VICTORIA (CP) - String up the banner.
The Victoria Shamrocks were up, they were down, but they won their eighth Mann Cup championship with a 9-8 overtime victory over the Peterborough Lakers in Game 6 of the best-of-seven series on Friday night at Bear Mountain Arena.
"To win it like that, it's just amazing," said Rich Catton, who had never been past the first round of playoffs, before joining the Shamrocks for his 12th Western Lacrosse Association season. "These guys are a bunch of winners."
Victoria's Ryan Ward scored five goals and two assists in the game, which was the head-to-head battle everyone had expected, after the teams had exchanged lopsided victories in the previous two contests. The consensus, after Victoria's low-key 10-5 loss in Game 5, was that the Shamrocks were going to have to run to be successful.
"We have to run, and pick up loose balls, and not let them play their game," Shamrocks assistant coach Art Webster said.
He described the fifth-game melt-down, when the 'Rocks had their first chance to wrap up the Mann Cup, as more nerves than anything else. "(The Lakers) have a solid defence, they have a great offence, an awesome power play, and good goaltending," Webster said. "They're a very good team. We're very well matched. We have to play our best to win."
The Shamrocks best showed up in a 3-1 lead by the end of the first period. Tearing around to create more chances on offence, while denying the Peterborough's shooters at the other end, the Shamrocks outplayed the Lakers through 20 minutes. Ward went outside, inside, and every which way to come up with three first-period goals, shaking off a defender and diving to the floor on the third one.
"It's tough to win four games in the other team's building," Lakers captain Jason Clark said. "Hat's off to them, they're a very classy team. They played very well."
Ward added his fourth at 5:10 of the second period, but Peterborough started to come alive, particularly on defence. On several occasions, the shot clock ran out, before the Shamrocks could manage a shot on goalie Pat O'Toole.
When they did get through, O'Toole was a stubborn wall.
"Paddy O'Toole, he's the key to our success," said Scott Evans, who scored three goals, including the Lakers' only goal in the first period, on the power play. "If Paddy plays well, our team seems to feed off his energy."
After Ward scored in the second period, the teams exchanged a couple of power-play goals. Dan Carey got one for Peterborough, and Sean Pollock answered for Victoria, but the last half of the second period belonged to the Lakers. Dan Carey made it 5-3 at 16:49, and Scott Evans, ever dangerous got the Lakers to within one at 19:28. O'Toole had made two great saves, and the Lakers flew down on a fast break, allowing Evans to get in alone on Shamrocks netminder Anthony Cosmo.
The Lakers, who won every one of 11 face offs through two periods, almost scored again in the final minute, as Cosmo didn't see the loose ball bouncing around the crease, until it was almost too late.
In the third period, Shawn Evans, who was dynamite killing off Peterborough power plays all night, quick-sticked a rebound into the Victoria net, and John Grant gave the Lakers their first lead of the night, 6-5, and added another one 24 seconds later.
The soldout crowd erupted, when Dan Dawson, at 9:01, and Ward, on the power play at 17:04, tied the game 7-7.
In the 10-minute overtime, the Shamrocks' defence ruled with classic control. It was Catton, who scooped a loose ball deep in the Victoria zone, and plunged down the floor to set up a goal by Lewis Ratcliff at 2:41 that gave the Shamrocks the edge, 8-7. As the extra period wound down, defenceman John Gallant whipped around using up the clock, before taking a shot on O'Toole that rebounded directly to Derek Malawsky, who went high to score the winner at 8:54. With eight seconds to play, Steve Evans got one back for Peterborough, but it was all over.
"It's the sweetest feeling I've every had," Nolan Heavenor said. "It's unbelieveable."
NOTES: Dave Watson, the Shamrocks volunteer in charge of ticket sales, had 78 calls on his answering machine before Game 5 from fans who got his home phone number out of the phone book. Despite pleading for "just one" ticket, all latecomers were turned away for the fifth and sixth games, which were completely sold out. . . The Lakers had expected forward Mike Accursi to be back in the lineup on Friday, but he didn't make it. Accursi, who scored six points in the first two games of the series, had to return to St. Catharines for his teaching job, then was reportedly kept at home because of a death in the family. . . Western Lacrosse Association referee Ron Crosato estimated this has been his 13th Mann Cup series, starting with the first one he worked in 1979. Crosato has worked more than 500 games in his career.