Monday night we saw the start of the Oakville Rock season against the always talented Peterborough Lakers.
The first period was all Peterborough, as the Rock struggled to keep pace. John Grant Jr. tallied the first two goals of the game with assists from Adam Jones, Chad Culp, Shawn Evans, and Mark Steehuis. Oakville would finally get on the board at the 12:03 mark with a beauty of a goal from Jordan MacIntosh the assist from Brendan Thenhaus. Less than a minute later Scott Evans would score from a Matt Crough feed to put the Lakers back up by two. Josh Gillam would score unassisted to end the period, at a three-goal lead.
The second period would see a lot of back and forth action. Grant Jr. would start things off once again, this time off a man advantage, the assists coming from Steenhuis and Jones. Just over a minute later Stephan Leblanc would score for the Rock to close the gap. Tyler Carlson answered back at the 8:33 mark to keep the Rock at bay. Nineteen seconds later Stephan Leblanc would strike again to keep the Rock in the game. Riding that momentum teammate Shayne Adams would score to keep bring the Rock to within two. Nick Weiss would would score for Peterborough to end the period with a 7-4 lead heading into the final period.
With a never say die attitude the Rock came out in the final period fired up. Damon Edwards scored to open things up at the 2:05 mark, off an assist from Ethan O’Connor. Matt Crough would get into the goal scoring action to keep things even for the period. Mike Mawdsley and Leblanc would score back-to-back goals for Oakville to bring the Rock within one. Steenhuis would put the game away for Peterborough off a Jones assist at the 17:37 mark.
Now, Peterborough moves onto a 2-0 record and Oakville will start their season at 0-1. With a lot of games left for both teams, it’s going to be an action packed MSL season. The Lakers next game is home this Thursday against Brooklin.
The Rock will play at home again next Monday against Six Nations.
