Game 1 of the Mann Cup was played last night, between the Lakers and the Thunder, and yours truely was in attendance as I have season tickets with a friend. We sit almost dead centre just a few rows from the top of the lower bowl. They are great seats. The game took a awhile to get going as they had a buncha awards and presentations about various stuffs and I just wanted to see some lacrosse. They did announce each player on both teams, so that was kinda nice.

Yes that’s a car on the field. One of the big sponsors is a dealership so they bring a car out onto the floor every game. Is it bad that all I want is the car to hit a wall or corner on the way on or off of the floor?

Also in the second picture are the refs for the game.

As Peterborough is a huge lacrosse town and a smaller place, any news travels fast, so just after my post went live yesterday my season ticket mate texted me to say that 2 of the Lakers top forwards are out for the game. Joe Resetarits is out sick for at least the first game. The guess is that he has the ‘Rona and won’t be back, but he’ll be missed. He’s a pure shooter and stretches the defense. He’s also one of the few, if only American playing summer lacrosse up here. The other player out was Thomas Hoggarth with some of ear owie. I guess HIPAA and PIPEDA don’t me shit. lol. Not sure if Thomas will be back or not. With the teams playing possible 7 games in 9 nights, there’s just no time to heal, so don’t really see either back in time.

On to the game:
First period:
As expected both teams were a little tentative to start, due to it being 2 weeks since the last game for either team and not being familiar with each other. The Thunder did come out a bit hotter and got 2 goals on 3 shots. Not a good sign for the Lakers. After about 10 minutes the teams settled in and things got going. Langley was able to make it 6-2 before Peterboroguh got a few to make it 6-4 going into the first intermission. I’m not sure who is doing the stats, but the shots after the first period were 25-16 for the Lakers. This feels like that home town favoUrtism, as I don’t recall that many shots. Peterborogh changed their goalie about half way through the period but think it was more to wake up the defence than about the goalie play as there weren’t many soft goals.

Second period
In the second period, the teams traded goals for the first 5 minutes of so, and then the Thunder went on a 4 goal run to make the score 11-6 and that was pretty much the game. The goal by Matthews at the end of the second was a thing of beauty. With under 5 seconds left he corralled a shot off the post and put the ball top right. The period ended 13-9 for the visitors.

Third period
The teams traded goals early and when Peterborough wasn’t able to close the score, the game got a bit rough. There was a point where the Lakers had 5 players in the penalty box already and then got called for another penalty, so we got to see a penalty shot. I should have recorded it, but didn’t think of it until after it happened. The shot did not go in. The final score was 16-9 for Langley.

Dane Dobbie lead the Thunder with 4 goals and 5 assists, while Curtis Dickson had 4 and 4.

Mark Matthews lead the Lakers with 3 goals and 4 assists and Austin Hasen had a natural hat trick in his first ever Mann games for the Lakers.

Game 2 recap will be Monday sometime as I’m not going to be up early\later enough to get the recap done before the NFL starts tomorrow.

Game 1: Friday, September 9th at 8:00PM 16-9 Langley
Game 2: Saturday, September 10th at 7:00PM
Game 3: Monday, September 12th at 8:00PM
Game 4: Tuesday, September 13th at 8:00PM
Game 5: Wednesday, September 14th at 8:00PM*
Game 6: Friday, September 16th at 8:00PM*
Game 7: Saturday, September 17th at 7:00PM*
*if necessary

For those interested, all games should be streamed here.

Research came from here