5,000 watch 15-14 indoor lacrosse final
By WILLY PALOV Sports Reporter
May 21, 2007
After a week of blowouts and mismatches, Canada and the Iroquois Nationals finally treated the fans in Halifax to an exciting demonstration of competitive lacrosse Sunday at the Metro Centre.
The underdog Nationals pushed the Canadians to the absolute limit in the gold medal game of the World Indoor Lacrosse Championship, narrowly losing a 15-14 overtime thriller in front of an estimated 5,000 fans. Had the Nationals won, it would have been a monumental upset but Jeff Zywicki scored 28 seconds into the extra period to deliver the win for Canada.
Brett Bucktooth scores against Canada in World Indoor Games.
“That was awesome,” Zywicki said of his winning goal. “There was kind of more of a sense of relief than happiness and excitement just because we were expected to win that game, so it was kind of like ‘We did. It’s over.’ They gave us a huge scare. They’re a great team and you’ve got to give the hats off to them for playing a great game.”
The Iroquois knew they had to use every tactic possible to have a chance to win and they threw the Canadians for a loop early when they went into a rarely used zone defensive formation. The strategy worked as Canada was unable to generate much offence in the early going.
“Most of us haven’t seen that since minor so it definitely took us some time to adjust to it,” said Canadian forward John Grant. “I don’t even think we did adjust to it, which is why I think we scored so few goals. But we got the ones that counted at the end and we’re lucky to escape here with our lives today.”
As the Canadians struggled to adjust, the Nationals made the most of the opening. They matched the Canadians goal for goal through the first 30 minutes and actually took an 8-7 lead into the half.
Even when the Canadians regrouped during the half-time break, the Nationals made yet another defensive adjustment to keep them off balance.
“Once we started figuring out how to beat (the zone), then they switched to man-to-man,” said Zywicki. “They played great defence and kept it close until the end. I mean, it was overtime so it was obviously a close game.”
The teams continued to trade goals all through the second half but a questionable call by the referees during a late scrum nearly sunk the Nationals. The refs sent two Iroquois players to the box after tempers flared in the Nationals’ crease, giving Canada a lengthy two-man advantage to try to erase a 13-12 Iroquois lead with just 4:04 left in the fourth quarter. Grant took matters into his own hands, scoring back-to-back power-play goals to put Canada ahead with just 2:16 to play.
“It was the referee’s call,” said Iroquois forward Brett Bucktooth, reluctant to inflame the controversy.
“They have a lot of great shooters and (we) talked about it at half time that we needed to eliminate our penalties. But it’s tough to do, not to play rough in a game like this. But the ref made the call at that point and unfortunately for us, we got two penalties and they didn’t get any.”
And when asked if the Canadians felt a little bit bad for the Iroquois at that point, Zywicki didn’t express any sympathy.
“Not really,” he said, “because I was the one on the bottom of it getting hit. I didn’t know what the second (penalty) was for but I know they deserved one for sure. But we were getting calls against us in the first quarter and the first half that were questionable. It was a couple of make-up calls, I guess.”
Jeff Zywicki of Canada celebrates his game winning goal over Nationals 15-14.
Fortunately for the Nationals, they still had one last bit of drama left in them. Dean Hill scored a clutch goal with just 56.6 seconds to play, tying the game at 14-14 to send it into overtime.
But their luck ran out in the extra period when Canada won the opening face-off and scored on that possession.
“It was a tough loss but it was a great game by both sides and all it came down to was one shot. That was the difference,” said Bucktooth, who was a force on offence, scoring a hat trick and driving hard to the Canadian net all afternoon.
“I think what really killed us was penalties. They capitalized on the power play. I think they scored on seven of 10 of their chances so that really killed us.”
Said Grant: “They scared the heck out of us. All in all, I thought it was a great game for the fans and Halifax was treated to one of the best games I’ve played in. It was exciting from start to finish and I was glad to be a part of it.”
“We’re a bit older and we had more experience, I think. They brought a young squad and they were fiery and they worked hard. I think just at the end I just think we had a little bit more in the tank, a little bit more experience.”
Players from both sides agreed that the tournament was a huge success and made special mention of how the crowd seemed to really get caught up in the excitement of the final game.
“It was good and loud,” said Grant. “The crowd definitely helped us. When we scored those couple goals at the end, they were standing up and we were standing up. It was exciting. Overtime sucks for one team and it’s great for the other and luckily we were the team that raised the cup today.”
Said Bucktooth: “It was very supportive for both sides. I don’t think you could ask for a better turn-out.”
Note: Congrats to the Nationals!
Mike Thompson – Akwesasne, Ken Montour – Six Nations, Mike Attwood – St.Catharines,Doug Noganosh – Mnjikaning, Sid Smith – Six Nations, Ryan McComber – Kahnawake, Clay Kirby – Kahnawake, Daryl Seymour – Akwasasne,Marshall Abrams – Onondaga, Travis Hill – Fort Erie, Tom Montour – Six Nations, Kent Squire-Hill – Six Nations,Kyle Jamieson – Six Nations, Andrew Lazore – Akwesasne, Dean Hill – Six Nations, Cory Bomberry- Six Nations, Cody Jamieson – Six Nations, Andy Secoreg – Hamilton, Gewas Schindler- Onondaga, Brett Bucktooth – Onondaga, Craig Point – Six Nations, Delby Powless – Six Nations, Roger Vyse – Six Nations.