead 3-2 after the first.
Yes, every goal in the period was scored on special teams. It was a theme in this game. Of the 19 total goals, only four were scored at even strength. Peterborough took 25 minor penalties to Whitby’s 19. Peterborough scored three power play goals and three shorthanded, while seven of Whitby’s goals came on the power play along with two shorthanded. Twice, the Timbermen had four guys in the penalty box at once.
When things finally settled down, that was when the Timbermen were able to concentrate on scoring and made a five-goal run.
“I think we could have come out on top early and not even given Whitby a chance to come back from it but we have to settle on the penalties a little,” Smith said. “We have to give our defence and break and get the offensive guys out there so we can shoot some more.”
Smith went to the front of the net to score his second goal early in the second quarter, but Whitby capitalized on a trio of opportunities – one shorthanded, one power play, and one on a defensive error – to take a 6-3 into halftime.
Down 8-3, Sullivan called for a check on goalie Kaleb Martin’s pads, and Riley Curtis scored his first of the season on the resulting power play. Whitby popped in two more, then Bragg then bounced off a couple of Steelhawks defenders in transition and scored shorthanded with 58 seconds left in the quarter.
That sparked a run of four more goals in the fourth. Smith got his hat trick goal, and then Bragg scored two more as he continued to push the pace up the floor – one, perhaps, the highlight of the season, a backhand beauty à la Dane Dobbie.
Peterborough took a too many men call with a minute left to play, resulting in a penalty shot, which Steven Walsh easily stopped. Riley Curtis scored his second goal of the game with 38.5 seconds left, but the Timbermen came up short in the final seconds.
“The loss today is a bright light for us,” Sullivan said. “Whitby has a good club. We’re just going to have to keep picking away. There’s going to be some great teams in the league that we’re going to have to struggle with to start with but we’ll figure it out.”
The players were very touched by the number of fans, family and friends that attended the game and saluted the crowd before leaving the floor.
The Timbermen are in Oakville next weekend to face the Toronto Monarchs before returning home on Saturday, January 14 to host Six Nations at 2 p.m. Tickets for that game will be available at the door.
