NLL Insider

We’re coming off a couple really high profile games out west that shookup the National Ranking in just the second week of throwing up the Top 10 teams in the country.

New West’s 9-8 win over the previously ranked number two team in Canada, the Coquitlam Adanacs, looked like it woulda shot them up the National Ranking pretty nicely, that was until they dropped a bit of a stinker a couple nights later against the third from last place team in the province, the Nanaimo Timbermen. It was definitely a bit of a downer after the huge win over the A’s mid-week.

On the other hand, the Victoria Shamrocks not only won their big clash of the weekend against Burnaby, 9-8, they also dropped the PoCo Saints a day later, avenging an OT loss to Port Coquitlam from a couple weeks back.

What does that tell us about BC? Well, like Cayle Ratcliff pointed out in our first player blog last week, Jr. A ball in BC this summer is about as tight and unpredictable as the pro season that just passed us by. Victoria, Coquitlam, New Westminster and Burnaby are separated by just four points, with second place Coquitlam owning a game in-hand on all three.

Ontario and Alberta however still have teams with unbeaten runs sitting at the top of the standings.

Six Nations and Orangeville are 8-0 and 6-0 respectively, but that won’t last long when the two meet at the ILA this coming Friday night. It’s easily the most anticipated game in the province, if not the country, so far this year.

Ditto for the Eclipse in Edmonton, who ran off their fourth straight win to start the year against the Jr. Raiders last night. The win puts them at 4-0 and first in the province.

Check out the complete breakdown of the National Junior A Rankings below for week two…

(1) Six Nations Arrows (OLA) 8-0-0
Last Week: 1
Past Week: 9-2 win over Toronto, 10-8 win over KW, 9-2 win over Orillia

The Arrows weren’t really playing the cream of the crop this past week, but they still outscored their opponents 28-12 while going 3-0 and easily keeping their spot at the top of the OLA standings. Cody Jamieson is killin’ the scoring charts and Angus Goodleaf leads the country with an anorexic 4.16 GAA. They got a bit of a scare from the KW Braves, who were leading the Arrows 7-5 three minutes into the third, but in stepped Jamieson, who scored a hat-trick in the next four minutes and all but sealed the deal.

(2) Orangeville Northmen (OLA) 6-0-0
Last Week: 3
Past Week: 14-3 win over Mississauga, 8-5 win over KW

They smoked Missy in a penalty filled affair with backup Dillon Ward between the pipes and then held off the Braves last night to keep their record squeaky clean. Right now, the Northmen are getting good, consistent, gutsy performances from across the board and we haven’t even seen Adam Jones yet. Friday night’s visit to the ILA will probably dictate who holds the top spot in the National Ranking at this time next week.

(3) Victoria Shamrocks (BCJALL) 9-2-0
Last Week: 4
Past Week: 9-8 win over Burnaby, 8-4 win over Port Coquitlam

Well, the BCJALL might be the tightest and up in the air we’ve seen in years, but Victoria is definitely playing the most consistent ball of “the big four” right now. Their 2-0 week marked the return of Cory Conway after the NLL rookie rested up from his pretty impressive pro debut. Conway sparked his return with a nine point week, taking all of a shift to get back in sync with the boys. And Casey Jackson… WOW!! The kids been lights out as a Int. call-up for the Shamrocks, ownin’ a deadly outside blast. 18 points in five starts, come on man! And rumour has it that Mike Pires will be back this week when Victoria and Coquitlam throw-down in BC’s monster clash of the week. Should be a beauty in a battle that will no doubt have a major impact on next week’s countdown.

(4) Coquitlam Adanacs (BCJALL) 8-2-0
Last Week: 2
Past Week: lost to New West 9-8, 14-4 win over Delta

The Adanacs look like they’re gonna be a tough team to figure out. They’ve definitely got the personnel to not only win the BC crown and likely even the Minto, but with an 0-2 record against the top teams in the province (Burnaby, New West and Victoria) and an offense that still hasn’t found their groove, the Adanacs haven’t lived up to the praise most were pouring on them coming into 08. This week’s game against Victoria is kinda a must-win considering how bottom heavy their sked is this season. With a whack of games against current above .500 clubs to finish up the regular season, the Adanacs have gotta figure out now how to beat the best in the province, preferably prior to July. Thankfully for them right now though, they’re at least droppin’ the teams they’ve expected to beat, which means a lot when points are being counted up at the end of the day. It was pure murder the other night against Delta and hopefully a bit of a turning point as Coquitlam tries to play at the level most expected they would this summer. They’ve been better than good, but not great yet.

(5) Burnaby Lakers (BCJALL) 7-4-0
Last Week: 5
Past Week: lost 9-8 to Victoria

Their 9-8 scoreline mighta made things look a bit closer than they really were, but dropping a game to arguably the best team in the province, Victoria, isn’t the worst thing that coulda happened this past week for the Lakers, especially with Chase Williams getting nailed with that ten minute misconduct in the opening minutes of the game (ditto for Milling in the second). With New West tripping over themselves after the Coquitlam win and Ontario’s teams behind Six Nay and the ‘Ville not really playing all that consistent, the Lakers keep the five spot this week, but just barely. With the Shamrocks at Copeland on Sunday evening, a win easily keeps ‘em in the hunt. Staying outta the box and connecting in man-up situations will be huge in the re-match. Gotta worry about getting to Flindell early no matter what else is goin’ on on the floor too.

(6) New Westminster Salmonbellies (BCJALL) 7-4-0
Last Week: 7
Past Week: 16-3 win over Delta, 9-8 win over Coquitlam, lost 9-4 to Nanaimo

Really didn’t wanna move the Bellies up this week, but they kinda lucked out based on what teams around them in the rankings did in recent play. The Coquitlam win was no doubt big, but then to lose to the T-Men the way they did, it kinda nixed that Adanacs victory to say the least. Nanaimo, who’ve actually looked great of late, took it to ‘em from start to finish and just handcuffed New West to an outside game that they couldn’t get goin’. With Curtis Manning and Sean Tessarolo back in the mix playin’ FT ball, much is expected from the Salmonbellies from here on out. They need a 2-0 week this week, which would include a big rematch against the T-Men on the 8th. Still super impressed by Max Gallant, who torched Weber for three in that big win.

(7) Peterborough Lakers (OLA) 4-2-2
Last Week: 8
Past Week: 6-1 win over Toronto, 9-9 tie with Orillia

After dusting off the Beach, The Lake Show ran into a pretty amped Orillia team that some say probably deserved the win over Peterborough, a game ending in a 9-9 tie with both sides trading markers in OT. That spark-plug Jesse Guerin keeps impressin’ the hell outta people. Dude posts four and a quarter per and his average has him second in the province and fifth in the country, not too shabby when you look at the names on that list. In games decided by two or fewer goals, which for the Lakers includes three in OT, Peterborough sits 2-0-2, and that’s still without Brock Sorenson in the lineup. The ‘Borough has three this week before their biggest test of the year, the Six Nations Arrows, on the 10th. As long as they don’t get ahead of themselves over the next seven days, the Lakers could be just a couple points outside of the top spot in the OLA.

(8) Akwesasne Indians (OLA) 5-2-1
Last Week: 6
Past Week: 7-1 loss against St. Catharines, 12-10 win over Brampton

That penalty filled clash with St. Kitts really halted a pretty nice streak the Indians had been running with since the second week of May. It definitely wasn’t their best performance of the season, and although they’re still in the top ten, they’ll need two pretty impressive performances this coming weekend against Missy and Orillia, if they wanna hang around for a third straight week. Pete Jacobs seems to still be making adjustments to his game after coming back from his rook gig in Portland. Interesting stat… even though Jacobs has only logged in four starts this summer, the Indians are 2-0-0 when he’s scored over the past week and 0-1-1 when he’s held goalless. Coindicence? There’s too many good O guys on this team to drop any more games like we saw against the A’s, but with their double this weekend and a monster clash with Six Nations on the horizon, we should find out soon how legit the Indians are this year.

(9) Edmonton Eclipse (RMLL) 4-0-0
Last Week: 9
Past Week: 9-8 win over Calgary Raiders (Jr. A)

It wasn’t pretty, but the Eclipse kept things perfect with a big win over the Jr. Raiders yesterday in Edmonton’s lone game this past week. Tender Kyle Kowalchuk pulled the W outta the fire a number of times, stopping several scoring chances by Calgary on the press. Outside of Kowalchuk’s play in net, the rest of Edmonton’s game just wasn’t clicking, but was still good enough to land them their fourth consecutive win to start the season. The Eclipse will tangle with the Jr. Raiders again on Saturday night and will no doubt need a more consistent performance if they wanna keep their perfect record intact.

(10) St. Catharines Athletics (OLA) 3-3-1
Last Week: Unranked
Past Week: 8-8 tie with Whitby, 7-1 win over Akwesasne

This last spot was a toss up between the A’s, PoCo Saints and Whitby Warriors, but St. Kitts’ dominating(ish) win over the Indians and gutsy loss to Orangeville just over a week ago, was enough to land ‘em the ten spot on the National Ranking. Defensively, the A’s have been solid for most of the year, and now that their O seems to be gelling and playing more composed & smarter versus even just a couple weeks ago, the Athletics look like they could be the dark horse team in the East that a lotta people had them pegged as heading into the season. Can they keep the momentum runnin’ though? Over the next ten days St. Catherines has five games on the docket, including Wednesday’s game against the unbeaten Northmen. This next little stretch could dictate where these guys are headed in 08. And for those that haven’t noticed yet, looks like Joey Resetarits is doin’ just fine following in his bro’s footsteps. The Hamburg native, Albany U freshmen and Under Armour HS All-American, has looked pretty slick in his transition from field to box, leading the team in goals scored.

Previous Week’s National Junior A Ranking Leaders
Week 1 Six Nations Arrows

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