The Maple Ridge Burrards were eliminated from the Mann Cup by the Peterborough Lakers in a four-game sweep that ended with a 11-8 loss on Tuesday night.
The @PtboLakersLax are your #MannCup2018 Champions!! Defeating @Brooklin_Redmen in 4-3, @OakvilleRock 4-2, and the @Burrardslax in the finals 4-0! Congrats!!
— Mann Cup 2018 (@MajorSeriesLax) September 12, 2018
Peterborough’s Corey Small, a familiar foe who was a four-time WLA all-star with the Victoria Shamrocks over seven seasons, scored just 32 seconds into the game. Dan Taylor answered for the Burrards at 3:16, but Small restored the lead as the Vancouver Stealth NLL star got his second of the game.
The Lakers ran the lead to 4-1, but with Taylor scoring his second of the game, and Ben McIntosh scoring in the final minute of the period on the power play, the first period ended in a 5-3 Lakers advantage.
The second period started with a Burrards power play and a Curtis Dickson goal, from Taylor and McIntosh, just a minute and change into the period. Then Dickson, the former Laker, knotted the game at 5-5 midway through the second.
The Lakers took the lead a minute later, and a bench minor for too many men cost the Burrards a power play goal to put them down two.
Riley Loewen scored for the Burrards with 23 seconds left, and the Burrards went into the second intermission down 7-6.
The Burrards again tied the game early in the third period on a goal by Jean-Luc Chetner, but the Lakers got the next three tallies for a lead they would never relinquish.
Burrard Owen Barker cut the lead to 10-8 with an unassisted goal, but the Lakers scored into an empty net to win 11-8.
Happening right now!! pic.twitter.com/PVm7rcNRlj
— Mann Cup 2018 (@MajorSeriesLax) September 12, 2018
Taylor led the Burrards with two goals and three assists, Mike Mallory had a goal and three assists and Dickson had two goals and an assist. He also hit two goal posts.
Kyle Buchanan led the Lakers with a goal and eighth assists, while series scoring leader Shawn Evans had a goal and five points on the night. Evans, who claimed the Mann Cup’s all-time assist lead in the series, was named the tournament MVP.
GM Lance Andre said the Burrards were never at their best in the series.
“We came out flat, and we could never get our feet under us,” he said.
“Peterborough is obviously a great team. They won it last year and will be in the hunt again next year.”
Andre expects the core of the Burrards to stay together, for management to “add a few pieces,” to take another run at the Mann Cup next year.
“Next year we want to host it,” he said. “We could win it in front of our own fans.”
The Burrards finished fourth in league play after Dickson and McIntosh played for Canada at the 2018 FIL Men’s World Lacrosse Championship in Nentanya, Israel, winning silver.
Then they had a WLA great playoff run, sweeping the first-place New Westminster Salmonbellies four straight, and then beating the Victoria Shamrocks in five games to take the WLA championship and book their second trip to the Mann Cup in three seasons.
The WLA teams have not been able to win a Mann Cup in Ontario in 33 years. At the same time, the Major Series Lacrosse teams have come to B.C. and taken the cup in five of their last six trips.
In the last 13 Mann Cups, the MSL champs have won 12.
