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Alberta Junior A, B.C. Junior A, Ontario Junior B, Road to the Founders, Road to the Minto Cup, Road to the Presidents Cup, Senior A, Senior B

Last night: Saints & James Gang remain perfect in OLA Sr B, plus all the scores

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 »

Burnaby Lakers, Coquitlam Adanacs, Nanaimo Timbermen, Ontario Junior A, Ontario Junior B, Road to the Founders, Road to the Mann Cup, Road to the Minto Cup, Senior A, Victoria Shamrocks, WLA

Last night: Shamrocks and Timbermen win Western Lacrosse Association openers

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 »

IL Indoor, Ontario Junior A, Ontario Junior B, Road to the Founders, Road to the Minto Cup, Road to the Presidents Cup, Senior B

Last night: James Gang continue perfect run to start the season

The Norwood James Gang are out to prove that the Ontario Senior B lacrosse league isn’t a one-team race, and so far they’re doing a pretty good job of it. The St. Catharines Saints are getting lots of attention for the additions they’ve made to the team that already won the last two league titles and earned medals at the last two Presidents Cups. But Norwood has made some additions as well, and they’ve come out to a 4-0 start with last night’s dominating 15-6 win over the Brooklin Merchants, who knocked them out in the first round of playoffs last year.

“We play every year to win. We put out the best effort and we want a championship,” James Gang forward Matt Evans told IL Indoor after the game. “Every year we have a shot, this year I think we have a great chance at it. We’ve got a couple new additions and some real good guys coming off long layoffs.” READ MORE »

Alberta Junior A, B.C. Junior A, CLA, IL Indoor, Inside Lacrosse, Ontario Junior A, Road to the Minto Cup, The Buzz

Queens Park Arena to host 2013 Minto Cup

Get ready B.C. lacrosse fans, high-energy, high-skilled, intense lacrosse action is coming your way this August as the Minto Cup is returning to British Columbia for the 2013 Minto Cup championship. Hosted by the British Columbia Lacrosse Association (BCLA) and the BC Junior ‘A’ Lacrosse League (BCJALL), the Canadian Lacrosse Association’s (CLA) Canadian Junior ‘A’ National Championship will operate in its current four-team format. The championship will start with round-robin play on Saturday August 17 at Queens Park Arena in New Westminster, B.C. After four days of round-robin play, the championship round will begin Thursday August 22 with the final two teams competing for the coveted title in a best-of-five playoff series. READ MORE »

IL Indoor, Road to the Minto Cup

CLA unveils changes to Minto Cup format

The four parties that comprise the Minto Cup Committee, a standing committee of the Canadian Lacrosse Association (CLA), have come to an agreement that will see a change in how the premier Junior ‘A’ national championship, the Minto Cup, is formatted. Starting in 2014, the Minto Cup will move from its current four-team tournament format to a best-of-seven East versus West playoff series. The champions from the British Columbia Junior ‘A’ Lacrosse League (BCJALL) will compete against the champions from the Alberta Junior ‘A’ League for the right to represent the West in the Minto Cup playoffs. From there, the stage will be set for the Western champion to face the Eastern champion in a to-be-determined location in British Columbia. In 2015, it will follow the same format, B.C. versus Alberta, with the winner traveling to with the Minto Cup championship being held in Ontario that year. READ MORE »

Ontario Junior A, Road to the Minto Cup

Lakers and Lakeshores successful in Jr A season openers, plus the links

It was all about the lakes on the opening weekend of OLA Junior A action. The Peterborough Lakers and Barrie Lakeshores each scored 9 goals and won their first games of the season. Peterborough, missing about half of their full lineup with players still away at school, downed the Kitchener-Waterloo Braves 9-7 behind a pair of goals each from Dan Michel and Cam Milligan. Kyle Jackson (3g, 1a) and Chris Cloutier (1g, 3a) each had 4-point nights for the Braves. The Lakers held Braves star Dhane Smith, who led the league in scoring last year and just finished a standout rookie season with the Buffalo Bandits of the National Lacrosse League, to a goal and 2 assists. READ MORE »

B.C. Junior A, Ontario Junior A, Road to the Minto Cup

Junior A teams gearing up for season

The Peterborough Lakers and Nanaimo Timbermen are excited for their Ontario and B.C. summer junior seasons to get started, the former because of who’s coming back and the latter because of who’s joining them. For the Lakers, almost their whole cast is back from last season, when they finished fourth in the league and at times looked like they could go toe-to-toe with the top Minto Cup contenders. Last year, they were a bit young to be consistent enough to get beyond the semi-finals, but Head Coach Mat Giles tells Peterborough This Week his team is more experienced and ready to make a serious run. The loss of Matt Crough should be offset by the maturation of players like Cam Milligan and the return from injury of Nathan White. Defender Robert Hope will be tough to replace, but the biggest challenge may be between the nets, where the team has seen Tye Belanger and Connor Danko graduate in successive years. READ MORE »

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Did the Jr. Shamrocks just open European pipeline in signing Czech young gun Pesek?

Dominik Pesek about to, as Patrick Merrill puts it, 'Run right by me' during a friendly before the 2011 World Championships.

Quick: when I say “Czech Republic” what sport do you think of? OK, step out the lacrosse box for a minute and take an unbiased stance. Most people will automatically think hockey, soccer or even tennis as the dominant sports, producing names such as Dominik Hasek, Jaromir Jagr, Peter Nedved, Martina Navratilova, Ivan Lendl. Well, while he may not be in the upper echelon of Czech athletes, one name lacrosse fans can start to get used to is the newest member of the Victoria Jr Shamrocks: Dominik Pesek. READ MORE »

Behind the Scenes, Futures Report, IL Indoor, Ontario Junior A, Road to the Minto Cup

Nathan White is ready to go after recovering from concussions

Nathan White

With concussions a common topic in sports news these days, most of the news is bad. In lacrosse, we’ve seen the ends of the careers of Merrick Thomson and Ken Montour and what is looking like the end for Phil Sanderson, who was released by the Toronto Rock in January. So it’s refreshing to hear some good news on the concussion front, and here it is: 20-year-old forward Nathan White says he is ready to resume his career in box lacrosse after fully recovering from a series of concussions that have kept him out of the game for most of the past three years.

White has played 23 total games for the Peterborough Junior Lakers: 14 in 2010, 8 in 2011 and just one last summer. He was going to Onondaga Community College but was told by the school last fall, midway through his second semester, that he would not longer be able to stay because the school felt he was too big of a liability risk. The shock was all the greater, he said, because he was feeling really good and hadn’t heard a word about it from the school—they broke the news in an email to his parents. READ MORE »

Futures Report, IL Indoor, NLL Entry Draft, National Lacrosse League, Ontario Junior A, Road to the Minto Cup

Randy Staats is going to Syracuse

Randy Staats will be heading to Syracuse University in 2014. (Photo: Tim Prothero)

Young star Randy Staats, who has been rumoured to be heading to the pros in each of the past couple of National Lacrosse League entry drafts despite saying he was staying in school, has made it official. The Six Nations Arrows righty forward has committed to attend Syracuse University, just a hop, skip and a jump away from Onondaga Community College where he is currently attending. He will actually take this fall off from lacrosse while he wraps up his studies at OCC, Staats told IL Indoor, then will enrol at Syracuse next January and start playing for the Orange and studying communications. “Injuring my knee twice, I’ve learned that lacrosse may not always be there,” Staats said, referring to the two major injuries that forced him to miss the entire 2010 and 2011 Junior A seasons after putting up 95 points as a 16-year-old in 2009. “I want to have my education to fall back on.” READ MORE »