Editor’s Note: Like we’ve told you before, box lacrosse in Canada is a BIG DEAL during the summer months, guys return home from their NLL seasons and some even migrate during the weekdays of the MLL season back up to Canada to play for his own club. Ontario based, Major Series Lacrosse is one of the world’s premier lacrosse leagues and Tim Weston of Blue Collar Lacrosse will be keeping us up to date on the rest of the season and the journey through the playoffs. We’re talkin’ MSL Senior A, the cream of the crop.
Photo Credit: Tim Prothero
Locking Up 3rd & 4th Place
Oakville Rock have an uphill battle but can still make MSL playoffs.
While Brooklin has 1st locked up and Peterborough looks to have a firm grasp on 2nd place in the MSL; the battle will go down to the wire to decide 3rd and 4th playoff ranking. (Keeping in mind Peterborough dealt with a solid blow by the league officials having to forfeit three games they won due to playing Scott Evans whom had not served a suspension resulting from leaving the bench and getting into a fight last season.)
Kitchener Waterloo (KW) have slipped into 3rd place for the time being thanks to a win Tuesday night over Brampton 9-8; in large part due to a big game from Ryan Benesch (3g, 2a) and some solid goaltending from Steve Fryer stopping 42 of 50 shots.
Hope for Oakville
As for the Oakville Rock, their playoff hopes were dealt a major blow on Monday night after losing to Brooklin 9-8. The Rock held the lead for most of the game, however the comeback of John Lafontaine with two huge goals put Brooklyn within striking distance, the second goal starting a run of three that put Brooklin ahead.
The Rock were able to battle back twice until Brooklin was able to secure the ball with 13 seconds left on the clock and call a timeout to set up a final play. Pulling the goalie, they went six on five and with 3 seconds left before Kiel Matisz was able to find the cage with a behind the back rip. While Brooklin was fortunate enough to have Cam Holding back and fresh from Canada’s FIL gold medal victory, the Rock were not so fortunate by still missing Jordan MacIntosh & Jason and Jeremy Noble, whom without question could have tipped the scale in the Rock’s favor.
There is however a slight hope for the Oakville Rock as they have three games remaining and their next two are against Six Nations; whom they have found a way to win against earlier this year at home 13-11. The Rock owe a debt of gratitude to Brooklin as they were able to pull off a similar victory against Six Nations on Wednesday night with another extra attacker goal scored by Curtis Knight on a feed from Shawn Williams with only 5 seconds remaining in the game.
If the Rock are able to pull off two victories in the next 2 games against Six Nations it very well could come down to both teams’ final game of the season where Six Nations will play KW and the Rock face Brooklin, whom most likely will be resting some of their better players in lieu of the playoffs.
While it’s not so obvious who is going to be the four teams to enter post season; what is obvious is that with so few games left in the schedule and such a tight race clearly there is a lot of parity in the league.
