Winning is fun, and the Peterborough Timbermen had a LOT of fun in their opening weekend of the 2022 Arena Lacrosse League season.
Saturday afternoon the team invited the Paris RiverWolves to Millbrook Arena and then soundly walloped them 20-11. Sunday afternoon the Timbermen travelled to Iroquois Lacrosse Arena in Ohsweken and defeated the defending champion St. Catharines ShockWave 25-18 in the highest scoring game in league history.
Newcomer John Crough said his first Arena Lacrosse League liked the energy in the game. Crough, from Ennismore, captained the Lakefield Rage to the Sr. C championship this past summer.
“I really enjoyed it,” he said. “I knew a few guys coming in having played in Lakefield and with the Lakers growing up and high school as well. Since I’ve been here everyone’s been very welcoming. I found the pace of play was very strong. The people I was playing with were all on the same page… We show up and we’re ready to play.”
He agreed that the Timbermen fit the mold of a typical Peterborough lacrosse team.
“One hundred per cent,” he said. “There’s a good balance of skill but there’s also some grit out there and I always enjoy playing with that style of team. This seems to have both, that skill and grit, and the will to win of course.”
Other local newcomers this season include former Jr. A Lakers Brice Rice and Brad Lyons and Lakefield Rage member Mikael Chullen. Nick Finlay is also returning to the team after spending parts of three season in the NLL. He last suited up for the Timbermen in their inaugural 2017 season.
On Saturday, the RiverWolves were up 3-0 nearly the end of the first when the Timbermen roared to life, equaling the score with three snipes in under two minutes. Transition specialist Justin Bragg picked up a rebound for the first one. Fan favourite Joel Matthews, back with the Timbermen on a conditioning stint from the Buffalo Bandits, scored 23 seconds later. Defenseman Lyman Beatty capped the run with a transition goal.
Special teams factored heavily into the second quarter scoring. The Timbermen, who took the first three penalties of the game, were finally awarded a power play opportunity when Rob Stovel roughly dumped Cam Crowe after the whistle. Unfortunately, Paris’ Connor Watson scored shorthanded. But Peterborough got that one back with Nick Finlay scoring a shorthanded goal of his own.
Dan Keane wanted to show off for the RiverWolves, so he beat Timbermen starting goaltender Will Johnston on an NLL-style diving wraparound, shorthanded again, to give Paris back the lead. Brine Rice answered that goal less than a minute later on the power play and the game was even 5-5.
Peterborough scored three more in succession. Cameron Simpson got the first even-strength goal of the quarter. Rice then scored a second power play marker. 2020 leading scorer Aaron Woods notched his first of the season scoring off his own rebound during a scramble in front of the net. Paris got one more late in the quarter but Peterborough led 8-6 at the half.
“The offense started slow but geez, you get three or four guys with hat tricks, something’s going right. And it didn’t happen by accident. They worked hard, they talked on the bench. The communication was there which was fantastic. You get six or seven guys talking the same offensive language good things happen,” said head coach Joe Sullivan.
The Timbermen outscored Paris 7-3 in the third. Each team scored three before the Timbermen began to pull away. Mitchell Geoffroy scored an overhand and Woods popped in two, with his second kicking off a string of five in a row. Skkylar Thomas and Geoffroy scored overhand shots 14 seconds apart before Matthews chased Paris starting goaltender Cameron Dunkerley in favour of Nolan Clayton. Matthews capped the period with an overhand rip 11 seconds into a power play opportunity.
Paris managed to score the first and last goals of the fourth quarter but the Timbermen put up five more in between. Rice and Fred Hartley, returning this season after taking 2020 off, scored before special teams took over again. Thomas scored a power play goal, then took a brutal high stick from Hunter Aggus, earning the Timbermen a five-minute power play. Simpson scored 17 seconds into the extended man-advantage. Woods scored his fourth of the game, shorthanded, for the Timbermen’s 20th goal.
“I’m very excited about the potential of this team and to see it come together with people like Brine Rice stepping up and playing the way I thought he could, that’s a difference maker for us,” praised Sullivan after the game. “With a young goalie like Will Johnston coming in and stepping up and making saves when quite honestly the game could have gone the other way for a long time, he made the saves like any good goalie should to get us over the hump. I think Paris is a great team so what a good measure for us to go up against a solid, solid team.”
Sunday’s game was a back-and-forth affair with each team scoring in bunches, but the Timbermen managed a solid 21-13 lead after the third quarter. Even after a long morning of travel after playing the day before, they held on for an historic win, setting a league record for most goals scored in a game with 43. The next highest count was a 21-20 win for Whitby over Six Nations set January 26, 2018. The Timbermen also tied the record for most goals scored in a single game at 25. Oshawa set that record on March 7, 2020, when they beat the Timbermen 25-10.
Matthews led with four goals and eight assists for 12 points. Rice, Hartley, Woods and Jordan Hendrycks all had hat tricks. Simpson, Thomas and Bragg potted two each. Kaleb Bingley, Mikael Chullen and Konner Sunday each scored their first goals of the season. Johnston, a New York Riptide practice squad member, got his second win of the weekend.
Hendrycks, Zach Thompson and Riley Thompson suited up on Sunday in place of Todd Chapman, who was banged up towards the end of Saturday’s game, Joel White and Cam Crowe.
The Timbermen are at Children’s Arena next Saturday, February 5th to play the Oshawa Outlaws at 5 p.m. They’re on the road for one more week after that before returning to Millbrook Arena on Saturday, February 26th to host the Six Nations Snipers at 2 p.m.
