The Peterborough Century 21 Lakers record fell to 2-3 on Thursday after a 12-10 loss to the Brooklin Lacrosse Club at the Peterborough Memorial Centre. It’s the Lakers’ second consecutive loss after a 9-6 defeat at Oakville on Monday. Brooklin has taken strides to improve their lineup after four consecutive seasons of falling to the Lakers in the MSL semifinals. They had a balanced attack and strong goaltending from Steve Orleman. “They were a problem for us tonight,” said goaltender Nick Rose, who made his first start of the season. “But we feel like we didn’t play at our best. We get them again next week, so we’ll see. We have to come ready to play against anyway.” Indeed, the Lakers face Brooklin next Wednesday at Iroquois Park Sports Centre, and then will face them once again at the PMC on June 25 for the rubber match. Rose made 36 saves in his first start since winning the NLL Cup with the Toronto Rock last month. It was a rough outing on Thursday with the teams going back and forth, neither finding much momentum. “I wasn’t great when it mattered,” Rose said. “I think I had some good moments in the game but especially in the third period I wasn’t on top of my game and that may have been a big difference. Getting back into summer ball is a bit different than the winter game but that’s no excuse; I just have to be better.” Rose recognized that “there’s a standard here in Peterborough and that’s why [he] wanted to come here last year. “A lot of respect for what has been built here. Where we’re at right now isn’t good enough for that standard but as long as we keep building and get to that standard come playoff time then I like where we’re at.” Rob Hellyer, who had four goals in the game, agreed. “We gave away a couple. But it’s game five and there are 18 games in a year so we can turn this around in a hurry.” Hellyer, who leads the team in scoring with 23 points in four games, said in addition to cleaning up small mistakes, one key to a better performance is to stop their opponents in transition. Each possession change saw Brooklin push the ball up the floor extremely fast. “They run,” Hellyer acknowledged. “Every team that we’ve lost to has been running. Nations is good, but the other two teams just constantly run. We have to figure out how to do better, conditioning wise, and just stop those fast breaks because I think they wore us down.” Brooklin led 3-2 after the opening frame. Dylan Hutchison’s second of the season in transition kicked off the Lakers’ scoring, with Brad McCulley hitting the back of the net early in his season debut after serving a four-game suspension from last season’s playoffs. Hellyer scored a pair to start the second, with Taggart Clark and Jakson Raposo responding for Brooklin. McCulley traded goals with Landen Sinfield towards the end of the period which kept BLC up by a goal. Eleven goals were scored throughout the first 40 minutes – and 11 more were scored in a wild third period. The game was tied at sixes and eights before Connor Kearnan and Will MacLeod scored back-to-back for a 10-8 lead. Cam Milligan’s second of the season got one back but Brooklin scored two of the last three to maintain the lead. Junior Returns The Lakers honoured John Grant Jr. prior to the game in advance of his Saturday induction into the Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame. One of the best lacrosse players to ever suit up, Grant currently coaches the NCAA DII Lees-McRae men’s lacrosse team in Banner Elk, NC. He made the 15 hour drive several days ago and spent the week watching lacrosse in Peterborough, Whitby and St. Catharines. Of Note - Jake Withers won 15/25 faceoffs - Each team went 1/2 on the power play with the Lakers adding one shorthanded goal - The Lakers outshot Brooklin 50-48 - Holden Cattoni and Adam Jay were added to the IR - The Lakers do not have another home game until Thursday, June 25 when Brooklin returns. In the meantime, the Lakers are on the road to Whitby (Brooklin) on Wednesday, June 10, and will visit Brampton on Thursday, June 18 - Over 900 hotdogs were sold during the team’s first Toonie Dog night! Full Lakers Scoring Rob Hellyer 4-2 Justin Sykes 2-3 Brad McCulley 2-2 Dylan Hutchison 1-0 Cam Milligan 1-0 Taite Cattoni 0-2 Brenden Boyle 0-1 Robert Hope 0-1 Robbie White 0-1 Jake Withers 0-1 Mike Robinson 0-1  PHOTOS BY CHRISTINE LIU

The Peterborough Century 21 Lakers suffered an 11-9 loss to the Oakville Rock at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre on Monday. It evens their record on the young MSL season to 2-2. Oakville jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Justin Sykes got the Lakers on the board, but that was their only tally of the first period. Ennismore Sr. B call-up Liam Vollans pulled the Lakers within a goal with his first career marker 4:07 into the second period, but Oakville rattled off three more before Cam Milligan stopped the run. Oakville led 6-3 after 40 minutes. The Lakers put up a fight in the third period but Oakville went on a short run late to put the game out of reach. Taite Cattoni capitalized twice on power play goals, and Rob Hellyer also scored twice, once on a beauty behind-the-back shot. Vollans picked up his second of the game with three seconds left. Defensive coach Bobby Keast said the team didn’t get the start they wanted. “You never want to go down 3-0, you want to battle right from the opening faceoff… We had opportunities to make it up and we didn’t capitalize on those opportunities either. We gave up quite a bit in transition, but even when Deacan (Knott) did his job in transition, we didn’t do a good job picking up the guys coming off their bench… We didn’t box out well enough on giving them second opportunities, so it’s a challenge if you don’t do the little things and tonight, we didn’t. Deacan did his job as far as I’m concerned.” Knott stopped 44 shots in his second start of the season. Oakville was led by Tye Steenhuis, son of former Laker Mark Steenhuis, with three goals and two assists. Justin Lee and Mike McCannell each scored twice and assisted on two others. Evan Constantopoulos made 46 saves. Of Note: - The Lakers were 3/6 on the power play, while the Excelsiors were 1/2 - Shots on goal were even at 55 each - Missing in action were Drew Hutchison, Carter Page, Matt Gilray, (personal), Jake Withers, Robert Hope, Ben Trumble, Johnny Pearson, Braedon Saris, DJ Clark (work/school), Dustyn Birkhof, Alex Pace, Holden Lowes, Thomas Hoggarth, Frank Coyle (injured), Brad McCulley (suspended) - Aside from Vollans and Milligan, the Lakers called up Colton Armitage from Hamilton Sr. B and Jack Longmore from Ennismore Sr. B to fill out the roster - The Lakers are next in action at home on Thursday, June 4 when the Brooklin Lacrosse Club pays a visit to the Memorial Centre. It’s John Grant Jr. Night, and he will be in attendance ahead of his Saturday induction to the Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame Full Lakers Scoring: Rob Hellyer 2-4 Taite Cattoni 2-1 Liam Vollens 2-0 Liam Patten 1-1 Cam Milligan 1-1 Justin Sykes 1-0 Mike Robinson 0-4 Holden Cattoni 0-3 Nick Crowley 0-1 PHOTOS COURTESY OF RYAN MCCULLOUGH/OAKVILLE ROCK