Rivermen Edge Merchants and Take Series Lead

By Mark Stehlin

Fans witnessed a second consecutive tight contest between these rivals on Friday night at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena (ILA). Game one in the series was held at the Iroquois Park Sports Centre (IPSC) and the Six Nations Rivermen defeated the Brooklin Merchants 8-4. Games two and three shifted to the ILA. In game two, the Merchants evened the series with a 10-9 win. That win maintained the streak of each side winning all games, regular season and playoffs, in their opponents rink. With last night’s 11-10 win by the Rivermen they broke that pattern and took a 2-1 series lead.

“Tonight was about taking one step forward and two steps back for us, a clear example of that was we were trailing 7-5 going into the third and we scored early on the power play. Then they came back with two quick goals each directly after a face-off to put us behind further. We felt that a few calls went against us, but we know we have to fight through that adversity,” said head coach Ryan Degerdon.

“So now we face a must win at home on Sunday night, we need to clean up a few things like being less careless with the ball and cutting down some small mental mistakes. Our message to the boys will be clear. Take the game to them early, press them on defense and run them on offense. With our youth and speed if we can control the pace in our favour we will be fine,” added Degerdon.

It was the Rivermen who struck early with a pair of goals for a quick 2-0 lead. Zac Carrigan, with a short-handed marker and his first of an incredible six goals on the night, allowed the Merchants to close the gap at the end of the first period. 

With the Rivermen up 2-1 they scored an early power play marker to open the lead. On goals by Landen Sinfield, followed by two in a row from Carrigan, gave the Merchants a slim 4-3 lead. The Rivermen countered with four unanswered to regain the lead and the scoreboard showed 7-4 in favour of Six Nations. Carrigan wasn’t done as he took a feed from Carter Page and Owen Wills to score late in the middle frame to send the teams to the room with a 7-5 lead for the home side.

It was Carrigan again as he potted a power play marker a mere 24 seconds off the opening face off to start the third period. The aforementioned two straight goals by the Rivermen gave them a lead they would not relinquish. The Merchants, trailing 11-8 reeled off two late to make it 11-10 but that would be the final score on the night. The teams will meet on Sunday night at 6:00 p.m. at the IPSC for game four. The Merchants will look to build momentum off those two late goals and secure a home win to even the series and force a game five on Monday night back at the ILA.