NLL Insider

John Tavares, Steve Toll to help coach Akwesasne Jr. A Indians Lacrosse Club

Big news confirmed by the Akwesasne Indians on Friday. NLL and Team Canada stars John Tavares and Steve Toll will help coach the Junior A club this season, joining head coach Greg Philips and assistant Kevin Smart.

JT and Toll are two of the NLL’s greatest players; Tavares holds the league’s career goals (671), assists (749) and points (1420) records, while Toll, the 2007 NLL Transition Player of the Year, comes off his eighth 100+ looseball season and sits third all-time with 1,318 LBs. The Indians feature Inside Lacrosse Magazine’s Top Young Gun Rising Junior Lyle Thompson and No. 5 Young Gun Rising Senior Myles Thompson. The press release follows: READ MORE »

Jr. A’s gain valuable Minto Cup experience, look forward to hosting in 2010

Led by young stars and vets, the Coquitlam Junior ‘A’ Adanacs had a great season in 2009, winning the B.C. Junior ‘A’ Lacrosse League’s (BCJALL) regular season and playoff title. But the A’s could not match-up against the Eastern division’s top squads and that will lead change in Coquitlam, home of the next Minto Cup championships.

“To say 2009 was a great year is really an understatement,” offered Coquitlam GM Ken Wood. “They came together very quickly, got out of the gate fast and just kept building. I am exceptionally proud of the players and coaches to battle hard through out the playoffs. We met some very good competition that pushed us hard… nothing in the playoffs came easy.” READ MORE »

Minto Cup: Rewinding back to 1937 and some recent Minto trivia

With the ‘09 Jr. A season in the books after the conclusion of last night’s Minto Cup, the Orangeville Northmen garnering back-to-back Minto titles after a Game 3 win over the Brampton Excelsiors, a few more names and numbers got dropped in the CLA record books over the past couple weeks.

How many Minto wins does that make for Ontario now? Did the Northmen’s win move them up in the overall Cup haul? And where’s the love for Minto winning tenders lately? Find out the answer to those questions are more, after the jump. READ MORE »

Playoff Performer of the Year: Orangeville Northmen’s Adam Jones

For the second straight year, NLL Insider has named the Orangeville Northmen’s Adam Jones our Jr. A Playoff Performer of the Year, Jones also recently named ’09’s Junior of the Year after another stellar season playing for Canada’s top junior club.

Jones, who was also named the Minto Cup’s most outstanding player, won his second career national Jr. A title last night, leading the tournament in scoring with 28-points, the second highest tourney point total since the Minto changed formats in ‘03 (round robin & best of three final). READ MORE »

Minto Cup: Orangeville Northmen win Minto with 8-4 win over Excels

The Orangeville Northmen have captured their second straight Minto Cup, dropping the Brampton Excelsiors in the third and deciding game of this year’s national Junior A tourney, 8-4.

The final saw a clutch game from Northmen tender Nick Rose, solid D by Orangeville’s back-floor and another third period gear check called by Brampton head coach Brian Beisel, this time not going the Excels way and resulting in a delay of game penalty, an empty netter shortly following.

Check back to NLL Insider on Monday for more on Sunday night’s final, along with our selection for the ‘09 Jr. A playoff performer of the year.

This week

• Brampton knots things up: Saturday
• Adam Jones wins JOTY, plus other awards and All-Canadians: Saturday
• Orangeville take series lead, game ends in near riot: Friday
• Minto Final preview, team breakdowns, trends and head-to-head numbers: Friday
• Excels land spot in final with win over Adanacs: Thursday
• Minto Cup scoring records since format change: Wednesday

Minto Cup: Brampton Excels knot things up in classic back-and-forth battle, Minto to be decided tonight

Although Friday’s first game of the Minto’s best of three series ended in a near riot, last night’s Game 2 was a classic, showcasing some stellar lacrosse played from both sides, the Brampton Excels pulling out an 11-8 win to even their series against the Orangeville Northmen, the game winner coming from defender Adam McGourty towards the end of the third period on a fast break.

The Brampton win knots things up at a game apiece, which means this old school slugfest will go to a final, winner-take-all, gold medal match, live at the Powerade Centre at 7PM EST tonight.

After the jump, check out more backlash from last night’s beauty, and put the women and children to bed (unless they were planning on going to the game), cuz tonight’s Game 3 is gonna be one helluva close-out to a season series that has these guys out for blood.   READ MORE »

Minto Cup: Orangeville takes Game 1, equipment check sets tone for Game 2

When we said this recent Orangeville Northmen and Brampton Excelsiors war was one of the more heated rivalries the junior loop has seen in several years, we weren’t just throwing out empty hype, and the boys lived up to that billing last night during Orangeville’s 10-9 second period comeback win, the game ending with both head coaches, Matt Sawyer and Brian Beisel, enraged with one another after an equipment check call in the final half minute of the game let off an atom bomb in the arena.

After the jump, check out last night’s game breakdown, the two teams squaring off again tonight, the Nothmen trying to shut things down for the second straight summer. READ MORE »

Minto Cup: Orangeville Northmen vs. Brampton Excelsiors Series Preview

It’s turned into one of the more heated series the Jr. A game has seen in recent years, the Orangeville Northmen and Brampton Excelsiors, the two teams that are just hours away from going head-to-head at this year’s Minto Cup final (best of three series).

The two OLA reps have already battled each other this year a total of ten times, twice during the regular season, a full seven game Ontario final war of a series, and once during round robin play earlier this week (Northmen lead the ‘09 season series 6-3-1).

After the jump, check out who’ll need to do what to pull out the W’s this weekend, who excelled and who was contained in their ten previous games this year, and more on the ‘09 Minto Cup Final. READ MORE »

Minto Cup: Brampton vs. Coquitlam Act II, Final Starts Friday

The Minto final is set and it’s an all-Ontario affair, the Orangeville Northmen and Brampton Excels meeting up again after going to war earlier this month in the OLA championship, that series of course going a full seven gruelling games.

Last night the Excelsiors sent the Coquitlam Adanacs home early, doubling up on the BCJALL champs 12-6, a night earlier the Adanacs beating those same Excels to close out round robin play.

The all-OLA gold medal series is the second time in the last four years that two teams from Ontario battle for the Minto title, the Peterborough Lakers and Six Nations Arrows playing in the final in ‘06. READ MORE »

Minto Cup: Trevor Moore on pace to make some history, maybe

The Coquitlam Adanacs offensive leader and Junior of the Year finalist, Trevor Moore, could be on pace to make some Minto Cup history this year in Brampton, if his boys can extend their season tonight.

Since the Minto invited an Alberta rep to the national dance in ‘03, the highest single player goal total (aka Minto scoring champ) has been passed around between some of the game’s biggest current names at both the NLL and Sr. A level. The best single tourney total since the Minto format change is shared between Dane Dobbie and Craig Conn, both posting 29 points, Dobbie with the Burnaby Lakers in ‘05 and Conn with his hometown St. Kitts A’s in ‘03. READ MORE »