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CLax, Canadian Lacrosse League, Iroquois Ironmen, Toronto Shooting Stars

CLax: Iroquois Ironmen hold on to claim Creators Cup with 14-11 championship game win over Toronto Shooting Stars

Creators Cup MVP Travis Hill (left) and his brother Blue enjoy the fruits of their labour after Sunday's 14-11 win over the Toronto Shooting Stars. (Photo: Tim Prothero)

The Iroquois Ironmen jumped out to a 6-1 start, led 12-5 at half time and held on to win the Creators Cup 14-11 over the Toronto Shooting Stars Sunday. The Ironmen didn’t score for the final 22:59 of the game but made their lead hold up thanks in part to the play of goalie Jake Lazore, who made 40 saves as the Shooting Stars wound up outshooting the Ironmen 51-44 for the game.

Travis Hill scored a hat trick for the Ironmen and four other players had 2 goals each, including Josh Johnson who added 4 assists. Josh Ruys, Mack O’Brien, Aaron Grayson and Connor Daly each scored twice for the Shooting Stars, who bounced back and forth between starting goalie Gary Muzzin and backup Craig Robertson. Neither goalie had a strong afternoon. Their struggles combined with some accurate Ironmen shooting to produce a .682 save percentage that spelled much of the difference in the game. READ MORE »

CLax, Canadian Lacrosse League, Durham Turfdogs, Iroquois Ironmen, Niagara Lock Monsters, Toronto Shooting Stars

CLax playoffs: Ironmen and Shooting Stars book tickets to today’s Creators Cup final

Kraig Maracle scoring the overtime goal that sent the Iroquois Ironmen to the Creators Cup final. (Photo: Tim Prothero)

The Iroquois Ironmen are back in the Creators Cup championship game for the second straight year after a thrilling 16-15 overtime win over the regular-season champion Niagara Lock Monsters yesterday in the Canadian Lacrosse League semi-finals. The Ironmen, who lost last year’s title game to the Ohsweken Demons, will meet the Toronto Shootings Stars in the final. Toronto also had to go to overtime but pulled out an 11-10 win over the Durham Turfdogs in the second semi-final.

Iroquois overcame a 5-goal Niagara run to the mid-point of the fourth quarter and a 5-minute major penalty that kept star forward Chris Attwood off the floor until the final 2:20 of the game to earn the win. Kraig Maracle scored the winning goal on a rocket from outside. READ MORE »

CLax, Canadian Lacrosse League, Niagara Lock Monsters, Toronto Shooting Stars

CLax: Potter named top offensive player, O’Brien top transition player

Mack O'Brien showing the form that made him CLax's Transition Player of the Year. (Photo: Tim Prothero)

The Canadian Lacrosse League has announced Niagara Lock Monsters Andrew Potter and Toronto Shooting Stars Mack O’Brien as Clax major awards recipients for the 2013 season. Potter has been named the 2013 Clax Offensive Player of the Year while O’Brien was selected as the 2013 CLax Transition Player of the Year.

After being selected first overall in the 2013 Clax entry draft, Potter helped lead the Lock Monsters to an 11-3 regular season record. He finished the season second in league scoring registering 31 goals and 48 assists for 79 points. Potter also tied teammate Corey Fowler for a new CLax single season assists record with 48. Earlier this week, Potter was also named a 2013 CLax First Team All-Star.

“It was obvious early on that Andrew would be able to put up some big numbers but I think what most people don’t realize how good of a player he is at both ends of the floor,” said Lock Monsters GM / Head Coach Jeff Dowling. READ MORE »

Barrie Blizzard, Brampton Inferno, CLax, Canadian Lacrosse League, Durham Turfdogs, Iroquois Ironmen, Niagara Lock Monsters, Ohsweken Demons, Toronto Shooting Stars

CLax: All-Star teams

First-Team All-Star Ben McCullough pins All-Rookie Team member John St. John to the boards. (Photo: Tim Prothero)

The Canadian Lacrosse League has announced the 1st and 2nd Team All-Stars for the 2013 season. Niagara Lock Monsters rookie goaltender Connor Danko and teammate Andrew Potter both earned CLax first team honours. In nine regular season games, Danko posted a 7-1 record tying the Clax single season wins record. He also finished second in the league in both goals against average (10.20 GAA) and save percentage (.809). After being selected first overall in the 2013 Clax entry draft, Potter finished second in league scoring registering 31 goals and 48 assists for 79 points. READ MORE »

CLax, Canadian Lacrosse League, Toronto Shooting Stars

CLax: Glenn Clark named Coach of the Year

The Canadian Lacrosse League is pleases to announce Toronto Shooting Stars GM / head coach Glenn Clark as the 2013 CLax Coach of the Year.

In their first season in Toronto, Clark led the Shooting Stars to an 8-6 overall record good for second place overall. The Shooting Stars will now battle the Durham TurfDogs in the CLax semi-finals with their goals set on winning the 2013 Creator’s Cup.

“Glenn has played and coached at every level possible in lacrosse and his sense of professionalism in how we are trying to grow CLax has been terrific,” said CLax Commissioner Paul St. John. “Our league media crew as well as the Head Coaches voted Glenn the top CLax coach in 2013 for a job well done. As the leader of Toronto, Glenn guided the Shooting Stars to a second place finish overcoming the loss of two star players to the NLL (Derek Hopcroft and Angus Dineley).”

The 43-year old is the former head coach of the Toronto Rock of the National Lacrosse League, and also a former NLL player. Clark played in the NLL from 1998-2006 for both the Rock and the Philadelphia Wings. With the Rock, Clark won five NLL Championships.

Barrie Blizzard, Behind the Scenes, Brampton Inferno, CLax, Canadian Lacrosse League, Durham Turfdogs, Iroquois Ironmen, Niagara Lock Monsters, Ohsweken Demons, Toronto Shooting Stars

Blizzard debut blue turf in CLax season finale, beat Shooting Stars

Caleb Wiles, who, amazingly, scored on this play, and the Barrie Blizzard are 1-0 on their new blue turf. (Photo: Tim Prothero)

The Canadian Lacrosse League is preparing for the playoffs that start this Friday night when the Brampton Inferno play host to the Durham Turfdogs in the first quarter-final. The other quarter-final is a rematch of last year’s Creators Cup championship game when the Ohsweken Demons and Iroquois Ironmen meet at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena Sunday. Before the regular season passed into the rearview mirror, though, the final game held a new twist that CLax is excited about for next year. The Barrie Blizzard unveiled their new blue turf as they won their final game of the season, downing the second-place Toronto Shooting Stars behind a 6-point performance from Caleb Wiles (3g, 3a). The Blizzard, who finished last and will miss the playoffs, none the less played before an enthusiastic crowd reported to be 1,000 strong. The league will sport three of the blue turf floors in 2014, when it returns for its third season. First, of course, there’s the matter of crowning a 2013 champion. The semi-finals will be held Saturday April 20 at the ILA followed by the Creators Cup final the next day at the same venue. Niagara and Toronto, the top two regular season teams, will face the quarter-final winners on the Saturday.

Barrie Blizzard, Brampton Inferno, CLax, Canadian Lacrosse League, Durham Turfdogs, Iroquois Ironmen, Niagara Lock Monsters, Ohsweken Demons, Toronto Shooting Stars

CLax: Iroquois Ironmen pull out 14-13 overtime win to bolster playoff hopes

Jerome Thompson was instrumental in the Iroquois Ironmen's 14-13 overtime win Friday night. (Photo: Tim Prothero)

The Iroquois Ironmen made the Canadian Lacrosse League playoff race a lot more interesting last night by downing the Brampton Inferno 14-13 in overtime. Iroquois leapfrogged the Barrie Blizzard for the sixth and final playoff spot in CLax with the win, but both teams have one game to play. Iroquois can lock up the postseason berth by beating the Durham Turfdogs at 2 pm today in a game that can be seen live via JVI Video webcast. If they don’t, then the Blizzard can snag the berth back by beating the Toronto Shooting Stars at home on Sunday.

Toronto clinched second place and a first-round bye when the Inferno lost yesterday, meaning the playoff picture is almost set. The first-place Niagara Lock Monsters and the Shooting Stars receive a bye to the semi-finals, to be held April 20 at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena. The Creators Cup final is also there the following day. READ MORE »

Behind the Scenes, Buffalo Bandits, CLax, Canadian Lacrosse League, Colorado Mammoth, Editorial, IL Indoor, Minnesota Swarm, National Lacrosse League, Philadelphia Wings, Toronto Rock, Toronto Shooting Stars

Other pro leagues supplying solid depth players for National Lacrosse League

The 2013 NLL lacrosse season has been affected by late turnover in the month of March.

Unlike other class “A” professional sports, the NLL hasn’t seen a bunch of trade deadline moves or call ups from the minors. Instead the NLL has used the talents from CLax and NALL to fill out requirements for a playoff push.

Toronto’s Rock delved into the CLax market last season to sign defensemen Damon Edwards and Scott Johnston when injuries struck down Ryan Sharp and Phil Sanderson. This year the trend has continued with the signing of Roger Vyse, who was a Bandits castoff this past fall.

Down the road, the Bandits have also trended to some spinoff league signings with the addition of Nick Cotter from the Professional Lacrosse League Charlotte Copperheads and more recently tagging Derek Hopcroft from the CLax Shooting Stars of Toronto. Goaltender Scott Komer was an emergency backup for a weekend in 2013 that proved uneventful. READ MORE »

CLax, Canadian Lacrosse League, Niagara Lock Monsters, Toronto Shooting Stars

A stomach-churning win: Danko hurls then helps Lock Monsters clinch first place in CLax with 10-7 win over Shooting Stars

Connor Danko returned from digestive distress to help the Lock Monsters clinch the CLax regular season title. (Photo: Tim Prothero, VintageLax)

Connor Danko must have mis-read his sports goalie history. Glenn Hall et. al. used to puke before games, not during them. None the less, Danko returned from a brief stint of tossing his cookies on a quickly lonely end of the Niagara bench to lead the Lock Monsters to a 10-7 win over the Toronto Shooting Stars to clinch first place in the Canadian Lacrosse League’s 2013 season. The score was tied 6-6 early in the fourth quarter when Danko suddenly rushed to the Lock Monsters’ box, dropping his helmet just outside the door, and proceeded to bend over the bench and vomit behind it. A nearby  microphone even caught the sound of him retching before it was astutely muted on the webcast. READ MORE »

CLax, Canadian Lacrosse League, Durham Turfdogs, Iroquois Ironmen, Ohsweken Demons, Toronto Shooting Stars

Croswell earns win in his first CLax start

Kevin Croswell gave up just 6 goals to earn the win in his first CLax start. (Photo: Tim Prothero, VintageLax)

It didn’t take Kevin Croswell long to get used to the Canadian Lacrosse League, at least if his performance was any indication. Croswell made his first start with the Durham Turfdogs Saturday and was named the first star as he led the club to a 7-6 win over the Ohsweken Demons. He was happy to get the win; in fact, he was happy just to be playing again. “I guess I haven’t really played since early in the summer. I had a little stint there with Philly, getting into a couple of games but no real minutes in the last little while. It felt good to get in there and get a win.”

Croswell said with no knowledge of the league, he had to “just go back to basics: step out, watch the ball and hope for the best.” He was a bit surprised by the calibre of play. “it’s good lacrosse. It’s better than I thought. There’s really good players. You look at that Ohsweken team, they’ve got a lot of players who have played in the NLL or can play in the NLL. So far, so good. We’ll see what next week brings and keep going.” READ MORE »