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!

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It was a hot one at Kinsmen last night – not so much the calibre of play, just the temperature. First game started slow with neither team being able to get things going early. Team Blair, with a full bench, finally got their line matchups sorted and scored a few to build up a 3 goal lead before Team Juniors were able to respond with 1. Lots of Team Junior chances, only 1 goal… sigh…not a good omen….again!.  A last second Team Blair goal ended the period with Team Blair in the lead 4 – 1. 8 goals, 4 per side,  followed in the 2nd but definitely in streaks. Team Blair scored a couple early to up their lead to 5 and looking to cruise to an easy victory but Team Juniors were having none of this, scoring 4 in a row to close to within 1. Then the tides shifted again and Team Blair score a couple more, again with a very late goal to end the 2nd still leading by 3, Team Blair 8 – Team Juniors 5. As Trevor mentioned at the break – definitely a game of momentum – OK if the momentum has switched to your team! Already the requests for good PR spin were surfacing – “You will write up that we made it close? Right? We are getting a lot of chances! Right? And then the momentum changed….AGAIN! 3rd period was all Team Juniors – after allowing an early Team Blair tally, Team Juniors scored, and scored again and again and again (I like the sound of that!), pulling close and then knotting it up with a minute or so to play. A close, crease call with 10 sec left on a Jeff Williamson non-goal turns the ball over to the Juniors who move it quickly up the floor, pressing hard, the clock running out, Ashmore takes a desperate shot for the last second winning goal….and you can hear the sound of ball on plastic(or aluminum). Did it hit a stick head or shaft?…or a helmet or pad? 1.8 sec left….tied at 9…. dangerous shot penalty shot or let the time run out? Earnshaw, from the far end of the floor just shrugs, he didn’t see it…. but Kutch says the ball hit a stick – no penalty shot….but the ball is turned over to Team Blair anyway! A Hail Mary pass…dropped, no last sec goal to win the game. Game over, Team Blair 9 – Team Juniors 9. Fast, fun game, lots of players on both benches. Looks like Ian Gordon led Team Blair with 5 goals while Dave Bumstead led a more diverse Team Junior attack with 3 tallies.

In the 2nd game Team Bill was up against a very short benched Team Russ – only 1 spare, hot arena…this will not be pretty. Team Bill got a small lead early, up 2-1, but then Team Russ started to score and kept right on scoring. Led by perennial scoring threat Dylan English with 4 and adding Devon Reed’s 4 goals (blazing speed and an…interesting shooting style seemed to allow every breakaway chance to result in a goal). Team Russ led 5-3 at the end of 1, 8-5 at the end of 2 and 12-6 at the final buzzer. Not the first time this year that a short bench has come out on the winning side of the ledger. In the post game interview, Team Bill’s high priced free agent acquisition, Brent Yost blamed himself for not scoring more (only 2 tonight) as a result of choosing the wrong stick. He promised to do better next week. General consensus was that he should have fired his caddy mid game and asked one of the 2 female fans watching the game to help out on the bench with stick and shot selection – probably wouldn’t have helped but would have made for a much more visually interesting game.

On to the penultimate week of the regular season Wednesday August 5, 2015 Kinsmen Arena

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

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

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Lots of exciting lacrosse action at the Kinsmen barn last night. Both games with fast, back and forth action, lots of lead changes…fun to watch. Looks like the Fergus tournament upped the game levels for all of the Sr. Werewolves and Jr. Northmen that participated and revving their games made everyone else pick it up a notch as well.

In the first game Teams Bill and Blair exchanged goals with Team Blair exiting the 1st period ahead by 1, leading 4-3. In the 2nd it was all Team Bill, scoring 4 while only allowing 1, to close the period ahead 7-5. In the 3rd Team Bill scored a couple more to extend their lead to 9 but then Team Blair started to claw back. One goal, then another, then another until they were able to tie it at 9 late in the game. The last minute was all Team Blair, lots of chances but they couldn’t get that last goal to complete the comeback – the game ended tied, Team Blair 9 – Team Bill 9. Big Matt was the main goalie tormentor in this game – multiple goals and even more chances.

In the 2nd game Team Russ got off to an early lead but was unable to keep Team Juniors from scoring to keep it close. First period ended with Team Russ in the lead 4-3. In the 2nd Team Juniors maintained their consistency, scoring 3 more and holding Team Russ to only 1. Bit of a scare in the 2nd, the JKOW slipped going for a loose ball near the boards and went down hard, bouncing his head on the concrete. Luckily the concrete wasn’t damaged and the game continued after scraping Jason off the concrete and on to the bench. In the 3rd, Team Juniors were nothing if not consistent scoring another 3 goals  and again holding Team Russ to a single tally – final score Team Juniors 9 – Team Russ 6.

Last night’s games completed round 4 of the round-robin. With only 3 games to go it looks like the playoff pairings are pretty well set. Barring a total collapse by either Team Russ or Team Juniors coupled with a Team Bill 3 game winning streak, the playoffs will see Team Blair vs Team Bill and Team Juniors vs Team Russ. These matches should be both interesting and competitive – no team has an easy route to the Championship game – anything can (and likely will) happen. With playoff spots and pairing pretty well set, the last 3 weeks of the regular season should see mainly tweaking of line combinations and special team practice (well, at least special needs practice!). Expect to see players in their contract years padding their stats to help their negotiating stance to get those upcoming multi year, multi dollar, guaranteed contracts. Hopefully the defensive stalwarts will also be playing for their stats so as not to leave the goalies (too) unprotected!

Next week is Week #13 Wednesday July 29, 2015 Kinsmen Arena:

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

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

See you then.

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