The Peterborough Century 21 Lakers fell 11-6 to the Six Nations Chiefs on Thursday night at the Memorial Centre, putting them down 2-0 in their best-of-seven MSL Final series.
“Nobody wants to see us win a fifth Mann Cup,” said Taite Cattoni, who led the Lakers in Game 2 with a pair of goals and one assist. “This is a veteran group. We’ve won four Mann Cups. We were down 2-0 in the Mann Cup last year. We have complete belief that we can get back again.”
The Lakers are familiar with adversity – they came back to beat Langley in seven games in the 2022 Mann Cup after going down 2-0, and were down 2-0 in the 2019 MSL Final to Six Nations before coming back and winning that series in six games.
Peterborough started poorly, allowing three goals in the first 3:01. Eli McLaughlin, returned to the lineup, scored on the power play to get the Lakers on the board. Drew Hutchison was lifted in favour of Landon Kells after Tim Edwards made it 4-1 just 6:12 into the game.
Cattoni stretched over the crease to get one back for the Lakers, but Austin Staats got a late one for Six Nations, who took a 5-2 lead into the first intermission.
The Chiefs increased their lead to 7-2 in the second before Kiel Matisz and Taite Cattoni scored for the Lakers. Matisz banked a shot off the post, it hit Hill and bounced in. Cattoni dodged a defender and neatly tucked the ball in far side.
Early in the period, Jake Withers got into a wrestling match with Staats, and Withers got the takedown. Later, Withers got into a shoving match near the Chiefs bench with Kyle Rubisch. Rubisch ended up hitting his own trainer in the face with his stick, then wrestled Withers into the Chiefs bench. The trainer in question then appeared to attempt to shut the bench down on Withers. The trainer was ejected from the game.
Peterborough kept fighting back, but the Chiefs shut the door after Josh Currier brought the Lakers within two goals with 13:58 left to play. After Holden Cattoni hit the post at one end, Austin Staats went down unchallenged to score for Six Nations. They added two more for good measure after the Lakers ran into some late-game penalty trouble.
There was, of course, a scrum at the final buzzer, with Chad Tutton fighting Tyler Biles.
The Lakers get the weekend off. Game 3 is Monday in Six Nations followed by Game 4 on Wednesday, August 23 at the Peterborough Memorial Centre. Tickets for Game 4 are on sale at the Memorial Centre box office.
Scoring for the Lakers:
Taite Cattoni (2-1)
Eli McLaughlin (1-2)
Thomas Hoggarth (1-1)
Josh Currier (1-1)
Kiel Matisz (1-0)
Holden Cattoni (0-2)
Turner Evans (0-3)
DJ Clark (0-1)
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