NLL Insider

Senior A

CLA Power Rankings : week 4

Just when you think you have a handle on things, it changes. Last week I mentioned how the top 3 teams in the West were pulling away from the pack. Suddenly the cold Victoria Shamrocks and hot Burnaby Lakers are going different directions in the standings. In the East the Brampton Excelsiors still look like the class of the league. After that it looks like St. Regis are the best bet for second but they can’t seem to pull away from a group of 4 teams with 3 victories. And even though the last place Six Nations Chiefs are falling behind at 1-7, they have still only lost two games by more than 2 goals. Not a lot changed at the top of the rankings but check out the jump by the Burnaby Lakers. READ MORE »

RMLL, Road to the Minto Cup

Fish Out of Water: Comparing box and field lacrosse

A lacrosse team is much like a quilt. Players from all over, patched together, all with the same goal in mind: win. Each player brings their own characteristics, their own skill and ability to the table in an attempt to mesh together for a greater purpose. Each player has different tendencies and different styles of play. This shows as each player takes the floor at their respective positions. Just like in field lacrosse each player molds to their position and, in turn, each position embodies a certain type of player. In the box, it is the same thing. Offense, transition, defense and goalie all have groups of players who follow stereotypes and fit their positions. READ MORE »

Road to the Minto Cup

Jr. A Player Poll: Ring Chasers and Holdouts

Despite everything we think we’ve been taught by the Seattle Mariners, the fact of the matter is that everybody always wants to win. For Junior lacrosse players in Canada there is no prize more prized than the Minto Cup, but the crux of the questions posed this week is just how important is that elusive ring? Does a chance at a championship supersede team loyalty? And how does the almighty dollar factor in? Those were the questions and here are the answers. READ MORE »

Ontario Junior A

Beaches and Chiefs pick up Monday night wins

The Toronto Beaches earned their third win in a big way last night, beating up on the Whitby Warriors 12-5. Carter Bender and Branden Collins scored three goals each while Stephen Keogh tapped in one goal and added four assists, and goaltender Shaun Palmer stopped 42 of 47. Mark Cockerton had two goals in the loss.

In the other Ontario Junior A game last night the Burlington Chiefs blew the game wide open in the first period, going up 9-2 and stretching that lead even further over the course of the game to end up with a 16-5 win over the Mississauga Tomahawks.

Kiel Matisz led the Chiefs with five goals and two assists, Kevin Brownell hurled in three and three, and Chris Moulson scored one and helped on four. It was Jason Crawford with the win in net. Todd Kozak had two goals for the Tomahawks.

National Ranking

National Junior A Ranking: Week 4

We’re four weeks into this thing and already onto our third number one ranked team.

This week? It’s gotta be the Coquitlam Adanacs.

For all the “faults” that their detractors bring up about their game, the Adanacs just keep winning, throwing up a pretty dominating third period to pinch off the Lakers last night.

With Six Nations still not too far off the Orangeville loss, plus barely edging out Akwesasne at home yesterday, and then Orangeville dropping their first to Brampton of all teams yesterday, Coquitlam gets the nod as this week’s top club, riding a pretty impressive five game win streak.

Anyways, the rest of this week’s top ten will be on your ol’ computer screen right after the jump… READ MORE »

B.C. Junior A

Big weekend in B.C. Junior A

The top four teams clashed in B.C. Junior A this weekend, with the first of the big match-ups happening Saturday night in Victoria with the Jr. Shamrocks taking on the New Westminster Salmonbellies. With a 10-7 overtime win over the Salmonbellies, the Shamrocks got a firmer grasp on second place and kept New West rooted in third.

Michael Pires continued his scoring tear with three goals, including one in overtime. Myles Kenny scored the other two overtime markers. Joel Henry and Cory Conway had one goal and three assists each and Matt Flindell turned away 42 Salmonbelly shots. Drew Duncan had two goals for New West, and Sean Tessarolo made 40 saves.

Sunday night the Coquitlam Adanacs took on the Burnaby Lakers and came out on top 8-5. Tied 4-4 after the second period, the Adanacs broke out in the third, outscoring the Lakers 4-1 to remain in first place. Michael Krgovich and Scott DeFrancesco had two goals and one assist each, and Joel Weber came up with 30 saves, including 11 in the third. Matt Wilson won 12 of his 14 faceoffs. Brock Armour, Alex Gajic, and Chase Williams had one goal and one assist each for the Lakers.

Additional weekend scores: READ MORE »

Major Series Lacrosse

Brampton is still setting the pace

The Brampton Excelsiors didn’t have a lot of offense earlier this week in a 7-6 win over Peterborough, but they got the weekend help they needed to maintain their spot at the top of the Major Series Lacrosse standings.

The help came down from St. Regis, where the Indians split yet another weekend of games, this time to Barrie. Saturday night, John Tavares had two goals and five assists to lead the Indians to a 10-8 win over the Lakeshores, but on Sunday, the Lakeshores rebounded. Matt Lyons scored four goals, including the eventual winner in a 10-8 decision for Barrie. The Indians had a bit of a scare over the weekend when Athan Iannucci left Saturday’s game with a strained knee. The sniper didn’t finish Saturday’s game and sat for Sunday’s game, but coach Darris Kilgour said that was mostly precautionary. But Barrie’s win kept the Indians (5-3) from gaining any ground on Brampton (6-1), whose only loss this season is to Kitchener-Waterloo.

In the other game this weekend, the addition of Lindsay Plunkett to Peterborough’s lineup produced just one goal by the new acquisition, but it was Matt Giles who scored the OT winner for a 13-12 decision over Six Nations on Sunday night.

• St. Regis is loaded with offense: Cornwall Standard Freeholder

WLA

Maple Ridge tops Nanaimo

It was a battle of the one-win teams last night in the WLA and with a 14-9 win over the Nanaimo Timbermen, the Maple Ridge Burrards got their second win of the season.

The Burrards 9-3 lead in the first was good enough to get them the win after being outscored 6-5 in the second and third. Reese Baillie had three goals in the all-important first period, finishing the game with five points after adding two assists. Peter Tellis had two goals and three assists, while Randy Daly and Derek Lowe had one goal and two helpers each. Garrett Kikot had three goals for the Timbermen, and Kaleb Toth had two goals and five helpers.

Saturday, June 14th

Burnaby Lakers 9 Coquitlam Adanacs 6 The suddenly surging Burnaby Lakers got big games out of Cam Sedgwick (3g 1a) and Andrew Leyshon (45 saves) to top the second place Adanacs and improve to 3-4 on the season.
New Westminster Salmonbellies 9 Nanaimo Timbermen 8 The top team in the league narrowly edged out the bottom, with Jamie Floris (2g 3a) scoring the game winner with three and a half minutes remaining to keep the Salmonbellies undefeated.

Friday, June 13th

Burnaby Lakers 9 Victoria Shamrocks 5 Not only was this the Shamrocks’ third loss in a row, it was also the third game in which they’ve been unable to score more than five. Taking a look at the bright side, it sounds like Teddy Jenner had a pretty goal.

Ontario Junior A

Brampton gives Orangeville first loss

Orangeville may have gotten the early jump in the game, but it was all Brampton to end it as the Excelsiors scored four in the third and held their opponents goalless to top the previously undefeated Northmen 7-5.

Cameron Flint had a pair in the pivotal third and Dylan Evans had two goals and two assists. Tyler Carlson made 31 saves in the win. For the Northmen, Deron Dempster had three goals. The game ended with some fireworks, as four players from each side earned fighting majors with less than 30 seconds left in regulation.

The other top team in Ontario Junior A, the Six Nations Arrows, inched out a win over the Akwesasne Indians 9-8. After going up 7-1 after the first period, the Arrows had to fight off a five-goal Indians comeback in the third and held on to the lead thanks to their lone third period marker from Jacob Kicknosway-Louks.

Kicknosway-Louks had a total of two goals and one helper on the night, while Tyler Hill had three goals and Angus Goodleaf turned away 37. Kyle Buchanan led the Indians with two goals and two assists, and Jerome Thompson pitched in with four helpers.

In the final Ontario Jr. A game of the night, the Peterborough Lakers doubled up on the Toronto Beaches 12-6. Zac McIllmoyle popped in four goals and Kyle Clancy had one goal and six assists while goaltender Ryan Masters got a workout with 48 saves. Stephen Keogh had two goals and two assists for the Beaches.

Friday and Saturday scores: READ MORE »

The Beat

What to Watch this Weekend

Even though games up here in the Great White North are played all through the week, we wanna hook ya up with the games on the weekend that you mighta wanna checkout if you’re in and around the area. The BCJALL has their top dawgs locking horns again this weekend. Some pretty big dances in Ontario junior too.

Anyways, here’s a rundown of this weekend’s top games, and why you should get up off your ass and go check ‘em out… READ MORE »

NLL Girls

NLL Girl of the Week: Ashley wins!

It’s over. It’s finally over.

Our National Lacrosse League Girl of the Week contest has reached its championship and you, the voters, for the most part, have picked our winner. And who may that be, you ask? Legit question. The answer, dear reader, is Ashley. Yeppers, it’s Ashley from the Chicago Shamrox who is the winner of our inaugural contest. It was an impressive battle to the end, and Ashley topped New York’s Crystal by a count of 6,155 to 4,138. A total of 10,293 votes were cast and yeah, it raised our eyebrows, too. How so? Look at it this way: All season long, the highest number of voters we had for an ENTIRE contest never exceeded 2,000. For the final night of voting in this here title match, we had about 4,000 votes cast over the course of one night.

The only thing we know for sure is that a bunch — and we mean a BUNCH — of votes came from a few computers, but there’s no rule against that so the title’s all Ashley’s. Big props to Crystal for being such a great sport during the entire tournament. She was in touch regularly with us here and as far as we can tell, was the only contestant all season long to interact with the fans over at WingsZone.com. As for the winner, Ashley’s obviously thrilled and if you wanna read her thoughts on winning — and her Playboy dreams — turn the page.

READ MORE »

The Life

DOVE 2008: a record-setting charitable effort

How many good ideas have you come up with while out for a drink with a buddy?

Not things that seemed like a good idea at the time. Nothing that ended in a visit to the emergency room. I mean legitimately good ideas.

Don’t worry if you’ve got nothing, because Jim Zacher has us all covered. It was at his local watering hole where he came up with the idea that eventually evolved into DOVE 2008 — a 25 hour charity lacrosse game that is Determined to Oppose Violence Everywhere.

Kicking off today at 3 pm at the Aurora Community Centre, DOVE 2008 not only aims to raise awareness and funds for the Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness, but also set the record for the longest box lacrosse game in modern history. This will be a single continuous game between two independent teams, officiated under the sanction of the OLA’s Master Division. On board to appear is not only recently retired Toronto Rock Captain and living legend Jim Veltman, but also NLLinsider’s own Brian Shanahan. Each will be serving as an Honorary Chairperson for the event. READ MORE »

Major Series Lacrosse

Plunkett, Lough and Miron swapped in Major Series

Looks like Lindsay Plunkett is headed to the Peterborough Lakers after being dealt by the Brooklin Redmen in exchange for defender Peter Lough, goaltender Mike Miron and a 2009 second round draft pick.

Perhaps Plunkett can help the Peterborough Lakers get back on the winning track. The Lakers were inched out by the Brampton Excelsiors last night 7-6. Colin Doyle and Dan Dawson combined to set-up not only Dan Teat’s game-tying powerplay goal, but also Aaron Wilson’s game-winner with just 15 seconds left. Doyle had five points on the night from two goals and three assists, while Dawson had three points on one goal and two helpers. John Grant scored three and assisted on one for the Lakers.

In other MSL action last night, the Barrie Lakeshores evened out their record at 2-2 with a 13-11 win over the Six Nations Chiefs. Chad Culp had four goals and one helper for the winners, while Delby Powless led all scorers with two goals and five assists for the Chiefs.

In the lone Wednesday night game the Brooklin Redmen bounced the K-W Kodiaks 15-10.

National Ranking

National Junior Player of the Year: Week 2

With the flood of emails I got drowned with and the smack that’s been thrown around on some of the boards over the past week, to say our initial National Junior Player of the Year watch-list has created a buzz would be like saying Nick Hogan is in just a little bit of sh**.

Like I mentioned in yesterday’s Money Ballers post, some of the top dawgs, at least the offensive ones, haven’t been finishing at the same clip we saw ‘em firing on earlier in the year. Will that make a difference in today’s player pool?

And the battle for best keeper this year… man!! That’s the email we were hammered with the most over the past week. Lots agreeing with the inclusion of both Nick Rose and Joel Weber and then a ton of others asking us to add names like Matt Flindell, Justin Delormier, Angus Goodleaf, Sean Tessarolo and Gary Muzzin. READ MORE »

The Beat

Eat some pancakes for a good cause

One of the great things about lacrosse is the brotherhood. Go just about anywhere in the country and you see a lacrosse sticker on a car window, some fella sporting lacrosse threads, and you’ve got yourself an instant connection.

Here in western New York, we see a lot of lacrosse and the community is pretty tight. That’s a big part of the reason this brotherhood is so cool to be a part of because when someone in the family needs something, everyone rallies around the need. That’s just what’s happening in Brighton, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester. The coach of the Brighton boys varsity team, Mark MacMillan, welcomed a son into this world on April 5. Connor MacMillan’s had a rough entry to this world, though, and has required a lot of medical care since his birth. In order to help, the Brighton Lacrosse Boosters are hosting a “Flapjack Breakfast for Connor MacMillan” to raise funds to cover medical expenses.

The breakfast is scheduled for Sunday, June 22, at the Applebee’s on Winton Road South. Tickets are $5 and the breakfast runs from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Tickets can be purchased through members of the boys and girls teams at Brighton, or you can call Charlotte Haag at (585) 242-5007. If ya can’t make it to the breakfast — and who doesn’t like pancakes? — clink on the above link anyway to find out how you can donate.

NLL Insider, Senior A

Stranded on an Island

What do you do when you live on an island and all but one other team makes their home on the mainland? Well you fly, of course. Sure you could take the majestic and peaceful 90 minute ride the BC Ferries has to offer, but with the last boat returning at 10 pm, it’s a pretty tight schedule to adhere to and more often than not, you’re not making the last boat back and will be stuck over night. So thanks to NOLINOR, a Quebec based fishing charter company, we are able to fly back and forth to our away games without having to worry about rushing back and traffic.

It’s a quick and easy 15-20 minute flight, depending on what airport we are flying to. But man do we live the superstar lifestyle! The bus rolls right onto the tarmac, they load our gear for us (with the help from our fine rookies) and we are whisked away to the arena with out having to lift our bags yet! So this is how NHLers feel eh? OK OK so it’s not the same deal, but it’s a pretty cool feeling to have people grab your stinky gear off a plane and put it onto a bus and vice versa. READ MORE »

RMLL, Road to the Minto Cup

Fish Out of Water: The First Fight

Field lacrosse is a game of instinct. It combines a player’s skill with their determination and ability to read situations and react to then. Box lacrosse is different, but not in the sense of determination or skill. There is no time to think, to read and react; there can be no hesitation. If there is, that split-second window of opportunity a player sees could either turn into a goal or a turnover. The different style of play and quicker pace make for a more interesting and physical game of lacrosse.

READ MORE »

Inside the Numbers

The Money Ballers: JR A Edition

Outside of a couple guys (see Scott Tinning from KW and Corey Small from St. Kitts) there was very little movement on the boards this week. And when you look at what guy’s  on The Money Ballers‘ leaderboard did versus what their respective teams did since last Wednesday, well… READ MORE »

WLA

WLA: Nanaimo needing wins

Last weekend, both New West (6-0) and Coquitlam (6-1) defeated previously undefeated Victoria (4-2) by respective scores of 7-5 and 8-5. As Shanny mentioned in his weekly CLA Power Rankings, however, Victoria’s top scorer was absent from the line-up with MLL commitments. New West, Coquitlam and Victoria remain the teams to beat this season.

Langley (2-4), Burnaby (1-4-1), Maple Ridge (1-4) and Nanaimo (0-5-1) all remain within three points of each other for the fourth and final playoff spot out West. And Nanaimo knows they need wins this weekend if they hope to make the playoffs again.

READ MORE »

Major Series Lacrosse, NLL

Redmen are waiting on Wagar

The Redmen in Brooklin are playing the waiting game on a couple of fronts and for at least one of those, they’re starting to smile.

When you have a goalie like Bob Watson on your Major Series Lacrosse roster, there’s all kinds of confidence. Thing is, there’s a difference between having Watson on your roster and having him on your floor. Watson has yet to play this summer for Brooklin, partly because he’s living in Guelph and partly because he’s got a young boy playing lacrosse himself this summer. Can’t blame a guy for wanting to be around for that development. That’s left the Redmen to turn to their own development in goal, however, and there’s a young man named Kurtis Wagar who’s beginning to show signs of becoming a legit stopper. “This is only his second year and really, he is a rookie,” Brooklin general manager Wayne Colley tells NewsDurhamRegion.com. “… he is starting to see a little bit of results. Hopefully he can continue on.”

Considering Wagar, who has seen very limited time with the National Lacrosse League’s Edmonton Rush, was pulled in his first two starts of this season, there were some doubts. But he went the distance in Sunday’s win over Six Nations, a big step forward as the Redmen upped their record to 2-3. Wagar’s got two tough tests coming up, though, with Kitchener-Waterloo tonight and Brampton next Wednesday, so the Redmen are gonna find out just how big that step was for Wagar.

• NLL: Edmonton Rush, season in review: NLL.com