IL Indoor

Last night: Shamrocks and Timbermen win Western Lacrosse Association openers

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 »

Nanaimo Timbermen announce Kaleb Toth as new head coach for 2013 WLA season

A few weeks ago, TMen play-by-play broadcaster Dom Abassi tweeted something akin to ‘I can’t wait to see what the new TMen coach brings to the table’, and immediately the wheels of the lacrosse world started spinning. Who in the lacrosse world could have such a dramatic effect on a team and organization that it would cause an experienced broadcaster to ponder his worth…

Well, today the Coast Windows Timbermen have announced the man that will take over for Hall of Famer Art Webster behind the bench for the 2013 season and it’s a name pretty much everyone in the lacrosse world is familiar with: Kaleb Toth. The new bench boss will bring a fiery passion, incredible work ethic and a winning pedigree that will have the players constantly striving to be better. READ MORE »

Scott Ranger traded to the Victoria Shamrocks for Emms, Dexter and picks

While the National Lacrosse League season heats up, teams in Canada are preparing for the summer loop and the Victoria Shamrocks are looking to make some noise as they hope to host the 2013 Mann Cup. WLA Commissioner Casey Cook has confirmed that the Shamrocks have completed a trade with the Nanaimo Timbermen for two time WLA Scoring champ Scott Ranger. In exchange for the high scoring right-hander, the Shamrocks will send the Timbermen the playing rights to Kyle Dexter and Jake Emms as well as two second round conditional draft picks (one of those picks will become a first round pick, if the Rocks are able to get to the Mann Cup). READ MORE »

Pair of young players excited about being drafted by Timbermen

Paul Brebber grew up in Nanaimo, played his minor and most of his junior lacrosse in Nanaimo, and now has a chance to begin his senior career in Nanaimo as well. Brebber was the Timbermen’s first pick (and 16th overall with the second pick of the third round) in the Western Lacrosse Association’s draft last week. Staying in his home town for summer lax seems only natural for the 6′1, 195-pound Brebber, who is currently in Louisville, Kentucky as a freshman at Bellarmine University. ”I’ve always watched them growing up and I’ve played with them a few times, getting called up, so I have some experience there and some in roads. I know quite a few of the guys on the team, so it’s nice to stick with the guys I know,” Brebber told Canada.com.

T’Men GM Earl Nicholson said they had been hoping to get Brebber and even tried to trade up into the second round to make sure they could, so they were thrilled he was available when their pick came up. “He’s a local kid, he’s just got a solid two-way game,” Nicholson said. “He’s coachable and he’s everything that you’re looking for when you’re trying to add a piece.”

Later in the draft, Nanaimo selected Adam Bakular-Evans, making him the first product of the Comox Valley Lacrosse Association to be drafted by the WLA, according to the Comox Valley Echo. Bakular-Evans, who is at Lake Erie College in Ohio, was a teammate of Brebber with the Junior Timbermen.

Ben McIntosh the first among many Junior Adanacs headlining last night’s WLA draft

When half of the players on a team that has represented the BC Junior A Lacrosse League at the last four Minto Cups graduates in one year, it creates a rich draft for the Western Lacrosse Association. That scenario played itself out last night in one of the strongest WLA drafts in years, if not ever. Four graduates of the Coquitlam Junior Adanacs were taken in the first round and 10 in the first six rounds, headed by the Big Four of Ben McIntosh, Jeff Cornwall, Robert Church and Matthew Dinsdale being snapped up among the first five picks.

The Maple Ridge Burrards opened proceedings at the Langley Events Centre last night by taking righty forward McIntosh, who scored 3 goals per game (27g, 15a, 42pts in 9 games) after returning to the Adanacs from school partway through last summer and finished second in scoring at the 2012 Minto Cup. READ MORE »

Coaching search continues for Timbermen

The Nanaimo Timbermen say they were close to naming a new coach for the departed Art Webster (who is now a Victoria Shamrocks assistant), but now they’re on to Plan B. The Nanaimo News Bulletin reported that the Tmen were close to naming a new coach, but the plans fell through over the holidays and now the team is continuing its search. General Manager Earl Nicholson told The Bulletin that several promising candidates remain in contention and he’s not worried about naming a new coach before the Western Lacrosse Association draft on Feb. 4 in Langley. The team does want someone in place soon after that, though. “We definitely want somebody in place at least a month before we go to camp, just to make sure that we’ve got all the pieces in place that the coach is going to want in terms of the roster,” he told the newspaper. Nicholson also told ILIndoor that the team is looking for someone not too far removed from their playing days in the NLL and WLA who has coaching experience and is looking for a head coaching position.

Art Webster steps down as Timbermen head coach

After three seasons behind the bench of the Sr A Nanaimo Timbermen, Art Webster has decided to step away from his duties with the club, citing long hours and an even longer commute as his main reasons. The T-men have improved under Webster but still failed to make the post-season despite coming close in the past couple of years. The Victoria, BC resident who recently retired from his position with Canada Post will continue working with the NLL’s Washington Stealth as defensive coach under Chris Hall, but he just couldn’t take getting home at 2:30 am any more.

The T-men have yet to name a replacement but hope to do so in the next couple of weeks as they prepare for the 2013 WLA Season, in which they will attempt to end their nearly 10-year long play-off drought.

WLA playoff race remains tight into final three games of the regular season

The Langley Thunder are in the playoffs and will finish first. That much is clear. Beyond that, the Western Lacrosse Association playoff race is going down to the wire. Langley’s Garrett Billings scored a power play goal with 1:01 to play to give the Thunder an 8-7 win over the Burnaby Lakers to ensure that Langley will take the regular-season title. They have completed their season with 24 points on 12 wins and 6 losses. Lewis Ratcliff had two goals and four assists to lead the Thunder offensively. Brodie MacDonald made 44 saves to anchor them in their own end of the floor. Scott Tinning and Carlton Schuss each scored twice for Burnaby. READ MORE »

Last night: A pair of one-goal games keep things close in the WLA standings

There’s not much separating the top six teams in the Western Lacrosse Association and there certainly wasn’t much between them last night. Coquitlam moved into a tie for first place with a 10-9 squeaker over Nanaimo, leaving the Timbermen sitting in sixth but still with a chance to make the playoffs. Victoria scored the only goal of overtime to beat Langley 11-10. That pulled the Shamrocks within a win of the Adanacs and Thunder, who sit atop the standings with 20 points. Sandwiched between Victoria and Nanaimo are Burnaby and New Westminster, each with 16 points. Parity, thy name is the WLA. READ MORE »

WLA Power Rankings: and down the stretch they come

The old horse racing term describes the final weeks of the Western Lacrosse Association’s 2012 season. With last night’s win over the Nanaimo Timbermen, the New Westminster Salmonbellies have created log jam for second place. The Bellies join the Burnaby Lakers, Victoria Shamrocks and Coquitlam Adanacs with 16 points which is still four points back of the Langley Thunder and three ahead of the Timbermen. With just 13 games remaining, the only team eliminated already are the Maple Ridge Burrards but with four games left against Burnaby Coquitlam and Victoria twice, Nanaimo pretty much need to win out, if not go three of four if they hope to make the playoffs for the first time since coming back into the WLA in 2005.

It’s going to be a wild finish this year and it’s most definitely going to be exciting to watch as we continue the process of anointing the western reps for the 2012 Mann Cup in Ontario. Remember all WLA games are streamed live via www.theboxrocks.com and www.langleyeventscentre.com (Thunder home games) and tonight fans get a double dip as the Shamrocks host the Burrards and the Lakers and Adanacs have a 2^nd place duel in Burnaby. After the jump check out this week’s power rankings as we head into the final 10 days of play. READ MORE »