The Peterborough Timbermen kept their third place position in the Arena Lacrosse League standings this weekend after a wild 25-19 win over the Six Nations Snipers at Millbrook Arena on Saturday.
The Timbermen have scored 25 goals only one other time in their history – on February 6, 2022, they beat the St. Catharines ShockWave 25-18.
An offensive explosion like that is usually cause for celebration, but a wider spread would have been ideal.
“As happy as we were to get a win, and we always are, defensively, to give up 19 goals is not good,” stated head coach and general manager Joe Sullivan. “A lot of that isn’t just on our goaltender, it’s not on our defence, it’s just on our collective play defensively. We need to own that, and get a lot better because we’re going to play better teams. As or season goes we have to elevate our game and tonight, offensively we elevated our game, but defensively we forgot about our game.”
Sullivan was happy to see the offence spread around. Only two runners failed to register at least a single point, and goaltender Ethan Woods was active with the long pass, racking up three assists in the game.
Sullivan was especially pleased to get NLL veteran Vaughn Harris back in the lineup. Harris contributed a hat trick and two assists.
“You bring a guy like Harris back into the lineup, he brings a lot of maturity,” Sullivan praised. “He doesn’t get overly excited out there and he’s a great person to come in and talk in the room at halftime. It’s like another coach out there.”
Transition specialist Jake Gasperetti, in his first season with the Timbermen after being selected in the second round in the 2022 entry draft, scored five goals and two assists. Gasperetti has 14 goals which leads the team and is second in points with 23.
“I missed a few shots in the first but then found my rhythm and everything was dropping,” Gasperetti said. “We were forcing too much in transition, taking shots we shouldn’t have. Once we got our legs going we started to calm down and the pace of the game started to come to us a bit more and stuff started dropping.”
Peterborough started strong, leading 5-2 after the first quarter. Although they allowed the Snipers to tie the game 7-7 in the second, they led at halftime 11-7.
Gasperetti said the Timbermen took their foot off the gas pedal after they’d built up a 19-9 lead in the third.
“We got too comfortable and started to force or cheat a little bit. They have good shooters on their team and we just let them shoot too often. That can’t happen going forward.”
Sullivan said the Timbermen will be lucky to finish the season with Gasperetti still in their lineup.
“NLL teams need transition,” he said. “That’s what Jake does. He’s got incredible speed, great vision and he can finish on every play.”
Nine of the Timbermen’s goals came on special teams – five on the power play and four shorthanded.
Danton Miller led Six Nations with five goals and three assists. Jaxon Longboat and Quinton Martin each saw time in goal in the loss. Peterborough Lakers’ draft pick Andrew Vradenburg had a goal and an assist.
The Timbermen head off on a three-game road trip starting next Sunday, January 28 to face the Ohsweken Bears at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena.
“We need everyone to show up, lot of communication, lot of heart, lot of hustle. If everyone shows up and they focus on what they can do better every game I think we have a really good chance of winning every game,” Gasperetti said.
The Timbermen’s next game at Millbrook Arena is on Saturday, February 17 when they host the Oshawa Outlaws at 2 p.m.
TIMBERMEN SCORING:
Jake Gasperetti (5-2)
Dylan Goddard (3-4)
Vaughn Harris (3-2)
Fred Hartley (2-3)
Cole Hanrahan (2-2)
Skkylar Thomas (2-1)
Parker Sands (2-0)
Jared Downey (1-2)
Spencer Corkery (1-1)
Kaleb Bingley (1-0)
Ben Doherty (1-0)
Nick Bafia (1-0)
Jack MacAlpine (1-0)
Brine Rice (0-7)
Ethan Woods (0-3)
Aaron Woods (0-2)
Nathan Schultzkie (0-2)
Holden Lowes (0-1)
Oran Horn (0-1)
