Excels dominate game seven for Mann spot, John Grant has emergency surgery

Major Series Lacrosse, Road to the Mann Cup

Excels dominate game seven for Mann spot, John Grant has emergency surgery

August 29th, 2008 by Paul Tutka

The Brampton Excelsiors dominated an intense Game 7 last night, dropping the Peterborough Lakers 7-2 and snapping the Lakers’ four-year MSL champ streak, which also included three Mann Cup wins.

The Excelsiors will now host this year’s Mann Cup against the WLA champion New Westminster Salmonbellies, who posted one of the most impressive regular seasons and playoffs the Senior game has ever witnessed.

Game 1 of the Mann Cup is expected to start next Friday night at the Powerade Centre in Brampton at 7:30PM.

The Lakers lackluster offense, which was without forwards John Grant and Josh Gillam, could not muster up much production and although the effort seemed there, they just continuously couldn’t connect.

The loss of Grant, who had emergency surgery on Thursday afternoon, obviously didn’t help matters for Peterborough’s O.

Grant, who had injured his elbow earlier this summer and had it drained just prior to the start of the series against Brampton, recently also had an infection set it, which spread from his elbow all the way to his leg, forcing yesterday’s surgery just prior to the start of that all-important Game 7.

Although it’s not known exactly how severe the injury and infection is at this point, Peterborough Head Coach, Jamie Batley, told the Peterborough Examiner that Grant would have likely missed a minimum of two weeks had the Lakers found their way into the Mann Cup again.

Grant had also broken three fingers earlier this summer, but continued to play for both Peterborough and the Rochester Rattlers, who he won last weekend’s MLL championship with, just days after being named the league’s MVP for the second straight year.

Gillam was out with a severe ankle sprain, one which the Examiner reports was about as close to a full break as you could get.

“You have to give credit where credit is due,” Peterborough forward Tracey Kelusky told the Examiner. “(Brampton) played an outstanding game. Offensively, we didn’t pull our weight. The games we lost we didn’t do the job offensively.

“(Grant and Gillam) are two big names. Their loss psychologically affected us. We came out last time and did the job and got everyone incorporated. We tried to do that tonight, but their defence did a really good job.”

The game was a goaltender showcase, with both Brampton’s Anthony Cosmo and Peterborough Pat O’Toole playing out of their minds all night.

“I thought the goaltending at both ends was really, really good,” Brampton Head Coach Troy Cordingley explained to the Examiner. “We got a lot of shots on Patty, quality shots. I thought Cos was phenomenal. We got some really good goaltending when we needed it.”