NLL Insider

The Brampton Excelsiors will get the chance to defend their Mann Cup championship, but they know they’ll be up against a very hungry New Westminster Salmonbellies team that’s looking for revenge, not to mention the desire to get the Cup back West for the first time since 2005, when the Victoria Shamrocks hoisted the title. The series won’t start until Friday, Sept. 4 and you gotta think the Excelsiors will welcome this rest. The Major Series Lacrosse finals series against rival Peterborough was an intense one, as evidenced by heated exchanges even after the final horn of Brampton’s 9-8 win on Wednesday night that clinched the series, 4-2.

Brodie Merrill scored the winner for Brampton with 55 seconds left, his second goal of the game. But as Merrill and his boys celebrated the title, it looks as if some of the Peterborough fellas took exception to the celebration. Merrill told The Peterborough Examiner that while Brampton does indeed “hate” Peterborough, “we respect them.”

Peterborough’s Shawn Evans, who had a goal and three assists in the loss, said the celebration was disrespectful and was angry that one of the Brampton coaches didn’t shake his hand afterward. That might have had something to do with Evans and Josh Sanderson trading some shoves after the buzzer, and Geoff Snider’s comments with a few of the Brampton players didn’t exactly cool things down. The Examiner reports that the refs and several coaches stepped in to restore order.

But it was Snider’s comment that probably best describes how hard the loss stings for Peterborough: “This is a tight group of guys and a real family,” Snider told the newspaper. “I’d rather lose and be in our locker-room than win and be in theirs.”

Wow. That’s intense! But we couldn’t expect anything less out of Snider.

John Grant Jr. had three goals and an assist for Peterborough, while Merrill and Colin Doyle paced the Brampton offense with a pair of goals each and Dan Dawson scored one and assisted on three others. Pat O’Toole was strong in net for the Lakers with 42 saves on 51 shots, but Anthony Cosmo was just one goal better for Brampton, making 40 saves on 48 shots.

So now it’s westward for the Excelsiors, who at first glance will have quite the offensive challenge against the Bellies. Sure, New West has offensive studs in Ilija Gajic, Jordan McBride, Jordan Hall and Cliff Smith. But it’s the goalie tandem in New West that’ll test Brampton. Matt Roik and Tyler Richards have pretty much split duties, but both are 4-0 in the playoffs this summer. Roik’s a solid National Lacrosse League veteran and Richards was named to the NLLInsider.com and NLL’s All-Rookie teams after winning the starting job with the Stealth. In his 240 playoff minutes, Roik brings a 6.25 goals-against average and a save percentage of 83%. Richards, in his 249 minutes, brings in a 6.97 GAA and a save percentage of 79%.

And make no mistake, it’s been defense that’s carried the Bellies this season. They swept both series they played in and in the eight playoff games, they allowed double-digits in goals just once. For a detailed look at the Bellies’ post season, check out this analysis by colleague Steve Kojima.

So does Brampton defend? Or does Bob Salt coach New West to its first Mann Cup win since 1991, when the Bellies were led by Geordie Dean and Ben Hieltjes to a 4-0 sweep of Brooklin? If not for distant history, recent history should be quite the motivator for New West, which was swept 4-0 by Brampton in last year’s Mann Cup series.

Stay tuned to NLLInsider.com and we’ll track it all.

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