Junior ‘A’ Playoff Studs… So Far

August 7th, 2008 by Paul Tutka

Only seven teams are alive, six when either St. Catharines or Six Nations decides who wants to face Orangeville more tonight in what should be a crazy as hell Game 7 at the ILA.

So with that said and with NLL Insider naming their playoff performer of the year at the conclusion of the Minto, just wanted to check in quickly with the guys that are on our radar at this point in the post-season.

There have been some stellar performances so far, but who’ve been the most impressive over the long haul?

Check out our top ten best ballers so far this post-season…

10. Corey Small, St. Catharines Athletics
Outside of that one game where almost the entire St. Kitts’ O forget to finish, Small has been uber clutch for the boys in blue and sits behind only, who else, but Cody Jamieson in the post-season scoring race. The A’s are 6-1 this post-season when Small posts two or more goals, so message to Small, score two or more goals tonight against the Arrows if you wanna win.

9. Simon Giourmetakis, Edmonton Eclipse
The Calgary Raiders found out that a healthy Simon Giourmetakis can be one tough dude to keep a leash on after Simon ran off a solid first round against the Raiders, currently leading Alberta in post-season scoring. The chemistry between him and other playoff stud, Carlton Schuss, is lookin’ real good right now and should give the Miners a whack of trouble starting tonight in Game 1 of their provincial final.

8. Alex Gajic, Burnaby Lakers
His goals per game average is down from 2.37 during the regular season to a single goal per in the playoffs, but trust, it doesn’t matter and anyone on the Lakers will attest to that. Gajic is still leading the charts in scoring but now has an O that has stepped up their game and are playing with confidence, partially cuz Alex brings that kinda game out of you. Either way, he’s still a dominating force on the court and is a big reason why the often written off Lakers (in 2008) are just three wins away from going to yet another Minto (yeah, I know, they’re two wins away from not going too, but it just didn’t sound as good in this context so back off).

7. Shaun Dhaliwal, Burnaby Lakers
One guy that fits into that description above is definitely Shuan Dhaliwal, who is tearin’ it up like he just came from a house party on Elm Street. The kid has been so, so, so crucial to Burnaby’s post-season success and has already almost equalled his regular season digits in just eight playoff appearances. The best part of his improved game? Check out that shooting percentage… Shaun was just clickin’ at 11.83% during most of the summer, but once that post-season switch got flipped up, kid is hittin’ twine at over 30%. Not too shabby.

6. Cory Conway, Victoria Shamrocks
Whether it took a bit longer than expected to readjust his game back to junior ball from an NLL frame of mind after spending the winter in Portland, whatever, cuz Conway has been teein’ off like few others have so far this post-season. Like Ted Jenner said this morning, get your ass to Bear Mountain or wherever else the Jr. Rocks are playin’, cuz Conway is proving to be well worth the price of admission in the playoffs in 2008. Can’t wait to see what he’s got up his sleeve in a bigger role with the Jax this winter.

5. Matt McLeod, Orangeville Northmen
McLeod hasn’t slowed down a second since the Northmen took the regular season crown, even though deadline day pick-up Stephen Keogh and injured forward Adam Jones are takin’ more touches on the ball then he was used to seeing guys do at the start of the season. And that really is the best thing about McLeod. No matter the situation, no matter who’s on the floor with him, he produces… no questions asked. And no questions asked, he’s a front runner for playoff performer of the year in 2008 so far.

4. Scott Lowe, Burnaby Lakers
Burnaby might be down one game to nada in their BC final series against Victoria, but oh man what a stud Lowe’s been this post-season for the Lakers. Lowe holds down a better GAA than even Vic’s Matt Flindell so far in the playoffs and his ability to elevate his game in the first two series Burnaby ran 6-1 in showed why Mr. Apples picked this dude up. Plus he’s a local tearin’ it up at home in his last year of junior ball. Beauty story.

3. Cayle Ratcliff, Victoria Shamrocks
Sometimes for an O guy, you can’t just get hung up on digits, and even though Ratcliff was a digits monster during the season, it’s all the intangibles and leadership that Cayle brings that makes him such a good guy to have in clutch situations on the floor and definitely in the locker-room when you’re down a goal or two at the intermission. He’s provin’ to be one of those guys that has the ability to make everyone around him better and that’s never been so obvious than during the Shamrock’s squeaky clean post-season run in 2008.

2. Cody Jamieson, Six Nations Arrows
Why is he here? What are you new?!?!?

1. Adam Jones, Orangeville Northmen
For the NLL fans that are reading this name for the first time, man have you been missing out on one helluva nasty ball player. Jones was out for the first half of the regular season due to an injury and then missed the second half cuz he was busy shreddin’ the fields out in Coquitlam on his way to landing a silver and some heavy individual props. Anyways, Jones was being called the best player in Ontario previous to the start of the season and now that’s he’s playin’ full-time for the Northmen we’re finding out why all that hype was more like, well, fact. The kids been an unstoppable force while O’Ville is 8-2 in the playoffs and lookin’ primed for nothing short of a Minto Cup.

And just lookin’ at the NLL Entry draft three years from now and all I can say is… holy crap!! Jones, a soph at Canisius, will be added to a list of 2011 draft prospects that already includes Stephen Keogh, Jordan McBride, Garrett Ince, Jamie Lincoln, Evan Kirk, Andrew Suitor, Jon Harnett , Jeff Ivey and Mike Pires… just off the top of my head. NLL GM’s, start stock piling those ‘11 picks. Seriously, that’s shaping up to be maybe the strongest first round in the history of pro ball.