MSL Playoff Preview

July 22nd, 2008 by Lauren Ward

When the curtain fell on the Major Series regular season, it left a pair of familiar teams on top and four more to fight it out in the quarter-finals. While Peterborough and Brampton can go ahead and relax for a little while, the quarter-final action begins tonight with the St. Regis Indians hosting the Six Nations Chiefs, 8:30 PM EST. For a look at the first-round match-ups, what they’ve done against each other already, and what the boys on a bye have to look forward to in the semis, read on.

1st Place: Brampton Excelsiors, on a bye for the first round

Was there ever any doubt that a team featuring the likes of Aaron Wilson, Josh Sanderson, Dan Teat, Dan Dawson, Brodie Merrill and Colin Doyle would find themselves putting their feet up for the first round of the playoffs? Their top five scorers look like an NLL All-Star team and you can’t blame anyone for being envious of the Excelsiors having Anthony Cosmo as their number one goaltender. With a regular season record of 14 wins, three losses and one tie Brampton has lived up to the heavy hype and look to have a shot at accomplishing what every Sr. A team has been gunning for these past couple of years: knocking the Peterborough Lakers off their pedestal. In the ‘08 regular season Brampton has beaten Peterborough twice and tied them once, but don’t go thinking that a first-round bye is going to send the Excelsiors on a stress-free journey to the MSL finals. Though the Excelsiors have handled the next-best Lakers, St. Regis Indians and Brooklin Redmen while breaking no more than a usual sweat, two of their three losses this season have come at the hands of the K-W Kodiaks. Their other loss was courtesy of the Six Nations Chiefs. Kicking off the semi-finals on Thursday, July 31st vs. the lowest seed may not end up being in Brampton’s best interests.

2nd place: Peterborough Lakers, on a bye for the first round

Another season and another incarnation of the Peterborough Lakers getting a well-earned rest for the first round. Though their 12-5-1 record may not be quite on par with what the Excelsiors accomplished this regular season, bear in mind that the Lakers started off 2-4 and have been on a nearly blip-free upward march ever since. Also bear in mind that two of their top-five scorers, John Grant and Shawn Evans, have played just 11 and 10 games, respectively, with Grant averaging 5.8 points per game, and Evans 5.3. Factor in Pat O’Toole’s return to the Peterborough net and this crunch-time team is probably starting to look a lot more familiar than their opponents would like them to. However, the Peterborough Lakers have looked downright fallible in two losses to the Brampton Excelsiors and one each to the Six Nations Chiefs, K-W Kodiaks, and Brooklin Redmen. This team is being viewed through a sniper-scope by every other team in Sr. A, and whether or not they can continue to do what they’ve done in recent years remains to be seen—and that will have to wait until the semis.

St. Regis Indians (3) vs. Six Nations Chiefs (6)

While the St. Regis Indians and their regular season record of 11 wins and seven losses easily has the Six Nations Chiefs and their five wins, 12 losses and one tie dummied, the Indians know as well as anyone that this Six Nations team isn’t to be taken lightly. Plagued by injuries at inopportune times, the Chiefs haven’t yet had a chance to fully mesh and while the post-season has a way of speeding that process along, with game one going off tonight we’ll soon be seeing if the Chiefs can get it together quickly enough. What they do have for certain is two goalies—Matt Vinc and Ken Montour—that have a proven penchant for playing big in big games. But bigger than John Tavares and Mark Steenhuis, who led the Indians and the league with 93 and 82 points, respectively? Bigger than Mike Thompson, who posted the most minutes out of all the Major Series goaltenders this year and still ranks 4th overall with his GAA of 8.31, despite playing more than twice as many minutes as two of the guys ahead of him? What we have in this series are a whole lot of Buffalo Bandits who probably can’t help but think that a 2008 Mann Cup ring would look pretty good next to their Champion’s Cup hardware. Though the Indians topped the Chiefs each time these two teams met, as the season wore on the deficits wore down. Their first meeting ended 19-8, their second 11-8, and their third 6-5. If the Chiefs can keep chiseling away at the disparity, we might have ourselves a really good series here.

Brooklin Redmen (4) vs. K-W Kodiaks (5)

In the most evenly-matched first round meeting we’ve got two teams that each finished with 14 points, Brooklin earning theirs from a record of 7-11 and K-W with six wins, ten losses and two ties. The regular season series between these two teams bounced back and forth, with Brooklin winning the first one 15-10, K-W turning that result back around and taking a 14-9 win in their second match-up, and the third going all the way to OT where Brooklin took it 12-9. Starring in net for the Kodiaks has been Toronto Rock back-up Mike Poulin, who’s posted 820 minutes—second only to St. Regis’s Iron Man Thompson—and racked up a GAA of 9.51, good enough for sixth in the league behind names like Cosmo, Thompson, and O’Toole. Not bad for a guy who spent the majority of the NLL season working the gate. Speaking of young Rock players, look no further than the top of the K-W scoring list to find Ryan Benesch and his 66 points. Rob Marshall has also spent the summer solidifying his position as a defensive stalwart and transition threat. Add in names like Jamie Rooney, Kasey Biernes, Kevin Ross and Brendan Thenhaus and the future’s so bright you gotta quote a Timbuk3 song from 1986. But will it be enough to roll over Shawn Williams and the Brooklin Redmen? Speaking of goalies that have unexpectedly impressed, take a look at Kurtis Wagar who’s put up some big games behind Scott Campbell and Derek Suddons. With more experience and a 2-1 advantage in the regular season series, the Redmen aren’t about to let Poulin and his band of wily youngins beat them down. Thing is, they may not be able to help it. Buckle up because it looks like this one’s going the full five.