Call for the drug testing, force a roster breakup….the London Werewolves Senior Master’s Team had a 2 (count em….TWO) game winning streak after last Friday night’s game. Unprecedented!

Driving up to Midland for the first game, the omens were not good – cancellations and inability to attend due to work, hockey (really?), golf (double really?) put the expected roster of runners at 6-7 – not a good thing. The 10:00pm dressing room seemed empty with only 5 runners but JKOW was on his way – 6 runners, no problem – we’re stupid/tough. The game against perennially strong Huntsville team started well, 2 quick goals from Mike, our new recruit from Barrie,  and we were looking for a reason to have the game called so we could retire ahead of the game. Unfortunately we had to keep going and Huntsville clawed back to lead by 1, 2-3 at the end of the 1st. Jason, arriving late due to tardiness (and traffic, or so he says) added a couple in the 2nd and with one more goal the Wolves were up by 2, 5-3. One more period to go….WHAT could go wrong? Russ added 1 but Huntsville replied, so we were going in to the last couple of minutes up 6-4. Then Tom took a penalty to make life interesting – Huntsville power play with just over 2 minutes remaining – could the Wolves hold on or would we be sent whimpering to the dressing room to drown our sorrows…again? Then, taking a page from the Team Blair handbook, ahead by 2, time running out, Russ forced a (weak and totally unneeded) shot at the Huntsville net…and hit their player – dangerous shot, already a man in the box and less than 2 minutes to go – not sure what the exact rule interpretation is, but Huntsville was awarded 2 penalty shots! WONDERFUL! They scored on the 1st one but their key shooter, tripped, stumbled and shot into the goalies’ chest (not entirely sure in what particular order) and hope came back to life. Less than a minute to go the Wolves defense was able to get to a loose ball and get it down the floor and another London goal was scored. Time ran out on a London 7- Huntsville 5 score – and the crowd went wild! 2 wins in  row and a .750 winning percentage for the season! Unbelievable! There was serious discussion about total team retirement on a winning note but unfortunately the threat of forfeiture fines brought everyone back to reality.

Saturday, with a couple of player additions, things returned to a semblance of normality – Durham struggled a bit but was able to score early and then maintain their lead over London resulting in a Durham 7 – London 5 final. Close game and with some luck things could have ended far differently. In the late Saturday game, Beaches started strong and threatened to run up the score early but the Wolves bore down and kept picking away. Beaches players were outraged at our lack of respect for their innate destiny(privilege) to always win and began to take some questionable penalties. Alas, too little and too late, Wolves were not able to seal the deal with the game ending Beaches 7 – London 5.  For Sunday morning, we were down a player but were able to trade some used socks and a couple of balls to return Chris Tighe to our roster from his unforgivable defection to the Barrie team. A quick and enjoyable game was had but unfortunately not a symmetric end to the weekend  – no 7-5 win, or even a portentous numeric omen of another 7-5 score – …sigh…. Barrie held on to win over a surprisingly strong London team – Barrie 8 – London 5. All games close and competitive – 2 new recruits for the rest of the summer that should make a difference….things are looking up -(Hope Springs Eternal  ™ version).  On to the ‘Boro for the June 5-7 tournament!

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The excitement was palpable at Kinsmen last night as the world waited for the start of the 2015 LMLHL 2015 season. Would Team Juniors be able to defend their championship? Would Team Joe, decimated by retirements, under new ownership and rebranded as Team Bill be able to incorporate their new players into a coherent force? Would Team Russ be able to field a team when only 4 runners were in the dressing room 5 minutes to game time? Would Team Blair be able to rebound from their soul crushing last place finish (even though they did receive very nice Participant-Thank You For Attending! certificates) last year? The only way to find out would be on the battlefield/floor!

The first game – TEAM BILL vs. TEAM RUSS. Goalscoring looked to be hard to come by early on. Uncharacteristically, both goalies stopped the first few shots and the play was back and forth with lots of ball movement and lots of shots off the posts. First period ended with TEAM RUSS ahead 3-2. After some titanic faceoff struggles between the JKOW and Kyle Fairweather, TEAM RUSS was able to outscore TEAM BILL 4-2 in the 2nd, and the period ended with a 7-4 score. In the 3rd TEAM BILL  pressed hard but (surprisingly) strong goaltending at both ends kept the score low with time running out on a TEAM RUSS 8 – TEAM BILL 6 final score. Pretty sure that once the runners scrape the rust off of their games, scoring will return to normal levels.

In the 2nd game (TEAM JUNIORS vs. TEAM BLAIR) goals were few and far between as well.  Team Juniors, with a full bench and looking very strong and Team Blair with a short bench and missing a couple of their key players battled hard with the first period ending with the teams tied at 2. In the 2nd, TEAM JUNIORS were able to get 2 goals past Gord and Trevor was able to shut down Team Blair’s shooters completely. In the 3rd, Ian Gordon finally solved the Team Junior defense and forced a bunch of goals past Trevor. Final score Team Blair 9 – Team Juniors 6.

Good fast games, no penalties in the 1st game, only a couple in the 2nd. None of the teams look to be overwhelmingly strong but we will wait for a couple more weeks before considering any roster adjustments.

On to Week #2, Wednesday, May 6, 2015 Kinsmen Arena

TEAM JUNIORS  vs. TEAM BILL     8:00pm – 9:00pm

TEAM BLAIR  vs. TEAM RUSS     9:00pm – 10:00pm

London Senior Masters are in Midland for a tournament this weekend looking for their 2nd win of the 2015 season. See some of you on the weekend and the rest next Wednesday.

For the sizing and numbering of the new pinnies, I will try and post a list of what I have so far today or tomorrow – anyone not on the list please email me to pick an appropriate size (based on what other, similar size teammates have chosen) and favorite number. We are trying to finalize the order next week to get the pinnies before we get too far into the season.

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E-Champions – 7-6 winners in sudden death overtime!!! – parade route and timing to be announced shortly, banner raising ceremony planned for opening night next year.

Masters Provincials Tournament was held this weekend at the Toronto Rock practice facility in Oakville. The London Masters Werewolves entered the tourney a solid 12th (of 12 teams) relegating us to the pool of death against Halton Hills (#1), Brampton (#2) and Six Nations (#9) – not  a good omen for keeping the goalie’s self esteem high. Oh well, we can always be the spoilers as Masters’ tournament tie breaker is goals against, so our explosive offense can easily knock someone out (and has in the past).   Friday night started off not too badly with a 3-6  loss to Six Nations. Anytime we can stay within 5 goals of Nations is a moral victory. More than 3 spares on the bench helped with defense and an early 8:00 game time allowed for lots of discussion and strategizing in the beer garden and restaurant/bar afterwards. Saturday morning game vs Brampton ended in a 1-8 loss, not too much positive other than we kept them from double digits. The afternoon game promised some excitement – top ranked Halton was already 0-2 and out of the running to repeat their 2013 Sr. championship. Could we rub their noses in a first to worst tumble – probably not. Halton went ahead early but London kept picking away getting to within 1 before a late penalty killed the comeback attempt. Final score was another loss, 5-7, flushing the Werewolves to the Toilet Bowl game on Sunday against the ‘Boro Boys (Team moto: “Our drinking team has a lacrosse problem”). Not sure how last and 2nd last end up being the E final instead of the F final – whatever, maybe Halton just didn’t want to play on the turf side of the arena! Peterboro got off to an quick lead scoring 20 seconds in and then the London goalie’s inability to comprehend over the shoulder shots quickly made it 3-0. Not a good start…again. PBoro made it 4-0 before London made an appearance on the scoresheet. A couple of nice power play goals and some memorable, titanic face off battles (and victories) by the infamous JKOW brought London close, tieing the score and eventually pulling ahead by 1, 6-5 late in the 3rd period. A should-have-been-easy-to-stop shot from PBoro late tied it up and it looked like London was going to finish with a draw – tied for 11th spot still sounds better than tied for last…it’s all about the narrative. BUT…..apparently OT was to be played for these crucial championship matches – soooo….. 5 minutes of Sudden Death! WONDERFUL, London can still claw defeat from the jaws of, if not victory at least not defeat. Sudden death was…exciting, Peterboro getting a chance and hitting the goalie in the chest protector on their only shot. But London was able to pick up the rebound and push the play down to the PBoro end. Then Russ, in his continued jihad against goalies, got the ball in the corner, cut across the front of the net and buried one to WIN! THE! GAME! FOR! LONDON! E (or F…whatever) Champions for 2014. Always good to win the last game of the season – makes it easier to come back for another kick at the can next year.

Other London results in Oakville – a short benched Forest City Danglers (London Jr. Masters) were 1-2 and eliminated Saturday night. Ashmore and Bricknell, playing for the what appeared to be a fast, highly talented Orangeville Jr. were undefeated in the round robin and semis but lost in the finals to Bramalea Jr. 2-3 in what must have been an interesting game.

For the Senior Championship, Toronto Beaches Sr. survived a semi final scare against Durham Sr., tieing it up with 11 sec to go and winning in overtime to claw their way to the finals where they coasted to an 8-1 victory over Six Nations.

Overall a good time appeared to be had by all – great facility, good Mill Street draft served by …very nice bartenders – it’s why we still play the game.

On to next year.

Stay tuned for some archival pictures that have been excavated from depths of history that should be embarrassing to some members of LMLax.

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