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Bruce Codd

Bruce Codd, Butch Keegan and Pat Coyle will forever be brothers in the Orangeville Northmen tradition. But today, that bond goes deeper as they all recently celebrated their inductions into the Orangeville Sports Hall of Fame. “In my many years of travelling around different arenas in Ontario, I was always drawn to the hall of fames … to have this in Orangeville now and be a member is an extreme honour for me,” Codd told Orangeville.com. Codd and Coyle both were defenders and both are decorated with championships. Codd won 3 Minto Cups, 2 Mann Cups, 1 Presidents Cup and 1 NLL title, while Coyle won 4 NLL titles with Toronto and 1 with Colorado. Keegan, meanwile, enjoyed a senior and professional career that saw him rack up 765 points. He won a Mann Cup in 1965 and was a member of Team Canada in 1967.

What does Calgary's Geoff Snider have to do to win the NLL Transition Player of the Year award? (Photo: Larry Palumbo)

The National Lacrosse League season has come and gone and what remains to be valued for an entirety is the awards levied on the performers for the 2013 campaign. Some award winners would be regarded as obvious and others not so much, nothing out of the ordinary here. Award decisions are the challenges of any league in any sport. The process in all walks of lacrosse has been flawed for years. The reason for this inadequacy is the lack of journalists covering the NLL, senior or junior lacrosse unlike other professional sports. Those dedicated journalists covering their sports daily to break down the week-to-week action and monthly segments that make up a season of a sport, those same journalists that vote on awards. (Read More…)

Gavin Prout is a veteran willing to contribute however he can. Now he'll bring his game back to Brooklin. (Photo: Tim Prothero)

Gavin Prout was looking forward to returning to Major Series Lacrosse with the Peterborough Lakers this summer after a National Lacrosse League season that didn’t end the way he would have liked. Now, as it turns out, his return will be with the Brooklin Redmen, the team with which he won a Mann Cup when he was the MSL rookie of the year back in 2000. Prout was dealt, along with defender Mike Hobbins, to Brooklin in exchange for defender Stephen Hoar.

“I was pretty surprised myself,” the righty forward said of hearing that he’d been traded. “I was actually talking to [Peterborough GM Jamie] Batley about what my role was going to be on the team. I understand where he’s coming from. He has a couple of holes back on the defensive end with some of the guys who aren’t coming back with injuries and things and obviously that’s not my forte. He wanted me to potentially come and play a bit of a transition game but with Steve Hoar he’s made a good trade for what’s best for Peterborough and I thank him for my time in the Boro and we’ll go from there.” (Read More…)

Joel McCready, left, led the way for Langley in last night's win with 4 goals and 3 assists. (Photo: Dan Brodie)

The Langley Thunder found out what life without Lewis Ratcliff would be like. And the Maple Ridge Burrards welcomed back life with Curtis Dickson. And waaaaay over in Ontario, the Junior A Barrie Lakeshores are celebrating an early-season, but all the same exciting, victory over the Orangeville Northmen. It gives Barrie a 3-0 record this season, matching its win total already from all of 2012. That’s the kind of action fans were treated to on Sunday and to think, the season of summer lacrosse is just getting started. Ratcliff, of course, is out for 2 seasons as he serves a suspension, and Dickson, of course, is back on the floor after missing most of last season with injury. (Read More…)

The Maple Ridge Burrards are eager to show off an improved offense from their 2012 season. (Photo: Dan Brodie)

The Maple Ridge Burrards are absolutely stoked to get 2013 started. And really, can you blame them? Winning just 4 Western Lacrosse Assocation games in 2012, the Burrards believe they’ll do an about-face this summer and team president Lance Andre is brimming with confidence. “We’re going to be one of the highest-scoring teams in the league,” Andre told The Maple Ridge News. “It’ll be exciting.” Sounds bold, but when you have Curtis Dickson back in the lineup after he missed most of last season with an injury, you understand. Throw in the addition of Aaron Pascas, who also missed time with injury, and Joel Dalgarno, who missed all of 2012 for work commitments, and the Burrards are eager to test their new lineup. They’ll get that chance tonight when they open their 2013 season tonight against the Langley Thunder as they take the first step toward turning around a 4-13-1 season from a summer ago.

The Gaels survived back-to-back scares against the Mimico Mountaineers and the Oakville Buzz on Thursday and Friday, respectively. Both teams managed to keep the game close, with both games being tied with under ten minutes to play.

On what turned out to be a significant night in Green Gaels history, the Gaels fought back on home turf for an 8-7 victory over the Mimico Mountaineers. In a frustrating game to watch for the teams coaching staff and management, the Gaels were performing well below their ability, with constant turnovers and mental mistakes becoming evident for the first time this season. Couple that with a strong performance from a gritty, hardworking Mimico team, the Gaels fell behind for the first time this season 9:49 into the third period on a powerplay goal from James Barclay, his second of the night. (Read More…)

The St. Catharines Saints and Norwood James Gang both remained perfect, each posting their fifth straight win to open the OLA Senior B season Saturday, and they’re on target for a clash of the titans in two weeks. St. Catharines rode Corey Fowler’s 7-point night (3g, 4a) and a hat trick from transition man Jay Thorimbert to a 16-9 thrashing of the Owen Sound North Stars. Norwood blanked Sarnia 3-0 in the third period to pull out a gritty 6-4 win over the Beavers to keep pace.

The James Gang gave up the first goal to Sarnia but then replied with a trio of their own to lead 3-1 after the first period. Chad Evans got Norwood’s first two goals on outside shots then Greg Reilly buried a beautiful touch pass over a pair of defenders from Gavin Barrie. (Read More…)

Hard to believe a National Lacrosse League season has come and gone. But if you’re a Rochester Knighthawks fan, you have few complaints. And just in case you’ve already got the shakes of withdrawal, here’s a video highlight package of Rochester’s 11-10 win over Washington in the 2013 Champion’s Cup game.

Just a couple of days ago we told you about the brand spanking new Finnish Box Lacrosse League. Now, there’s more news out of Europe. Canadian ex-pat Jamie Plunkett is involved in the genesis of another league, this time in his adopted home country of Germany, where he’s been instrumental in the development of the  Deutschland Adler Lacrosse Club. The Adler web site has announced the creation of the Deutsche Indoor Lacrosse Liga. The new league will run during the summer months of July and August, with a couple of league game days and then a championship tournament. The Adler release mentions four teams that have already expressed interest in playing and the league welcomes more. And don’t panic if you get to the site and see German; just scroll halfway down the page for the English version of the announcement.

Defender Ben McCullough was named third star of Victoria's season-opening WLA win.

The Victoria Shamrocks have been loading up for a run at the Mann Cup this year. The early returns are positive—in the form of a 10-6 season-opening win over Coquitlam in which they outshot the Adanacs 63-39. The Shamrocks ran out to a 4-0 lead after the first period and only high save percentages by Nick Rose (.833 in the first period) and Adam Shute (.846 the rest of the way) kept the margin of victory from being bigger.

Scott Ranger scored a hat trick and Cory Conway assisted on 7 of the Shamrocks’ 10 goals. Corey Small scored once and added 4 assists to help Victoria’s cause. Shamrocks’ goalie Matt Flindell posted the exact same numbers as Shute did—33 saves on 39 shots—to earn the win.

Coquitlam’s scoring was spread around with six different players scoring goals. Eastern import Jesse Guerin was their points leader with a goal and 2 assists in his WLA debut. Guerin finished second in Major Series Lacrosse last year with 22 goals and 37 assists for 59 points in 14 games. (Read More…)