Peterborough Lakers To Play Six Nations Chiefs In Rematch of MSL Finals

History repeats itself for the Peterborough Lakers as they will face the Six Nations Chiefs in the Major Series Lacrosse (MSL) final in a rematch of last year determined on Thursday.

The Lakers defeated the Chiefs last year in six games in a best-of-seven series last postseason in the MSL final. Photo courtesy of David Pickering and the Peterborough Lakers.

The Lakers had already punched their ticket to their eighth-consecutive final after sweeping the Brooklin L.C. on Tuesday. Six Nations capped off their semifinal series with an 11-3 rout of the Cobourg Kodiaks, winning the series 4-1 on Thursday night.

Six Nations had already clinched first place in the regular season when they defeated the Lakers in a 9-8 overtime thriller at the Peterborough Memorial Centre on July 20.

Peterborough found themselves as the second seed while Six Nations was the regular-season champions which was the same position as last year’s. The Lakers were able to triumph over the Chiefs in six games. Another similarity from last year is that the Chiefs had the series lead last year during the regular season, winning three of four games, the same as this year.

“When you're the team that's at the top and they're trying to knock you off, it's really important to focus on our group and what we can do to continue to be better and I think the league gets better every year,” said Paul Day, Lakers general manager in a prior interview.

One of Six Nations’ key changes was the return of Lyle Thompson. He was under contract with the Premiere Lacrosse League (PLL) but took a sabbatical for the 2023 season. Last year, the PLL implemented a clause in their player contracts that barred them from playing in summer lacrosse leagues such as the MSL. It was the same reason Jake Withers of the Lakers could not play in the Mann Cup for being on the PLL Waterdogs’s roster.

Thompson is a former number-one overall pick in the Major Lacrosse League and the National Lacrosse League. He was this year’s MSL League MVP, with 25 goals and 40 assists for 65 points. He also scored the first-place-clinching goal against the Lakers in overtime on July 20.

He is backed by brothers Austin and Randy Staats for the Chiefs whose stats have leapt from last season. The brothers have 47 and 48 points in the regular season respectively, a significant increase from 28 points and 16 in 2022.

The Lakers had a key departure in Shawn Evans who was traded to the Akwesasne Bucks Sr. B team in exchange for monetary compensation on June 14. Evans only dressed for one game with the Lakers this season.

Peterborough still holds firepower, showcasing their offensive weapon in Holden Cattoni as the league’s scoring leader with 28 goals and 50 assists respectively for 78 points. Turner Evans and Josh Currier were team leaders in points as second and third behind Cattoni with 61 and 48 points respectively.

A schedule for the MSL finals has yet to be released but the first game will be held at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena in Hagersville since Six Nations is higher-seeded than Peterborough.

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