NLL Insider

The Orangeville Northmen and Coquitlam Adanacs continue to roll through the opposition with near perfect records, still sitting one-and-two respectively in the National Jr. A Ranking a month into the rundown.

Two weeks ago we saw a number of BC post-season hopefuls feast off the Langley Thunder as they bolstered up for a serious run, and then this week, Ontario did the same at their trade deadline, with a number of the top dawgs picking up some high profile names that will no doubt help their cause.

Find out who drops where in Week 4 and what brand name guys are wearing different sweaters with only about three weeks of regular season ball to go.

1 (1) Orangeville Northmen (13-1-0)
Past week: 10-6 win over Peterborough, 13-10 win over Burlington and 14-4 win over Barrie
This week: Tues. at Whitby and Fri. vs. K-W
Top scorer: Adam Jones 8-22-31-53
Starting goalie: Nick Rose 540Mins, 6.33GAA, .840SV%
Image the kinda digits Adam Jones would have at the end of the year if his sked was open wide enough to fit a full 22 games in with the Northmen? Between last year’s U19’s in BC, dominating with Canisius and some minor injury issues, Jones could most likely set some pretty slick scoring records if he just had to worry about playing Jr. A ball. Had he been able to play all of Orangeville’s games this year, his 6.65 points per game average would see him with 146Pts at year’s end. Cody Jamieson, who played in 21 with Six Nations last year, had 101. Orangeville again turned to the Toronto Beaches at the trade deadline, picking up the speedy, versatile, athletic Damon Edwards, who’ll fit perfectly in the Horn Head’s style of play. They also grabbed A’s prospect and Owen Sound stud, Matt Eckert, who gives them even more depth on O. Eckert is less than a week away from dropping six goals on Welland while suiting up for Owen Sound.

2 (2) Coquitlam Adanacs (15-1-0)
Past week: 13-9 win over Delta and 9-6 win over Victoria
This week: Tues. at New West, Wed. vs. Burnaby and Sun. at Nanaimo
Top scorer: Robert Church 14-33-45-78
Starting goalie: Dan Lewis 726Mins, 7.11GAA, .837SV%
By this point last year, the Adanacs were showing signs of slowing down and not living up to potential. This year, the guys just keep on winning no questioned asked. Got a number of emails from Coquitlam supporters making a case for several of their crew that should be getting JOTY consideration. Everyone from Trevor Moore, Corbyn Tao, Matt Beers, Dan Lewis and the already hyped rookie sensation, Robert Church, all got huge love over the past week.

3 (6) Brampton Excelsiors (12-2-0)
Past week: 6-5 win over St. Catharines, 8-7 win over Six Nations and 13-7 win over Akwesasne
This week: Fri. vs. Toronto and Sun. at Six Nations
Top scorer: Andrew Potter 14-32-49-81
Starting goalie: Steve Fryer 550Mins, 5.67GAA, .870SV%
The Excels took two huge wins this past week against both St. Kitts and Six Nations to vault them into the three spot. They’ve also picked up probably the biggest name they coulda hope for when they traded for the A’s top sniper, Colorado Mammoth prospect and the nation’s leading scorer, Andrew Potter, giving them a high profile go-to-guy on O some thought they might be missing if a Minto title was gonna be in their future. Brampton also snatched KW’s top scoring threat, Scott Tinning, who’s been averaging over three points per and capable of leading the O charge on any given night too. Plus those numbers BC import Dan Stevens is putting up lately (hat-trick vs. Six Nations)… this team is built for gold.

4 (5) Burlington Chiefs (11-3-0)
Past week: 18-6 win over Toronto and 13-10 loss to Orangeville
This week: Mon. vs. Six Nations and Wed. at St. Catharines
Top scorer: Ryan Learn 13-22-32-54
Starting goalie: Gary Muzzin 499Mins, 9.14GAA, .690SV%
The Chiefs stayed relatively quiet at the deadline, outside of picking up a very useful Josh Leis from the Braves and Mark White off of Mississauga’s roster. White is currently ripping it up with the Oakville Buzz, 29 points in 20 starts. Both moves give the Chiefs some good depth as they look to stay on pace with the rest of the big boys in the province. And speaking of keeping pace, the Chiefs only blemish this past week was a somewhat close loss to the Northmen, who had it not been for Adam Jones’ spectacular six goal outburst, likely woulda seen ‘em land that W. The Chiefs also have on helluva close-out to their ‘09 regular season. Of their remaining eight games, they see the likes of Orangeville again, Six Nations, Brampton, St. Catharines and then even their “easy” remaining games are against teams capable of big things this year, Whitby and Peterborough. Depending on what happens in those last eight, Burlington will either be going in on a major high into the OLA post-season, or feeling completely gutted.

• Crepinsek, MacIntosh pace Chiefs: Burlington Post

5 (3) Six Nations Arrows (10-5-0)
Past week: 11-9 loss to Whitby, 8-7 loss to Brampton and 13-8 win over Peterborough
This week: Mon. at Burlingon, Wed. vs. Whitby and Sun. vs. Brampton
Top scorer: Randy Staats 15-23-33-56
Starting goalie: Randy Johnson 795Mins, 7.40GAA, .776SV%
A couple big losses took ‘em down a few pegs, but don’t be surprised to see the Arrows right back in the top three after bulking up at the deadline. If Potter to Brampton was most people’s pick for top gain at the trade cut-off, the Arrows dealing for Pete Jacobs and Jerome Thompson has gotta be a by inches close second best move. Both guys will help improve a sometimes sleeping Arrows’ O and many in the province are already thinking Six Nations might have the most promising line-up to topple the Northmen. Huge trio of games this week for Six Nations this week too, including two against teams that dumped them last week.

• Rebels get big gains due to Arrows additions: The Expositor

6 (7) New Westminster Salmonbellies (10-5-1)
Past week:  8-5 loss to Burnaby, 16-11 win over Delta and 8-7 win over Victoria
This week: Tues. vs. Coquitlam, Friday at Port Coquitlam and Sun. at Victoria
Top scorer: Kevin Crowley 11-27-29-56
Starting goalie: Neil Tyacke 782Mins, 9.59GAA, .786SV%
They mighta kicked off the week on a sour note in their loss to the Lakers, but the Bellies closed it up real nice with that 8-7 win over the Shamrocks, their second win in two chances against Victoria this summer. The two clubs will throw down again for the final time during the regular season in seven days. Most impressive was that last Vic win came without Kevin Crowley in the lineup, getting a hat-trick from Money Ball chart topper, Tyler Digby. And speaking of Digby, the future Robert Morris two-sport stud was named New West Secondary’s top athlete for this past school year, on top of getting additional props for his entire high school career. Like many this week, the Bellies have one helluva stretch on their plate, which outside of the much anticipated Shamrocks rematch, also sees them dance with the Adanacs tomorrow night.

7 (4) Victoria Shamrocks (12-5-0)
Past week: 9-6 loss to Coquitlam and 8-7 loss to New West
This week:  Wed. vs. Nanaimo, Sat. vs. Port Coquitlam and Sun. vs. New West
Top scorer: Karsen Leung 15-29-29-58
Starting goalie: Greg Krstic 481Mins, 9.60GAA, .769SV% and Adam Hickey 534Mins, 8.65GAA, .796SV%
Their double loss dropped them three spots this week, even though both games were within their grasp. Outside of a couple blowouts against lesser opposition, the Shamrocks’ O continues to struggle to find consistency, some guys almost completely disappearing from the score-sheet over the past couple weeks. Last year in a situation like this, Cayle Ratcliff woulda pulled up the team’s socks both on-and-off the floor and got things back on track. Ratcliff’s shoes are big ones to fill, maybe as big as the sneakers Jamieson left in the Arrows’ locker room. Although they still have the upper hand on that all-important #2 seed, will it be New West that has the confidence heading into BC’s post-season? Definitely need some big results this week.

8 (9) Calgary Raiders (11-4-0)
Past week:  10-8 win over Jr. Mounties, 9-7 loss to Jr. Mounties and 17-3 win over Jr. Miners
This week:  Sat. at Eclipse and Sun. vs. Jr. Miners
Top scorer: Casey MacIntyre 15-13-33-46
Starting goalie: Adam Shute 459Mins, 4.70GAA, .876SV% and Greg Hallett 443Mins, 6.91GAA, .830SV%
If it wasn’t for the odd Mounties game, the Raiders would be sittin’ pretty at the top of Alberta’s standings, two of their four losses coming at the hands of their Calgary counterparts, splitting another pair of hard fought battles this past week. The athletic D-heavy Raiders continue to sport the top two statistically ranked keepers in the province between Adam Schute and Greg Hallett, one of whom will need to be on their game when the high power Eclipse host the Raiders in a game that weighs heavily in end-of-year standings and playoff positioning. The Raiders other two losses this year? Yup, the Eclipse, so far the only other Alberta based team to break into this year’s top ten. Calgary’s D or Edmonton’s high power O, which will prevail? It’ll be one of this upcoming week’s most anticipated showdowns.

9 (8) St. Catharines Athletics (9-5-0)
Past week: 6-5 loss to Brampton and 22-6 win over Akwesasne
This week:  Wed. vs. Burlington, Fri. at Mississauga and Sun. at K-W
Top scorer: Joey Resetarits 14-26-27-53
Starting goalie: Zach Bowen 561Mins, 8.77GA, .790SV%
It was just over two weeks ago the A’s were flying high after a 14-11 win over the Northmen and seemingly a #1 ranking next on their plates. In short… things haven’t gone as planned. The Athletics spiraled into a 0-4 slide that saw them drop games against Six Nations twice and Brampton twice, the fall finally snapping with a huge win over the Indians. But with leading scorer Andrew Potter dealt to Brampton last week and a big game against Burlington mid-week, where does all this leave the one time hot as hell A’s? Well, between the spanking they gave Akwesasne and picking up Eric Benesch from the Braves, it’s unlikely the A’s have packed things in and written off their ‘09 like it might look from the outside. First or second might be outta the question, but the A’s are probably a little more concerned with Whitby and Peterborough hot on their heels anyways. Without a win, or at least strong showing against Burlington, it’s pretty unlikely the guys that handed the Northmen their only loss this year will be in the top ten next week.

10 (NR) Burnaby Lakers (8-9-0)
Past week: 8-5 win over New West and 12-10 win over Port Coquitlam
This week: Wed. at Coquitlam, Sat. at Delta, and Sun. vs. Langley
Top scorer: Riley Loewn 17-44-21-65
Starting goalie: Brodie MacDonald 584Mins, 9.45GAA, .785SV%
After losing their spot in the National Ranking last week, the Lakers are back with two strong showings against New West and PoCo. Like we mentioned the other week, GM Richard Appels picked up Mitch Dibblee in a deal with the Langley Thunder, also grabbing defender Michael King and reliable backstop Ray Hodgkinson. And what a game by Nick Bilic against PoCo!! Bilic had all of four goals all year heading into the clash with the Saints last night. Bilic then scored four alone against Tyson Cornfield last night, which included two in OT, the winner a shortie super late in the frame. Burnaby might not be shipping in that talent from elsewhere in the country anymore, but it’s gutsy, never-say die attitudes that we saw from a guy like Bilic this past week that still has the Lakers as potential contenders.

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