(Photo courtesy Ontario Lacrosse Association)
By: Stephen Stamp
Stop us if you've heard this before. The Victoria Shamrocks took an early lead that they held at the end of the first period of their Mann Cup game with the Six Nations Chiefs at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena. The Chiefs stormed back and rode a stretch of dominance to win the game.
It wasn't the same game, but it was the same pattern as had happened the previous two nights. When the final buzzer sounded on Wednesday, though, the final score was 13-9 and the Chiefs were the Mann Cup champions for the second straight year.
Patrick Dodds, Clarke Petterson and Mathieu Gautier scored to give Victoria a 3-0 lead by the 8:05 mark of the first period. Clearly, the Chiefs had the Shamrocks right where they wanted them. The comeback began with a goal from Lyle Thompson 41 seconds later, then Randy Staats connected with 2:42 to play in the period.
Victoria had led Games 3 and 4 by a score of 4-2 after the first. In Game 5, that margin was 3-2.
Mike Messenger took the opening faceoff of the second period to the rack and buried it to extend the lead, but it didn't take the Chiefs long to reverse the momentum. Eli McLaughlin scored 19 seconds later. Thompson tied it up a minute and a half after that.
Just under two minutes later, it was Shayne Jackson's turn and Six Nations had their first lead of the game. Then it was McLaughlin again the score was 6-4.
The Shamrocks did manage to change the pattern a bit at that point. Jesse King and Petterson scored 30 seconds apart and the game was tied. It took over nine minutes further, but when Casey Wilson struck the Shamrocks had regained the lead.
That didn't last long: McLaughlin again 67 seconds later, with 1:04 to play in the second, and the Chiefs had tied it back up.
Never let it be said that this Victoria team isn't resilient, though. Chris Wardle put the Shamrocks back in front when he took a Messenger pass and scored with 24 ticks left on the clock. Heading into the third, the score was 8-7 for Victoria.
This Chiefs club was constructed to win, though, and an aura of inevitability has arisen around them. They were true to that aura when the third period opened. McLaughlin, who had scored 5 goals through the first four games of the series, sandwiched his fourth and fifth of Game 5 around markers from Travis Longboat and Cody Jamieson. That run took almost 12 minutes, but it established an 11-8 lead with less than seven minutes to play, and the writing was on the wall.
Will Malcom got one back with 3:08 to play, but the Chiefs defence that had been so good all series closed out the win—both by clamping down and not allowing another goal, and by putting in a pair of insurance goals from Nonkon Thompson and Steve Priolo.
Then there was nothing left to do but present the Mike Kelley trophy to series MVP Lyle Thompson, hand the Mann Cup to Chiefs' captain Cody Jamieson and let the champagne start to flow.