3 WINS! _{1 loss}. BEST TOURNAMENT IN RECENT MEMORY! Now up to 4 tournaments , 6 wins! Increased 2015 win total by 100%. The superlatives are unending. Funny how winning a few games and being competitive is so much more enjoyable. Everyone smiling, aches and pains much less noticeable, beer tastes better! Have to get a few more data points to confirm this.

The Werewolves made the trek up to Fergus on Friday night with the expectation of a full roster. Everyone healthy (more or less), the addition of Ian Gordon and Jeff Williamson to the line charts, and only missing a couple of regulars made for a full, (and at least on paper) strong roster. And the expectations were fulfilled quickly on the floor – 3 goals in the first coupled with strong defense put the Werewolves up 3-0 at the end of 1. In the 2nd the London lead increased to 4 before Durham started to pick away, adding a couple of power play goals to end the 2nd  with the Wolves still leading 4-2. In the 3rd London tried to put Durham away by adding a couple more but Durham kept coming back scoring 3 goals to bring it to within 1 with 4 minutes to play. London clamped down on the defense and Durham was unable to tie it up – end result London 6 – Durham 5. 4th tournament, 4th win, the streak continues!

Saturday morning the opponent was Peterboro (motto – “Our drinking team has a lacrosse problem”) reinforced with a handful of Beaches Sr players. For the first time in a long time London was able to light up the Beaches goalie more or less at will scoring 6 in the 1st, 3 more in the 2nd and 2 in the 3rd while keeping the P’boro scoring to 4. Final score London 11 – Peterboro 4. 2 games, 2 wins – we’re in some uncharted waters here. Whispering around the arena “Who are those players in the dayglo yellow shooting shirts and why are they playing for ….LONDON?”

For the afternoon game the opponent was Six Nations, also 2-0 for the weekend, with a full bench and ready to rumble. And a rumble it was. Lots of end to end play, good scoring chances, great defense and monumental faceoff battles. But, surprisingly enough, London pulled ahead early and held on to a comfortable lead for most of the game. Some intense play led to a couple of players hitting the showers early and to more penalty minutes that usual. London maintained a comfortable cushion and the Six Nations shooters were, for the most part, kept away from the Werewolves net – the game ended  London 7 – Six Nations 3. Wait! What? – London 3-0 in the tournament? 24 goals scored! GAA of only 4.00! Call for the pee cups for drug testing, check the rosters for illegal players, ….this just can’t be happening!

Unfortunately all good things must eventually come to an end. For the Sunday game a couple of key players were missing, one due to a nagging injury, another due to misplacing their car after a birthday party (really?) but the bench still had 10 runners so, better than usual! Niagara went up by a couple of early easy goals but London quickly tied it up again, the period ending tied 2-2. In the 2nd London scored one and was dominating possession time and scoring chances but was unable to reliably solve the Niagara goaltending duo. Things were still looking positive but Niagara tied it up and got 2 more to exit the 2nd up by 2. In the 3rd London was still dominating the play but Niagara started to pull away, scoring 2 more to up their lead to 4 goals. But wait, the game isn’t over till the fat lady sings… Jeff with a laser shot, Ian with a nice bouncing shot goal and things were interesting again, Another goal and another spectacular goal from Ian and London was within 1 with 2 minutes to go. Pressing hard in the last minute, looking for the tieing goal….an errant pass, picked off for an uncontested breakaway, a looping ball, dropped over the goalies shoulder….sigh….. game over! Final score Niagara 8 – London 6. Not the result we would have wanted but not too shabby, none the less.

6 points for the weekend moves us out of last place and hopefully allows for slightly better seeding in the Provincials. We’ve always known that we have been a couple of key players short of being competitive, and with this year’s addition of 4(!) key players, the Werewolves are now more than competitive. We can play with, and surprise any of the other teams. Bring it on! Next… the Niagara tournament – August 7-9 weekend. Pretty hard to increase the wins total by 100% again but try we must!

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The benches were loaded for the first game last night. A much better turnout for Team Bill  and the return of Jon Low raised hopes for Team Bill to make some noise in the standings over the last few weeks of the season. First period seemed to be pretty tight but a couple of pretty in close goals from the Brick allowed Team Juniors to end the period up by 1 – leading 3-2. Another goal by the Brick gave him the hattrick but Team Bill was able to score a few as well and the teams end the 2nd tied at 5. The close game seemed to raise the tension level a bit and there appeared to be more than the usual amount of players congregating in the penalty boxes for extended periods of time…sigh….. Both teams settled down to play lacrosse in the 3rd and Team Juniors were able to score 3 while holding Team Bill to a single goal and the clock ran out for another Team Junior victory – final score 8-6.

In the late game Team Russ started fast capitalizing on the Team Blair goalie’s inability to (a) Stop bounce shots near his stick and  (b) Stop shots dropped over his shoulder…. Team Russ quickly built up a 3 goal lead and appeared to be looking to cruise to an easy victory. Team Blair’s scorers finally got on the scoreboard and pushed in a couple of goals to close the gap to 1 with the period ending with Team Russ ahead 4-3. In the 2nd, Team Russ again pulled ahead, outscoring Team Blair 4 to 1 with the period ending with Team Russ up 8-4. Should be easy to hold on to a 4 goal lead…..right? right? …apparently not. In the 3rd everything went Team Blair’s way, one goal after another,  they kept picking away at the scoreboard. With Billy Byers chipping in a couple of goals from low shots from the high slot and a couple of calls going against the JKOW Team Blair was able to tie up the game and go ahead by one with a minute left in the game. Good ball discipline and a couple of lucky possession calls allowed time to run out for a Team Blair victory 9 – 8 over Team Russ – pretty good comeback (collapse) 5 – 0 goal scoring in the 3rd.

Both games close and interesting… and more than a little bit unpredictable – probably not a good idea to put the retirement savings on any particular week’s betting line.

Next is Week #12 and with Trevor on holidays it will be goalieG vs. goalieG in both games. Wednesday July 22, 2015 Kinsmen Arena

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

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

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So much for a full turnout to start up the season’s stretch run! Team Bill showed up with only 5 runners – not a good sign! With an emergency reinforcement provided by the super versatile Justin Phelps, the game was on. Team Bill was quickly up by 2 on a couple of quick goals from Kyle Fairweather but Team Russ quickly got these back plus a couple more. Team Bill  fought back to end the period tied at 4. In the 2nd Team Russ pulled ahead getting goals from their go-to scorers/goalie tormentors – Dylan and Jason, but Team Bill kept capitalizing on the Team Russ goalie’s inability to stop anything smaller or faster than a beach ball. After falling behind by 4, Team Bill crept back into the game and scored at the period buzzer to close the gap to 2, trailing 7-9 at the end of 2. In the 3rd, Team Russ again pulled ahead by 4 , but Team Bill scored one and then with lofty ambitions, Kevin Loft scored a pretty one handed goal (no surprise there!), his 1st in 2 years to bring it to within 2 again. Another easy goal against the Team Russ goalie and the score was within 1 with less than 2 minutes to go. A couple of ball possessions punctuated by some unforced giveaways followed, but Team Bill was too tired to get another shot on net which would likely have tied the game….Team Russ ran out the clock for a unexpectedly hard fought victory 11-10. Much closer than it should have been but a fun game nevertheless.

In the 2nd game both teams struggled to get untracked in the 1st. Strong goaltending at both ends kept everyone off the scoresheet and the 1st period ended scoreless. In the 2nd Team Blair started to pick away at Trevor and were up by 5 before Team Juniors woke up. After alternating a couple of goals, Team Juniors seemed to bear down and popped in a two quick ones including a low level laser shot from Ashmore to close the gap to 2 at the end of 2. The game was starting to get interesting again… 6-4 on the scoreboard, Team Blair back on their heels, Team Juniors with some momentum. But another spectacular comeback/monumental choke was not to  be, Team Juniors’ momentum ground to a halt. Team Blair scored 3 and held Team Juniors to 1 to coast to a surprisingly easy 9-5 result.

Next is Week #11, Wednesday July 15, 2015 Kinsmen Arena

Team Juniors  vs.  Team Bill     8:00pm

Team Blair  vs.  Team Russ     9:00pm

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