Much nicer weather for lacrosse last night – cooler temperatures, happier goalies! and there is nothing more important than happy goalies!

First game was slow to start, Team Blair opened the scoring and built up a 3 goal lead before Team Russ was able to respond with 2 quick goals. A few more goals and the period ended with Team Blair ahead 5 – 3. With no water on the Team Blair bench there was some controversy about their goalie possibly offering to let in some Team Russ goals in exchange for some water…. there may have to be an investigation by the commissioner but with the typical number of goals allowed in a normal game it would be pretty hard to see any evidence of point shaving or collusion…. though Watergate does have a certain ring to it! In the 2nd, Team Blair popped a couple more goals but Team Russ bore down and scored 3, the period ending with Team Blair up 7-5. The 3rd period was all defense with both teams held to only a single goal. Lots of chances highlighted by missed open nets and hit goal posts! The action continued right to the last seconds with the buzzer finally ending the game, Team Blair on the winning side of an 8-6 score over Team Russ.

In the late game, both teams were missing a number of key players with Team Bill hurting the most with only a single spare on the bench. As has been the case in other games involving seriously short benches, Team Bill came out strong and pulled ahead for an early lead. The 1st period ended with Team Bill up by 2, leading 4-2 over Team Juniors. In the 2nd, Team Juniors pushed hard and scored 4 while the rapidly tiring Team Bill could only respond with 2 and the period ended tied at 6. At the start of the 3rd there was some pushing, shoving and cross checking at the initial faceoff – could Team Juniors have sent out their enforcer, Jacquie, to take Team Bill’s Lia out of the game? With the height differences, ANY cross checks would be either high sticking or illegal crosschecks! Luckily, cooler minds prevailed and the game continued. Team Juniors scored 3 and an exhausted Team Bill, pushing hard throughout was only able to counter with 1 and the game ended with a Team Junior victory 9-7.

After last night’s games a high level goolie meeting was held to discuss playoff goalie scheduling. To address last year’s regular season whining complaints about uneven goalie scheduling, special care was taken this year to try to make sure that goalies were evenly distributed among all of the teams… and it ended up surprisingly successful – goalie distribution was between 4-6 games per team, both for and against.For the playoffs we are going to put the onus back on the teams to actually have to think at bit (I know lacrosse players having to think, bizarre concept). For the first round of the playoffs, the 2nd place team gets first choice of goalie, then the 3rd place team picks from the remaining goalies. For the 2nd game, the 1st place team again gets their pick of goalies and the 4th place team either gets the unpicked goalie or has their choice. All of the goalies are pretty close in GAA so the strategy becomes…interesting – do you pick for best defense or strategically pick so that the other guys get someone you find easier to score against….. some thought will be required…or not.

Anyway, going into the final week, it looks like both games will be previews of the 1st round of the playoffs, Week #15 – August 12, 2015 Kinsmen Arena

Team Juniors  vs.  Team Russ     8:00pm – 9:00pm

Team Blair  vs.  Team Bill     9:00pm  – 10:00pm

On another note London Werewolves are off to Virgil for the Niagara tournament this weekend. Pretty hard to hope for another 100% increase in 2015 wins with only 4 games to play, but a couple (or more) wins would be nice to keep the win/tournament streak alive and the possibility of messing with the tender psyches of some of the other teams…PRICELESS! Even if we only get to qualify another couple of players for the Provincials while enjoying Niagara wine and craft beer – win-win! GO WEREWOLVES – AROOOOOOOOH!

G2