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| Mike Mawdsley and the Oakville Rock beat KW 9-7, pulling into a tie with the Kodiaks for fourth in MSL. (Photo: Tim Prothero) |
The Oakville Rock stepped to the plate
and hit big double, taking a 9-7 win over the Kitchener-Waterloo
Kodiaks Monday night to finish off a home-and-home sweep of the
Kodiaks on consecutive nights. Rob Hellyer's hat trick and
Stephan Leblanc's 4 assists were key components as the Rock's
offensive leaders stepped up to help the team pull into a tie with KW
for the fourth and final playoff spot in Major Series Lacrosse.
Oakville Head Coach Phil Sanderson
was happy with his team's teams efforts all over the floor. “Both
ends. Robbie was our leader out there on offence along with Steph. I
thought Ethan O'Connor had a hell of a game for us, too. I
thought he took control for us in the back end. Brad Gillies
has been really good for us too lately. Those guys have been stepping
up for us big time.”
The teams were tied 3-3 after the first
period, then Oakville outscored KW 3-2 in each of the second and
third. Special teams were a big difference: Oakville went 4-6 on the
power play with two goals from Hellyer and transition markers from
O'Connor and Damon Edwards. KW went 0-6 with the man
advantage. The Kodiaks did get one shorthanded goal from Corey
Fowler, who led the team with 3 goals and 2 assists.
KW Head Coach Steve Dietrich
said there was another big difference between the teams. “Guys are
working hard. I can't take that away from them,” Dietrich said.
'Our defence is playing well and [goalie] Steve Fryer's giving
us a chance to win. But the best players in the game are the guys
that rise to the occasion when it's needed. You saw last night and
tonight that their best players did and ours didn't and that's
basically the difference.”
Both teams are now 5-8 with five games
left to play in the regular season. Sanderson said his team knew
coming into this week that they'd need to beat KW twice to have a
realistic shot at earning a postseason berth. Now the next step is to
win a pair against Brampton, who is sitting right behind both teams
at 4-9, starting this Thursday in Brampton. “What we started with
at the beginning of the week was win both against Kitchener and both
against Brampton, the two teams we're chasing,” Sanderson said. “So
if we can beat those guys we're in the right direction. Our goal is
to win three this week so come Thursday hopefully we can finish it
off.”
