NLL Insider

The Akwesasne Indians’ Game 2 win over the Burlington Chiefs has been overturned by the OLA after the league learned that the Indians had used two unaffiliated players during that game in the best of seven series.

Although all the player stats gained in that game will still be awarded to the respective players, the OLA has awarded the win to Burlington, even though the final ended in Akwesasne’s favor, 8-6.

After last night’s 9-6 win for the Chiefs, Burlington now leads the series two game to one, with game four heading back to Akwarnaro Arena in Akwesasne on Saturday afternoon (2PM EST).

The players in question, Blake Kenny and Jason Ingram, had spent almost all of their regular season playing for the Indians, but were later released and played single games for the Cornwall Celtics in the Jr. B loop. Interestingly, the Celtics failed to quality for the post-season this summer, ironically finishing four points behind the Akwesasne Lightning.

A player used in the OLA Jr. A playoffs must either be carded to the team or a member of their affiliate. Cornwall is not an affiliate of the Akwesasne Indians, meaning that although Kenny and Ingram played a combined 29 games for the Indians this summer, by signing with Cornwall later in the year, they were no longer affiliated to Akwesasne and are not accessible to the Indians for the remainder of the playoffs.

A similar situation occurred in 2005 during a first round series between the Brampton Excelsiors and K-W Braves.

The Excels used an unaffiliated player, Mike Piluk of the Elora Mohawks, a team close in proximity to Brampton but not affiliated to the club. After the Braves protested, the OLA forced the two teams to play the game again, with Brampton ultimately winning the series 4-3, taking that eighth game in the heated series.

The rule has since changed and teams are simply handed the loss like we saw yesterday with the Indians.

Rate This Story:

(9 votes, average: 3.78 out of 5)

 Loading ...