While the Peterborough Timbermen’s first two wins displayed their powerful offense, Saturday’s contest against the Oshawa Outlaws was a defensive showcase. The Timbermen travelled to Children’s Arena for a game that was truly a grind, but moved to the top of the Arena Lacrosse League standings at 3-0 after a 10-8 win.
“I don’t care if we win 10-8, 7-6, whatever, a win is a win and the guys stepped up,” said head coach Joe Sullivan. “They’ll tell you there wasn’t any extra pressure on them but you take the top two scorers in the league out of the lineup and there’s going to be some change. There were big holes to fill. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many of our younger guys that weren’t the key scorers in last weekend’s games to step up and be a big part of what we needed.”
Missing from this one were leading scorers Joel Matthews, Aaron Woods and Skkylar Thomas, which meant a different look for the offense. Brine Rice, who dominated his first two games, again stepped up, playing both ends of the floor and scoring twice while adding two assists. Rice now sits atop the ALL scoring race with 22 points.
“This guy (Rice) is biggest beauty ever to lace them up, he had about nine points today and he’ll probably get called up next week,” defenseman Kaleb Bingley proclaimed after the game.
“It’s just nice to be playing, to shake off the cobwebs and be with the boys,” Rice demurred. “At first there was more pressure on the offense, but we just had to push that aside and regroup as a team. All the guys who were here had to settle in and take each shift one by one and ease into it.”
Brad Lyons opened the scoring with a transition goal just a minute and 52 seconds into the game. Oshawa scored the next two but Rice tied the game 2-2 on a late power play goal.
The Outlaws, trying to take advantage of their home turf, went up 4-2 five minutes into the second. Nick Finlay got one back, converting a nice pass from Cameron Simpson and going high on Lucas Nagy in the Oshawa net. Rice’s second power play marker of the evening tied the game at four. Oshawa scored one in transition but that was equalled when Mitchell Geoffroy pounced on a huge rebound that Nagy gave up. The score was tied 5-5 at halftime.
With less focus on the offense, it was the defense’s time to shine. Veteran Steve Bourden made his 2022 season debut and was a good stabilizing presence in front of rookie Steven Walsh in goal. Walsh made a number of key saves including several on Oshawa transition opportunities.
“We’re excited about Walsh’s potential; he’s a big body back there he’s got a real positive attitude and he players are really taking to him as a young guy,” Sullivan said.
Each team scored twice in the third for a 7-7 tie with Cameron Simpson and Riley Thompson picking up the Timbermen’s goals.
Connor Lyons, with his first ALL goal, scored on the powerplay at 3:35 of the fourth. Lyons then assisted on Geoffroy’s game winner at 5:25, sending a sharp pass across the crease. Geoffroy slammed it home. Luke Laskiewicz got one back for the Outlaws with 6:26 left on a major power play, but the Timbermen defense shut down any extra opportunities. Thompson iced the game with a crease dive goal with 32 seconds to play.
After the game the coaching staff held a longer than normal chat with the team in the locker room to reinforce the positives that have been seen thus far this season.
“We’re trying to keep everyone engaged and sometimes when you have players in and out of the lineup, I want everyone to feel part of it,” said Sullivan. “Some guys weren’t in the Sunday game, and we asked some others to stay home tonight and honestly it was it was all about who can step up and play at this calibre.”
He mentioned Lyons and Geoffroy specifically.
“Connor Lyons stepping in, I was really happy with his play. Geoffroy had a bit off an off week last week and I think he stepped up and was part of the offense. Statistically he wasn’t all over the scorecard but he really did a lot of the things we asked him to do.”
Next Saturday the Timbermen are in Oakville to face the Toronto Monarchs at 7 p.m. They return home to Millbrook Arena on March 26th to host the Six Nations Snipers.
