Whether based on goalie performance in the Bronze game, or success from last week or just a random flip of the coin, Ashmore decided again that Team Juniors wanted to start with Justin in net, so the long awaited 2014 Gold Medal game was ready for the opening faceoff. Goalie choice appeared to be prescient as Team Juniors scored 4 goals quickly and seemed in complete control. Team Russ finally got to Justin and then a stray shot caught him on the chin opening up what appeared to be a fairly significant cut. After a few attempts to staunch the bleeding, Justin soldiered on keeping Team Russ at bay and only letting in 1 more goal to the half. Team Juniors kept upping the score and, in another strange strategic move, shook up Guntis with a couple of shots to the helmet just before the switch – always good to ring your goalie’s bell just before he has to play the rest of the game for you! At the switch it was Team Juniors 7 – Team Russ 2 – again would the 5 goal lead be enough? Second half was pretty good lacrosse, tight defense and close checking – hard times for the goalies as there were a couple of more shots to the masks at each end – Team Russ was able to score 6 but it was just not enough as Team Juniors were able to get 3 past Justin and run out the clock to the cheering of the crowd (surprising number of spectators!, at least 10 that I could count, maybe we should sell tickets). Final score Team Juniors 10 – Team Russ 8. Team Juniors are the winners of the 2014  LMHLL MemorialBraggingRightsUsedBallOfTape Trophy.

Once the obligatory handshakes and on floor celebrations were complete, most of the players and fans retired to the Alibi Roadhouse where the Gold and Bronze awards were presented and playoff and season long exploits were retold again and again and mocked in a suitably appropriate manner.

…..and now the countdown begins …..34 weeks to go until LMHLL 2015 begins – will salary cap space restrictions break up Team Juniors, who will retire, which team will be able to bring in any rookies or unrestricted free agents? Will the long rumoured expansion take place and how may $ will a new franchise be worth? We’ll just have to wait for 2015 to find out.

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Not sure who, if anyone, picked the goalie rotation for this game, but it was a fortuitous choice. Justin showed up at the last minute and looked shaky in the opening minutes. Team Blair was up by 4 in the first 10 minutes and Gord was stopping everything Team Joe could throw at him. It wasn’t until the 13 minute mark before Team Joe finally found the back of the net. Both teams settled down to some real lacrosse with Gordon scoring a very late goal to make it 5-2 after 1. Austin got this one back seconds into the 2nd and Team Joe was pushing hard and closing one goal at a time – Low scored just before the goalie switch to close the score to 6-5 and a pretty Low to Austin passing play tied it up shortly after the switch. But that was to be as close as Team Joe was going to get – Vlemmix with 3 straight and Platt with a nice long ball catch and goal opened up the game to make it 10-6 for Team Blair heading into the last few minutes. Low and Austin with a couple of goals made it tense but Platt with a close in goal closed out the scoring – Team Blair up 11-8, 3 minutes to go.  Somebody is going to have to explain to me this Team Blair strategy of taking last minute unforced penalties – leading by 3 in a tight game, Van Slyke takes an unsportsmanlike penalty with 3 minutes to go –  this could get interesting……but, the penalty shot was denied by Gord and Team Blair ran out the clock to win the coveted EveryWinnerHasToGetSomethingChampionOfTheLosersRound Bronze Award (Girl’s Lax Bobblehead version).

Final score Team Blair 11  –  Team Joe 8. Celebrations were cut short and Team Blair was encouraged to leave the floor as the marquee gold medal game was about to start……

The pregame anticipation was sky high and the fans were looking for a night of high speed, high energy lacrosse. Kinsmen Arena was in a festive mode as the regular season hardware (paperware?) was handed out (well, taped to the dressing room doors!) to Team Juniors and Team Blair. Rumour has it that Bill Merkley has offered a special deal to both Team Juniors and Team Blair on commemorative gold rings.

The goalie question was at the top of everyone’s mind – what would be the winning strategy? which goalie do you start with? The question was so important that it would appear that the first game’s choice was more or less random according to which dressing room was closest to the arena entrance. With respect to in game strategy, apparently there was some thought given to possibly allowing a breakway or two against Justin just before the halfway change just to try to put him off his game – hard to tell if this was implemented as it wouldn’t be much different from normal for any of the 4 teams. In any case, for the 2nd game Team Junior representative made the call, shoot on the easy target first and hope that Justin was tired enough in the 2nd half to be able to maintain a lead. This appeared to be a winning formula in Game #1 but as we are often told – past performance is no guarantee of future results! That’s why we play the games!

In the first game, Team Joe was heavily favoured having a 5-1-0 regular season record against their opponents but it appeared that Team Russ was prepared to prove the  ProLine odds wrong. Team Russ got to Gord early while Justin stymied the Team Joe shooters. Going into the half Team Russ was ahead 7-2. Would 5 goals be enough of a lead? ..and it quickly appeared that everything would fall apart – John Low gritted his teeth, put his head down and scored 2 quick goals by sheer force of will. A dangerous shot penalty and Lowsy scores another on the penalty shot and the lead is cut to 2. Another penalty and second penalty shot, but Team Joe is denied by Gord! Team Russ was able to kill this penalty but then an unsportsmanlike call and another penalty shot! (these tactics didn’t work very well for Team Blair last week, but maybe there was a carefully considered reason to try this again)…and again Team Joe was denied! Team Joe was able to score once more to pull to within 1 but Team Russ quickly got back on track and scored their 8th to break the momentum. Then a slight misstep in defender coverage allowed the JKOW to score 2 quick goals. Team Joe kept fighting back, scoring a few more but Gord blocked a number of critical late period chances to maintain the 2 goal lead and Team Russ ran out the clock knowing they were on their way to the finals – final score Team Russ 11 – Team Joe 9. Overall a very good game, close, back and forth play – what LMHLL is all about!

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