On Saturday the Canadian Lacrosse League ventured away from their own arenas and played a regular season game at the beautiful Cobourg Community Centre. The game featured the Durham TurfDogs taking on the Brampton Inferno in a battle for third place. It coincided with the Northumberland Nemesis’ minor lacrosse registration and included all day activities inside the building.
This really helped attendance as 1014 people piled into the arena, a number we’re not used to seeing at CLax games.
The fans were treated to an amazing back and forth game that came right down to the wire. In the second quarter it looked like the TurfDogs were going to run away with the game but the Inferno fought back with a strong second half. The turning point of this game occurred late in the in the first quarter when Brampton’s starting goaltender Steve Fryer was knocked out of the game by his own teammate.
The game was tied at three with two minutes left in the second quarter when Brampton’s Ben McCullough smoked Durham’s Nic Grasby’s into Fryer. The hit knocked Grasby’s helmet off and he lay on the turf for a little bit before being helped off by the trainer. Even worse though was the fact that Fryer had to be helped to the room and although he returned to the bench in the second half, he did not see any more action in goal. Jay Preece finished the game for Brampton but had a shaky start.
The first two shots that Preece faced were penalty shots and they both went in. CLax rules state that if two players are already in the box and a third penalty is called, it results in an automatic penalty shot.
Durham would go on to score three more unanswered before the Inferno finally got one back late in the quarter when Pat Saunders completed his first hat trick; swinging the momentum Brampton’s way at halftime.
The score was 8-4 going into the third quarter but that would all change very quickly. After a Blake Kenny goal early in the frame, Preece finally found his groove thus allowing his team to get back into the game. Brampton would go on to score four unanswered goals, bringing the Inferno to within one. Scott Defrancesco would restore the two goal lead for Durham on a play created by Nic Grasby’s hard work. Grasby had the ball on the boards with three TurfDogs all over him. He broke free with a double spin move before firing the ball down low to Defrancesco who quick sticked it into the back of the net.
The Inferno would score two more unanswered goals to tie the game going into the fourth and final quarter. Ryan Campbell popped one in just a minute twenty into the frame and the Inferno would take their first lead of the game. The lead was short lived however as Durham came right back with two quick ones. Pat Saunders scored his seventh goal of the game to briefly tie it up but then the Inferno would run out of gas. Defrancesco would get his hat trick moments later, giving him four points on the night. The TurfDogs sealed the deal with two empty net goals and would take this game by a final score of 15-12.
Pat Saunders led all scorers in this game with an incredible seven goal effort but I’m sure he would have traded each of those in for a win. Nic Grasby was the main man on the other side as he notched three goals while adding five assists.
These two teams will face off again next Saturday at the GM Centre in Oshawa, a game that can be heard live at 2pm on the Lacrosse Radio Network.
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