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B.C. Junior A, Brooklin Redmen, Coquitlam Adanacs, Langley Thunder, MSL, Ontario Junior B, Road to the Founders, Road to the Mann Cup, Road to the Minto Cup, Road to the Presidents Cup, Senior B, Six Nations Chiefs, WLA

Last night: Chiefs and Redmen can’t decide who’s the top team in Major Series Lacrosse

Cody Jamieson, here against Peterborough, scored 3 times for Six Nations. (Photo: Tim Prothero)

The Brooklin Redmen travelled to the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena Saturday to take on the Six Nations Chiefs with the situation clear for both teams. Win and you’re in first place. The teams entered the game with identical 5-1 records. After battling hard for 70 minutes, they exited with identical 5-1-1 records and nothing decided after a 9-9 tie that included a goal by each team in the 10-minute overtime.

The game was close throughout–the score was 4-3 Brooklin after the first period, 6-6 after the second and 8-8 after the third. Stephen Keogh scored at 3:47 of the overtime but Jake Hayes responded at 8:10 with the game’s final goal. READ MORE »

Brampton Excelsiors, Brooklin Redmen, IL Indoor, Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks, MSL, Oakville Rock, Peterborough Lakers, Six Nations Chiefs

MSL Power Rankings: No coincidence that rankings reflect goals against averages

Zack Higgins and the Redmen allow the fewest goals per game in MSL and sit atop the Power Rankings. (Photo: Tim Prothero)

Major Series Lacrosse is just under one-third of the way through its 2013 season (18 of 60 games played) and so far things are playing out more or less according to expected form. Brooklin and Six Nations still appear to be the teams to beat; they’re both 5-1 and look like they’d be ready to go if the playoffs started tomorrow. Peterborough is adjusting to a boatload of new faces in the lineup and looks great one night, a little shaky the next, needing more time to gel before trying to defend their Mann Cup title. KW is growingly competitive but still falling just a little short against the top teams; they won’t be an easy out come playoff time, assuming they are able to make it to the big dance. And Oakville and Brampton are battling hard, sometimes competitive but mostly just lacking the horses and/or experience to take a real run at the top clubs just yet. READ MORE »

B.C. Junior A, Brampton Excelsiors, Brooklin Redmen, MSL, Ontario Junior A, Ontario Junior B, Road to the Founders, Road to the Mann Cup, Road to the Minto Cup

Last night: Blowouts across the country

Shawn Williams had 8 points to lead Brooklin in a romp over Brampton. (Photo: Tim Prothero)

In a season that has seen plenty of close games, Wednesday was a night for a pair of blowouts in Major Series Lacrosse and the Western Lacrosse Association. The Brooklin Redmen regained a share of first place in MSL by thumping the Brampton Excelsiors 15-3 while the Langley Thunder moved within a game of the lead in the WLA by pounding the Nanaimo Timbermen 14-5.

In Brooklin, the Redmen led 7-3 after two periods then really opened up the throttle with an 8-0 third frame. Shawn Williams scored 2 goals and 6 assists and five other players had at least 3 points each, including Kiel Matisz with 2 goals and 2 assists and John Lafontaine with 2 goals and 1 assist. Steve Fryer stopped 23 of the 26 shots he faced to earn the win. Joe Resetarits was the only multi-point scorer with 2 goals and an assist for Brampton, which falls to 1-5. READ MORE »

Brampton Excelsiors, Brooklin Redmen, IL Indoor, Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks, MSL, Oakville Rock, Peterborough Lakers, Six Nations Chiefs

MSL Power Rankings: Redmen hold on to top spot for Week 2

John Lafontaine and the Brooklin transition game have helped keep the Redmen perfect so far. (Photo: Tim Prothero)

Major Series Lacrosse in 2013 is shaping up as an exciting, competitive league with a real mix of young speed and veteran wile. Both can be found on the league-leading Brooklin Redmen in spades. The back door features guys who can get the ball up the floor and know what to do with it like Cam Holding, John Lafontaine and Steve Priolo. The Redmen D comes at you in waves, making it hard to create good scoring opportunities and forcing the opposing O to be aware of their ability to break away and score. Then there’s Shawn Williams and Gavin Prout leading an offence that’s loaded with talent. No surprise that the Redmen are #1 in the Power Rankings and have everyone gunning for them. READ MORE »

B.C. Junior A, Brooklin Redmen, Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks, MSL, Ontario Junior A, Ontario Junior B, Road to the Founders, Road to the Mann Cup, Road to the Minto Cup

Last night: Brooklin Redmen improve to 4-0 with one-goal win over KW Kodiaks

Steve Fryer and the Brooklin defence held KW to 6 goals to earn an MSL win Wednesday. (Photo: Tim Prothero)

The Brooklin Redmen continue to find ways to win lacrosse games. The Redmen moved to 4-0 on the Major Series Lacrosse season by playing strong defence, getting a solid performance from goalie Steve Fryer and scoring just enough to eke out a 7-6 home win over the Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks Wednesday night. Brooklin got a pair of second-period goals, including a key shorthanded marker, from Shawn Williams then won the third period 2-1 to earn the victory.

The Redmen’s winning goal came when they had the tallest right side in the league on the floor. Kiel Matisz, Mike Triolo and defender Steve Priolo—averaging about 6′5”–worked together to create space and Triolo completed a high touch pass over a defender to Matisz, who walked towards the crease and snuck the ball past Dillon Ward at 11:39 of the third. READ MORE »

Brampton Excelsiors, Brooklin Redmen, IL Indoor, MSL, Peterborough Lakers, Six Nations Chiefs

Week 2 MSL Player of the Week Awards

Zach Higgins (right) named Defensive Player of the Week as Redmen remain only undefeated team in the MSL (Photo: brooklinredmen.ca)

There were six games in Week 2 of Major Series Lacrosse action.  On Monday night, the Six Nations Chiefs scored 6 in each period to breeze past the Oakville Rock 18-10.  The Rock turned around on Tuesday to defeat the Brampton Excelsiors 13-10 and the Brooklin Redmen edged the KW Kodiaks 11-9.  On Wednesday, Brooklin remained undefeated taking down the Six Nations Chiefs 10-9.  The Excelsiors travelled back to Peterborough on Thursday, dropping another one to the Lakers 13-8.  In the Sunday matinee, Six Nations Chiefs bounced back to defeat the Peterborough Lakers 12-9. READ MORE »

Brampton Excelsiors, Brooklin Redmen, IL Indoor, Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks, MSL, Oakville Rock, Peterborough Lakers, Six Nations Chiefs

MSL Power Rankings: Redmen win head to head battle for MSL early-season supremacy

Cam Holding and the Brooklin D/transition game have helped lead the Redmen to a perfect 3-0 start. (Photo: Tim Prothero)

Sometimes circumstances come together to make things easy on those of us tasked with compiling power rankings. This week that is the case with the Major Series Lacrosse schedule. Two teams that were early favourites in MSL—the Six Nations Chiefs and Brooklin Redmen—came out of the starting blocks with perfect 2-0 records. They shared one common opponent in Kitchener-Waterloo, with Brooklin downing the defending Mann Cup champion Peterborough Lakers in their other game while the Chiefs beat last year’s last-place team, the Oakville Rock. It would have been a tough call had that been the end of it, but the Redmen and Chiefs squared off in Whitby for a showdown that would decide top spot in the rankings. Unless something unforeseen happened. Like, say, the floor becoming unplayable mid-way through the second period. Thankfully for the IL Indoor Power Rankings—and more importantly for what turned out to be a great game—they were able to switch to another rink and finish the game. READ MORE »

Brooklin Redmen, Langley Thunder, MSL, Nanaimo Timbermen, Ontario Junior B, Road to the Founders, Road to the Mann Cup, Road to the Presidents Cup, Senior B, Six Nations Chiefs, WLA

Last night: Redmen pull out come from behind win in battle of MSL league leaders

Shawn Williams and the Redmen remained unbeaten with a 9-8 win over Six Nations. (Photo: Tim Prothero)

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but Cody Jamieson may have been reconsidering after the fact. The Six Nations Chiefs led the Brooklin Redmen 5-4 with 7:39 to play in the second period Wednesday night when referees Brent McCauley and Stephen Line made the proper decision to suspend play because slippery floor conditions were making it unsafe to continue. It was announced over the PA system that the game was being called, the teams lined up and shook hands and headed to their dressing rooms. But Jamieson had an idea that bore fruit. Officials checked the other pads in the Iroquois Park Sports Centre and found that Pad 3 was available as a game had just finished there. So the teams and fans headed over and completed what turned out to be the game of the year so far in Major Series Lacrosse, a 10-9 Brooklin win that leaves them as the only undefeated team in the league. READ MORE »

B.C. Junior A, Brampton Excelsiors, Brooklin Redmen, Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks, MSL, Oakville Rock, Ontario Junior A, Road to the Mann Cup, Road to the Minto Cup

Last night: Redmen move to 2-0 with 11-9 win over Kodiaks

Derek Hopcroft, here facing Peterborough last season, led Brooklin with a hat trick last night. (Photo: Tim Prothero)

Special teams often spell the difference between winning and losing. It’s usually power play goals that propel a team to wins, though. Last  night, the Brooklin Redmen scored 3 shorthanded goals, including a pair just 21 seconds apart in the third period to provide the margin of victory in an 11-9 win over the Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks. The win moves the Redmen to 2-0 on the young Major Series Lacrosse season and drops KW to 0-2.

Derek Suddons scored the first of the shorthanded markers at 17:10 of the second. It was the final goal of the period and gave Brooklin an 8-7 lead. They were up 9-7 when defender Jeff Gilbert took a checking-from-behind double minor at 5:25 that ostensibly gave KW an opportunity to get right back in the game. But Shawn Williams and Cam Holding scored during the second half of the penalty to extend the lead to what proved an insurmountable 4 goals. READ MORE »

Brampton Excelsiors, Brooklin Redmen, IL Indoor, Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks, MSL, Oakville Rock, Peterborough Lakers, Road to the Mann Cup, Six Nations Chiefs

MSL 3 Stars: A pair of Lakers and a Redman snag first week’s honours

Shawn Evans

There were only three games in the first week of the 2013 Major Series Lacrosse season, but there was no shortage of performances deserving of recognition in this summer’s first edition of the MSL 3 Stars. Both of last year’s finalists opened the season with wins, Peterborough taking out the Brampton Excelsiors 14-4 and Six Nations downing the Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks 10-6. The team seen as the most likely to wedge their way past the Lakers or Chiefs into this year’s league championship series, the Brooklin Redmen, strutted their stuff in a 15-9 win over Peterborough in Sunday’s game that wrapped up the week. Make the jump to see this week’s IL Indoor MSL 3 Stars. READ MORE »