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The Peterborough Century 21 Lakers are now on the brink of elimination in the 2025 Major Series Lacrosse playoffs after dropping three straight games to the Brooklin Lacrosse Club. Their latest setback came Thursday at the Memorial Centre with an 8-7 overtime loss.
The Lakers rallied from a three-goal deficit to force overtime, but Will MacLeod scored the game-winning goal with 2:43 remaining in the 10-minute sudden death period. Peterborough must win the next two games to advance to the MSL Finals.
“We came together in the third period and the fans rallied around behind us,” said defender Colton Armstrong. “Obviously, it’s a pretty tough loss in overtime but it’s a one-shot kind of game. They had their runs, we had our runs, and they just got a lucky bounce there at the end… We have some time to rest up but we’ll be ready Wednesday and then we’re going to make sure we’re going to Game 7 back here in front of all the fans.”
The teams were tied 1-1 after the first period. Holden Cattoni scored for the Lakers on a flip pass from Mike Robinson, while Ryan Barnable responded for Brooklin with a crease dive goal.
Brooklin pulled ahead early in the second period, scoring three goals in just over a minute. However, the Lakers stopped the run when Thomas Hoggarth finished a pass from Joe Resetarits to get on the board.
Late in the period, Barnable completed his hat trick and MacLeod added his second goal, giving Brooklin a 6-2 lead. The Lakers responded with two goals in the final 24 seconds, narrowing the gap to two. Joe Resetarits scored off a rush with Johnny Pearson following a Ben Trumble faceoff win. Shortly after, Hoggarth converted a Cattoni pass after another Trumble faceoff win. Despite this momentum, the period ended before the Lakers could close the gap further.
“They’re young, they’re kind of pushing us around and I think we’re sitting back, we’re not being aggressive like we were in Game 1,” Armstrong said. “We just have to get back to fundamentals and just kind of be the Lakeshow, be who we are. Get out on hands, make sure they’re not shooting the ball, help Rosey out, get the ball to the offence and let them do their work.”
Peterborough outscored Brooklin 3-1 in the third period. Connor Kearnan scored shorthanded for Brooklin, extending their lead to three, but Braedon Saris scored twice on power plays to cut it back to one. Cattoni’s second goal tied the game, sending the 2,413 fans in the Memorial Centre into a frenzy.
The Lakers outshot Brooklin 20-8 in the third period as they pushed hard for the go-ahead goal.
“It was the fifth game in eight days for the teams,” Armstrong noted. “I think you can see on both teams, the first period, second period, you can see both teams are getting tired. But the fans sparked us [in the third]; we were kinda lackadaisical all game and then there in the third every loose ball we were clamping down on. I think we had about four or five resets in the one end and we had offence changing because they were tired. We kept going, we kept grinding.”
Brooklin’s Zach Higgins made 55 saves on 62 shots. Lakers goalie Nick Rose stopped 39 of 47.
After a hectic series pace, the teams have a break before Game 6, scheduled for Wednesday, August 13 at Iroquois Park Sports Centre in Whitby. If necessary, Game 7 will be played Thursday, August 14 at the Memorial Centre.
