NLL Insider

Major Series Lacrosse

Brooklin up 2-0 on K-W, St. Regis and Six Nations tied 1-1

In the Major Series Lacrosse quarter-finals the Brooklin Redmen took a 2-0 lead last night in their best-of-five with the K-W Kodiaks, winning by a score of 10-8. In the Chiefs-Indians match-up, Six Nations took the first game 11-10 and St. Regis took the second 12-7 for a series that stands at 1-1. In Ontario Sr. B semi-final action, the Owen Sound Woodsmen are up 2-1 on the Wellington Aces, and the Brooklin Merchants lead the Norwood Nitro 2-0. READ MORE »

Major Series Lacrosse

Six Nations strikes first

If you can make your opponent pick a poison, your odds of winning fly right off the charts. And that’s exactly what Six Nations did Tuesday night, getting four points from three different players to notch an 11-10 victory over St. Regis in the opening game of the Major Series Lacrosse playoff series.

Cory Bomberry (2 goals, 2 assists), Dean Hill (1-3) and Cody Jacobs (1-3) led the way for the Chiefs, who beat the Indians for the first time this season when it counts most. Delby Powless and Roger Vyse each added a pair of goals for Six Nations, which takes a 1-0 series lead into tonight’s Game 2 at 7 p.m. at St. Regis. And while a one-goal loss isn’t reason to panic, the Indians were put on notice that they’re gonna need more than MSL regular season scoring champ John Tavares and Mark Steenhuis to keep from falling into a 0-2 hole in this series. Also tonight, the Brooklin vs. Kitchener-Waterloo series kicks off with Game 1 at 8 p.m. in Brooklin.

• MSL playoff schedule: majorserieslacrosse.net
• Lauren Ward’s MSL playoff breakdown: NLLInsider.com

Major Series Lacrosse

MSL Playoff Preview

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. READ MORE »

Major Series Lacrosse

Playoff field is set for Major Series

The Major Series Lacrosse dust has settled from the regular season and what we see left standing really isn’t a surprise. The playoff push by Barrie down the stretch didn’t materialize and the Lakeshores lost both games over the weekend to finish tied for sixth with Six Nations with 11 points. But it’s the Indians who move on via the tiebreaker because they went 2-1 against Barrie during the season.

Brampton (14-3-1, 29 points) locked up the No. 1 spot and Peterborough (10-5-1, 21) is No. 2, so both have first-round byes. No. 3 St. Regis (11-7-0, 22) takes on No. 6 Six Nations (5-12-1, 11) in one matchup, while No. 4 Brooklin (7-11-0, 14) takes on No. 5 Kitchener-Waterloo (6-10-2, 14) in another series that kicks off Wednesday night in Brooklin.

Major Series Lacrosse

Going Green at the Mann Cup

Get ready for a Mann Cup experience like no other. Out are plastic bottles of water on the team benches, synthetic fabric for uniforms and detergent to wash ‘em, along with individual showers.

Sound ridiculous? Maybe it is, and that’s because Don Barrie of The Peterborough Examiner offers a tongue-in-cheek look at how the Mann Cup might be played under the ‘go green’ mandate. It’ll be easy enough to return to a bucket of water with a dipper on the bench, cotton uniforms and a dip in the Otonabee River to replace showers. Unless the fellas wanna crowd into the shower together, because Barrie proposes the shower water be available for just three minutes to, you know, conserve. What’s behind Barrie’s opinion? Let’s just say it’s got something to do with the Lakers losing federal funding for a lacrosse camp for kids while finding out that a Canadian artist received a $95,000 grant “to fly a banana.”

Major Series Lacrosse

Final MSL weekend: It’s ‘go time’

Any fan of the TV series Seinfeld remembers Izzy Mandelbaum and his response to a challenge: It’s go time!

The same can be said for a couple of clubs in Canada as Major Series Lacrosse comes down the stretch of its regular season. Brampton, Peterborough and St. Regis are set, having locked up three of the six playoff spots. That leaves four teams battling for the final three spots and last-place Six Nations didn’t get off to a good start, losing Tuesday night to Peterborough, 13-5. Thing is, just four points separate the bottom four teams so how the final three playoff spots are gonna play out is anyone’s guess. What we do know for sure is that Brooklin (4th place, with 14 points) and Barrie (6th place, with 11 points) have gotta be at the top of their games if they wanna head to the playoffs. Both close their seasons with games against first-place Brampton and second-place Peterborough. In other words, it’s go time!

• Founders Five reunites for Barrie: Barrie Examiner

Major Series Lacrosse

Barrie makes late push for playoffs

So you think you got Major Series Lacrosse figured out? Well, maybe Brampton clinching the top spot in the standings for the regular season with its 9-5 win over Six Nations on Saturday was predictable, but there’s some real exciting stuff going on at the bottom of the standings.

Dare we mention “Barrie” and “playoffs” in the same sentence? You betcha. Perhaps written off for much of this season, the Lakeshores made a real impressive push over the weekend with wins over Brooklin (9-6) and Kitchener-Waterloo (11-9). Combine that with a weekend split by Six Nations, and that means that the Lakeshores of Barrie (5-10-1, 11 points) leapfrogged right over Six Nations (5-10-0, 10) in the standings and into the sixth and final playoff spot. Only a point separates the two as we head into the final week of the regular season and as much as the Lakeshores got done this past week, they’ve got their work cut out for them this week with two games left: against first-place Brampton and then against second-place Peterborough.

Major Series Lacrosse

Brampton, Peterborough all tied up

Remember that Major Series Lacrosse collision course we mentioned earlier this week for Brampton and Peterborough? Well, it ended with a thud. A real dud of a thud.

A 10-10 tie Thursday night at the Memorial Centre assured Brampton (11-3-1 for 23 points) of its four-point lead over Peterborough (9-5-1, 19) in the standings. So with each team having just three games left in the regular season, it means Brampton needs just one win — or a Peterborough loss — to clinch first place for the regular season. The teams went into overtime tied 9-9 and a Sean Holmes goal put Brampton ahead in OT before John Grant Jr.’s fourth goal with 2:53 left knotted the game for good. Most disppointing for the Lakers was the fact that Brampton held on to the ball for the final 11 seconds of OT rather than take a shot, Lakers defensive coach Bobby Keast told the Peterborough Examiner.

Major Series Lacrosse

Are the Redmen on a roll?

Don’t look now, but here come the Brooklin Redmen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Their 5-8 record for 10 points doesn’t exactly illuminate the standings, but if last weekend were any indication of what’s coming outta Brooklin, you gotta believe there’s some solid ball being played there.

Victories over St. Regis on Saturday and a strong Peterborough squad on Thursday helped push Brooklin to fifth place in the standings. That’s not only two wins, it’s two quality wins that shake off the misery of a five-game losing skid. ” … Our guys continue to get better and gain the confidence to know they can play with anybody now,” Brooklin coach Peter Vipond told NewsDurhamRegion.com. And with two games this weekend against Barrie and another against Kitchener-Waterloo, the Redmen know they’ve gotta make their move in the standings while they can.

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Major Series Lacrosse

Brampton and the ‘Borough are on a Major Series collision course

It’s really been a no-doubter since the season started for the Brampton Excelsiors. They’ve been the class of Major Series Lacrosse and just in case there were any doubts about that, a 3-0 weekend put that to rest.

Impressive wins they were, too. It started with an 11-6 win over Kitchener-Waterloo, but the 13-10 win over St. Regis on Saturday was the big one. Josh Sanderson’s seven points led the way for the Excelsiors and Aaron Wilson and Dan Teat each added three goals for the winners. Brampton wrapped up its weekend with an 11-3 pasting of Barrie on Sunday, which sets up a very nice matchup on Thursday against Peterborough. And lest the first-place Excelsiors (11-3, 22 points) think they’re gonna roll easily, they’d be wise to remember they’ll be dealing with a Lakers (9-5, 18 points) squad that’s coming off a pair of weekend wins led by a red-hot John Grant Jr., who has 9 goals and 8 assists in his last two games.

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Major Series Lacrosse

Iannucci out, Accursi in for St. Regis

St. Regis loses 2008 National Lacrosse League (NLL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) Athan Iannucci due to a knee injury but picks up 2008 NLL Champion Mike Accursi in trade deal inked today.

“He’s been around with the past two NLL championship teams in Rochester and Buffalo, so we’re excited to have him come aboard,” added Troy Mitchell, St. Regis General Manager. ”He’s going to help in the locker room as well as on the floor. He’s great leader.”

READ MORE »

Major Series Lacrosse

Six Nations is on a major roll

So you think you had a good weekend? The boys of Six Nations may beg to differ.

Last Thursday, the Chiefs walked into their arena with a 1-7 record in the Major Series Lacrosse standings. And by the time they were done playing lacrosse for the week ending on Sunday night, they’d reeled off three victories to move into a three-way tie for second place with 8 points (4 wins, 7 losses.) But that’s not the end of the good news. Over the weekend, the Chiefs announced they’d signed Sid Smith, perhaps the premier defender in lacrosse today who is fresh off of winning an NCAA championship with the Syracuse Orange. “Our players have more commitment towards practices and games now,” the Chiefs’ Craig Point told the Brantford Expositor after Sunday’s 17-11 win over Barrie. “We’re making ourselves more available and it’s helping out.”

READ MORE »

Major Series Lacrosse

Shawn Evans signs with Ptbo. Lakers

After a little bit of drama and a lot of anticipation the Peterborough Lakers are pretty pleased to announce that Shawn Evans has been signed to a contract.

Evans spent the latter part of the Major Series pre-season as well as the first few weeks embroiled in rumours surrounding an attempted move to the Six Nations Chiefs. Lakers coach Jamie Batley even went so far as to speak out about the situation in the Peterborough Examiner, but that all looks to be in the distant past with Evans set to suit up Sunday night to take on the Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks.

Evans is entering his first full year of Senior lacrosse after winning back-to-back Minto Cups with the Peterborough Jr. Lakers and Six Nations Arrows. Evans also won a Mann Cup in 2006 with Peterborough, becoming the first player to win a Minto, Mann and NLL Champion’s Cup all within 12 months. Evans was awarded Best Junior Player three seasons in a row, which paired up nicely with the scoring title that he won each of those years. The Peterborough Lakers sans the youngest Evans earned a record of 3-4, nestled in with Brooklin in a tie for fifth place.

Major Series Lacrosse

Brampton is still setting the pace

The Brampton Excelsiors didn’t have a lot of offense earlier this week in a 7-6 win over Peterborough, but they got the weekend help they needed to maintain their spot at the top of the Major Series Lacrosse standings.

The help came down from St. Regis, where the Indians split yet another weekend of games, this time to Barrie. Saturday night, John Tavares had two goals and five assists to lead the Indians to a 10-8 win over the Lakeshores, but on Sunday, the Lakeshores rebounded. Matt Lyons scored four goals, including the eventual winner in a 10-8 decision for Barrie. The Indians had a bit of a scare over the weekend when Athan Iannucci left Saturday’s game with a strained knee. The sniper didn’t finish Saturday’s game and sat for Sunday’s game, but coach Darris Kilgour said that was mostly precautionary. But Barrie’s win kept the Indians (5-3) from gaining any ground on Brampton (6-1), whose only loss this season is to Kitchener-Waterloo.

In the other game this weekend, the addition of Lindsay Plunkett to Peterborough’s lineup produced just one goal by the new acquisition, but it was Matt Giles who scored the OT winner for a 13-12 decision over Six Nations on Sunday night.

• St. Regis is loaded with offense: Cornwall Standard Freeholder

Major Series Lacrosse

Plunkett, Lough and Miron swapped in Major Series

Looks like Lindsay Plunkett is headed to the Peterborough Lakers after being dealt by the Brooklin Redmen in exchange for defender Peter Lough, goaltender Mike Miron and a 2009 second round draft pick.

Perhaps Plunkett can help the Peterborough Lakers get back on the winning track. The Lakers were inched out by the Brampton Excelsiors last night 7-6. Colin Doyle and Dan Dawson combined to set-up not only Dan Teat’s game-tying powerplay goal, but also Aaron Wilson’s game-winner with just 15 seconds left. Doyle had five points on the night from two goals and three assists, while Dawson had three points on one goal and two helpers. John Grant scored three and assisted on one for the Lakers.

In other MSL action last night, the Barrie Lakeshores evened out their record at 2-2 with a 13-11 win over the Six Nations Chiefs. Chad Culp had four goals and one helper for the winners, while Delby Powless led all scorers with two goals and five assists for the Chiefs.

In the lone Wednesday night game the Brooklin Redmen bounced the K-W Kodiaks 15-10.

Major Series Lacrosse, NLL

Redmen are waiting on Wagar

The Redmen in Brooklin are playing the waiting game on a couple of fronts and for at least one of those, they’re starting to smile.

When you have a goalie like Bob Watson on your Major Series Lacrosse roster, there’s all kinds of confidence. Thing is, there’s a difference between having Watson on your roster and having him on your floor. Watson has yet to play this summer for Brooklin, partly because he’s living in Guelph and partly because he’s got a young boy playing lacrosse himself this summer. Can’t blame a guy for wanting to be around for that development. That’s left the Redmen to turn to their own development in goal, however, and there’s a young man named Kurtis Wagar who’s beginning to show signs of becoming a legit stopper. “This is only his second year and really, he is a rookie,” Brooklin general manager Wayne Colley tells NewsDurhamRegion.com. “… he is starting to see a little bit of results. Hopefully he can continue on.”

Considering Wagar, who has seen very limited time with the National Lacrosse League’s Edmonton Rush, was pulled in his first two starts of this season, there were some doubts. But he went the distance in Sunday’s win over Six Nations, a big step forward as the Redmen upped their record to 2-3. Wagar’s got two tough tests coming up, though, with Kitchener-Waterloo tonight and Brampton next Wednesday, so the Redmen are gonna find out just how big that step was for Wagar.

• NLL: Edmonton Rush, season in review: NLL.com

Major Series Lacrosse

Big weekend in a bad way for K-W

What a difference just a few days can make.

Thursday night, Kitchener-Waterloo is celebrating a huge overtime win over Brampton, leaving themselves as the only Major Series Lacrosse undefeated team in and great position to gain some ground in the standings. By Sunday night, though, the Kodiaks were wondering just where in the hell two losses came from. That can happen to any team playing a St. Regis squad that includes some real studs in the lineup. Not that K-W’s lacking for scoring punch these days, but when the Indians throw the trio of Tavares, Steenhuis and Iannucci at ya, things can get outta hand right quick. And that’s what happened over the weekend as St. Regis handed K-W a 12-6 loss Saturday night and a 13-8 loss Sunday night.

Brampton managed to rebound nicely from the OT loss to win twice over the weekend, so the Excelsiors still find themselves at the top of the standings with a 5-1 mark for 10 points. The third-place Kodiaks (3-2, 6 points) get another shot at Brampton on June 19, so that’s a match that’s very much worth anticipating.

• Brooklin tops Six Nations: BrooklinRedmenLacrosse.com
• Brampton blasts Barrie: Excelsiors.com

Major Series Lacrosse, Ontario Junior A

Saturday in Ontario lacrosse

The K-W Kodiaks’ undefeated season ended last night with a 12-6 loss to the St. Regis Indians. John Tavares and Mark Steenhuis had eight points each, Steenhuis with four goals and four assists and Tavares with two and six. Athan Iannucci added two goals and three assists for the Indians, while Ryan Benesch led the Kodiaks with two markers. Mike Thompson earned the win in net.

There was one other game on the MSL schedule last night, with the Brampton Excelsiors besting the Peterborough Lakers 13-9. Jeff Shattler and Aaron Wilson had two goals and three assists apiece, and Mike Hominuck had one goal and four helpers. For the Lakers, Cory Vittarelli lit it up with five goals.

The Jr. Indians got in on the winning action as well last night, thumping the Orillia Rama-Hammond Kings 14-4. Kyle Buchanan continued to make a mess of opposing defenses, scoring three and helping out on five. Also for Akwesasne, Jerome Thompson had two goals and four assists, and Mark Kirby had two and three. Rick Acorn had two goals and one assist for the Kings.

It was a lot closer in the St. Catharines-Burlington game, where Andrew Potter’s marker with under three minutes left served as the 10-9 game-winner for the St. Catharines Athletics. Potter had a total of three goals and one assist on the night, while Joel McCready had three goals of his own. Kevin Brownell kept his scoring pace up, putting in four and assisting on one for the Chiefs.

Major Series Lacrosse, Senior A

Lax Life: The Scoop on Senior A Lacrosse

By Brandon Sanderson

So, where to start when talking about the box lacrosse season in Southern Ontario for the summer of ’08? First and foremost, I guess it would be the appropriate time to introduce ourselves as your informal curators (orators?) to the happenings of the lacrosse life being lived north of the U.S. border. Better known for our lacrosse lifestyle company, Lax Life, we will hereby be keeping you up to date in either weekly or bi-weekly blogs, giving you an exclusive feel of what is really going in LAX, both on and off the floor.

This past weekend, was the epitome of a “Lax Life” weekend from our own subjective experience. It started with a 7-4 home victory by the team we play for, the Senior B Owen Sound Woodsmen, over the undefeated and highly touted Wellington Aces; two very probable Ontario representatives at this year’s Canadian national tournament, the President’s Cup.
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Major Series Lacrosse, WLA

K-W downs Brampton & other Senior A results

After clinging to a lead for the first two periods, the K-W Kodiaks managed to hold off a Brampton Excelsiors comeback on the strength of a pair of goals from Kevin Ross. His last-minute regulation marker sent the game to overtime where he scored the game-winner with six minutes remaining. Mike Flemming had the insurance goal with 20 seconds left.

Ross had four goals and two assists on the night, Flemming and Ryan Benesch had one and two each, and Jamie Rooney, Dylan Llord and Rob Marshall had one goal and one helper apiece. Aaron Wilson had a natural hat trick for the Excelsiors while Colin Doyle had one goal and five helpers. The Kodiaks are now the only undefeated team remaining in MSL.

Elsewhere in Ontario, the Peterborough Lakers raised the 2007 Mann Cup banner and then went on to dump the Six Nations chiefs 18-8. Scott Evans had two goals and seven assists, Cory Vittarelli had three and three and John Grant had four goals and one helper. Craig Point notched four goals for the Chiefs.

In the third MSL game of the night the Barrie Lakeshores downed the Brooklin Redmen 11-8.

In BC last night the New Westminster Salmonbellies stayed unbeaten with a 10-4 win over the Langley Thunder. Chris Gill, Jordan McBride and Pete McFetridge scored two each in the win. Tyler Richards made 29 saves. Graedon Cornfield had two goals for the Thunder.