Champions are champions and regardless if you are a league champ in your area,  you’re still a Champion.

In a game that was intense displaying exceptional goaltending at both ends of the floor and more tide changes that the Pacific, this game saw the Peterborough Lakers ride the crest of the wave till the final whistle.

Ontario’s Peterborough Lakers pulled out an impressive 14-10 in game six Friday night at the historic Queen’s Park in New West taking home their 15th Mann Cup trophy in front of a sell-out crowd in excess of 3.200 excited fans.

To the surprise of no one in the building BC’s Premier John Horgan was on hand supporting his Bellies and unlike other areas, he greeted many fans from his seat to the coffee shop and back, which took a while.

Through strong diligent play the Lakers managed to turn a a 2-0 series deficit into what some called a four game sweep capturing the National Championship in front of some very excited fans who made the trek west.

Over the first 12 minutes the teams traded goals that saw the Lakers managing to grab the lead back each time.

An impressive five-goal lead for the Lakers in just over eight minutes, all starting at the 4:42 mark in the first put them in the home stretch for the final victory.

Lakers Zach Currier hammered a rocket that saw the Lakers take a 4-3 lead only to be followed with another a minute later putting the Lakers up 5-3 on an impressive solo effort from 5’9” Shawn Evans, who turned out to be the tournament MVP.

He notched his third of the game just 26 seconds into the second shocking the Bellies fans only to be followed by markers from Adam Jones and Currier before the period was four-minutes old making it 8-3 for the Lakers putting them in the driver’s seat.

New West managed to get a couple of goals behind the stellar net-minding of Evan Kirk, but as quick as the Bellies replied, the Lakers got one on the return.

The third saw the ‘Bellies give a “drive to survive” and managed to somehow erase the five-goal deficit, with markers from Kevin Crowley and Logan Schuss making it 12-10.

To the surprise of Bellies fans it was the Lakers who managed to get two late goals, as New West netminder Tye Belanger was scrambling back to the crease after being pulled for a sixth attacker.

The final shot tally saw New West outshot the Lakers by a 59-50 margin but Kirk played exceptional with the Lakers’ defence keeping all Bellies shooters to the  outside near the wall.

Bellies veteran Ian Hawksbee mentioned “It was a tough series — hat’s off to them, they’re a fantastic team and we just couldn’t make the adjustments when we needed to. I’m proud of everyone in our dressing room, we battled hard but it’s a tough pill to swallow.”

Unfortunately, Ontario teams have a habit of shaking off 2-0 series deficits in the Mann Cup. Not being able to reverse the momentum swing, despite herculean efforts during patches of Games 3, 4 and 5, made the loss all the more unbearable.”

He continued “Our offence played incredible and you can’t blame any one part of our game for not coming out. With a few more wins we’d get the result we wanted (but) I’m kind of at a loss for words right now. This wasn’t what we were looking for.”

Evans, notched five goals and three assists on the night and 11 goals and 19 assists over the six games played mentioned “winning the championship in B.C. was extra special.”

Let’s not forget it was Evans that won the Mike Kelly MVP award in 2010 when the Lakers also defeated New West in six games in Ontario.

Curtis Dickson managed to tie Crowley with 14 goals which was a series-best and mentioned “Winning his first Mann Cup was an incredible experience.”

Let’s not forget that he comes from Port Coquitlam and was a member of the 2015 Lakers lineup that dropped six games in Victoria, but he did credit his teammates for shaking off the two opening losses and marching on with four straight victories.

Dickson mentioned to the media (which was sparse) “Going down 2-0 (in the series) there was still no doubt in our minds.”

Dickson also spent one season as a member of the Junior Salmonbellies and played a couple of Senior A games with New West in 2007 prior to being drafted by Maple Ridge.

Dickson mentioned “We just plugged away and this is probably the greatest moment in my lacrosse career. … It’s extra special. My dad (Derek) is in the crowd and he won a Mann Cup back in 1981 (with New West). I know he was pacing the floor and he may have been more nervous than I was.”

To the surprise of no one Delta product Logan Schuss grabbed the team’s player of the game award after leading New West scorers with four goals while both Crowley and Jones each netted two goals and four assists.

Jones also finished the series with 12 goals and 27 assists establishing a new Mann Cup scoring record for most points in a single series.

Lakers Adam Jones registered a hat trick and four assists earning Peterborough’s player of the game award.

Evans moved into sixth spot in all-time Mann Cup scoring with 134 points, out scoring Brother Scott and with his 19 assists it places him second overall with 99 over 32 games.

He only trails John Tavares’ 111 assists over 53 Mann Cup contests.

In conversation with the Lakers coaching staff them mentioned “We didn’t want to play Game 7, we wanted to end it tonight as we knew they were going to throw everything at us and we stuck together.”

They continued “They made it close near the end but we rebounded to get a couple of goals to give us that space. It was a big team win.”

Congrats to both teams for an exceptional series for exciting Mann Cup Lacrosse.