SIX NATIONS – The Canadian Lacrosse League’s Creators Cup has left the Six Nations Territory. The Niagara Lock Monsters took advantage of a forth quarter collapse by the inaugural cup winners, the Ohsweken Demons, to win a 10-9 overtime thriller at the ILA Friday night.
The Demons had the game pretty well in the bag after scoring at 1:21 into the final quarter. But then, the wheels fell off the Demons fire-wagon and Niagara scored the final 4 goals in regulation time to send the game into OT. One minute and thirteen seconds later it was all over when Kavan Sullivan beat Jake Henhawk, low, for the winner.
“We just stopped playing,” said Murray Porter. “We had a 9-5 lead and they scored two quick goals, and we just stopped playing as a team.”
The Demons seemed to panic and forgot about their end of the floor and were caught more than a couple of times in transition, including the game winner in OT.
In the overtime period, coach Randy Chrysler put his powerplay unit in the floor hoping for a quick goal, but it backfired when Sullivan was sent in all alone on Henhawk for the winner.
The disappointment was palpable as most of the players immediately left the floor for the dressing room after the handshake line and couldn’t bear to watch Niagara hoist the Cup. Only four Demons politely watched the presentation in a show of good sportsmanship.
Meanwhile, the Lock Monsters and their fans took over the floor with smartphone pictures and cameras flashing.
Although a major disappointment after such a dominant regular season, in the longer run, the Cup going someplace else other than Six Nations may have been the best thing for the league itself.
In the inaugural year, it was the Demons who put their name on the new championship trophy first. The next year, the now defunct Six Nations Ironmen were the winners, but in both years the rest of the league teams were put out early and the two Six Nations franchises went head to head for the championship great for Six Nations fans, but not so much for the other franchises trying to build the new league.
Blue Hill opened the scoring at 10:30 of the first quarter with a backhander from Elijah Printup and Shane Francis.
Niagara evened the score at 12:28 with Andrew Potter’s goal, which is how the first quarter ended.
Roger Vyse and Alex Kedoh Hill scored two quick ones scored 12 seconds apart to begin the second quarter, both assisted by Travis Hill.
Brian Neufeld scored the Monsters’ second goal 31 seconds after that.
Kyle Isaacs restored the two goal advantage from Chris Attwood and Josh Johnson, but the Monsters regrouped and evened the score again with goals by Dylan Llord, with a great set up by Neufeld, and Andrew Potter’s second of the game scored low on Henhawk, from Neufeld.
Ohsweken’s Wayne VanEvery paid for the Demons 5th goal when he was crashed into the goalpost at the end of the play. Luckily, he was not injured badly and finished the game. The Demons led 5-4 at the half.
The Demons began to take charge early in the second half. Kedoh Hill made it 6-4, and Chris Attwood followed with the 7-4 marker.
Tim Bergan scored for the Lock Monsters but did not break the Demon’s momentum. Shane Francis made it 8-5 with a low side arm shot from Blue Hill and Roger Vyse to end the third quarter, 15 minutes away from winning the Creators’ Cup for the second time in three years.
Their expectations grew even greater when Chris Attwood opened the final frame at 1:20 from Kyle Isaacs and Travis Hill. It was 9-5 at that point and the beer was in the cooler. But then lightning struck at 7:17 and again at 7:51 with quick goals scored by the Monsters’ Brad Favero and Corey Fowler.
The Demons took a timeout to regroup, but it didn’t do much to calm down the Demons who played nervous the rest of the game.
Conner Daly sent a rocket under Henhawk’s free hand to put Niagara within one of the come back with 5:34 remaining.
The Demons were about an inch from adding their 10th goal when an Ohsweken ball rang off the post. Seconds later, Henhawk kept his team in it with a tremendous save on a breaking Monster in transition. But he could not dodge the bullet again when Favero scored low on Henhawk with 1:21 remaining to send the game the Demons thought they had sewn up, into OT.
After a brief intermission, they were back at it and the Demons were all in with their powerplay unit on the floor, which left their own end vulnerable. It took only 24 seconds for the Monster’s transitional game to take advantage of that and end the third CLax season with a new champion
