Home Sports Whitby Warriors answer back to tie series with Six...

Whitby This Week

WHITBY — Well, we’ve got ourselves a series.

The Whitby Warriors have climbed back to even ground after digging themselves a hole against the Six Nations Arrows in the Ontario Jr. A lacrosse championship series. Down two games to zero, the Warriors have squared things with a pair of wins, including an 8-7 nailbiter on Tuesday night in front of a packed Iroquois Park Sports Centre.

A three-goal run in the third period, including a pair of power-play markers, put the Warriors up 8-5 with under five minutes to go. But a pair of goals by Six Nations in 24 seconds brought them to within one. Six Nations hit a post with 21 seconds left, and Warriors goaltender Alexis Buque stopped the next shot to secure the win.

Head coach Derek Keenan spoke about the character of his lacrosse club after Tuesday’s win, coupled with a 12-10 victory in Six Nations on Sunday.

“We didn’t have a lot of adversity the first two rounds, then all of a sudden you are down two to nothing and what kind of team are we going to be?” he said of the question posed to his team. “Are we going to fold up and say goodbye in four, or are we going to persevere?

“We’ve got a lot of guys in that room who want to win a championship. It would have been pretty easy to fold it up, especially going there down two to nothing. That’s a tough place to go and we managed to get a big win. I think that showed a lot of character. Those are character wins from character players in our room.”

The series shifts back to Six Nations for Game 5 on Thursday, followed by Game 6 Friday night in Whitby at 8 p.m. A seventh game, if needed, will be held in Six Nations on Sunday.

The offence was carried by the veteran core on Tuesday, as Dan Lintner scored four times, Reilly O’Connor had two goals and four assists, while Curtis Knight scored twice and added an assist. Mike McDonald also had a productive night with five assists, while Ryan Keenan chipped in with three.

The Warriors never trailed in the game at any point, leading 2-1 after the first period, and deadlocked 4-4 through two periods. Tied 5-5 midway through the third, O’Connor netted his second of the game, and 42 seconds later, Lintner got his hat trick, adding his fourth of the night with just 4:36 remaining in the game for an 8-5 lead. Goals by Six Nations with 3:07 and 2:43 left set up a frantic finish.

“Honestly, I didn’t think we had our best tonight,” said Keenan of his team’s play. “I thought defensively and Buque were outstanding. I thought offensively we only had one five-on-five goal, so we have to get to the middle of the floor. We need to play with a little more speed and jam.

“We didn’t seem to have it tonight. (Six Nations) didn’t seem to either. We took a lot away from them, but it could be that the offensive guys are wearing down a little bit.”

Keenan added that his team’s good defensive play started to come around in the 12-10 win in Game 3 and carried over into Tuesday’s homefloor win.

The winner of the series earns a ticket to the Minto Cup. This year’s Canadian championship tournament is being held in New Westminster, British Columbia from Aug. 17-26.

Home Sports Whitby Warriors answer back to tie series with Six...