On to Round 2

The first round of the OHL playoffs seemed to go as expected. Barrie had no trouble getting by Sudbury by winning four straight; the defending Memorial Cup champion Windsor Spitfires also won in four straight against Erie; Mississauga blanked Peterborough in their series; Ottawa, London and Plymouth had little trouble in their series as well as they all won four games to one; but Kitchener had a little more difficulty with Saginaw’s Spirit but still managed a four games to two series victory.

The only series to go the full seven games and the only series where the lower seed won was the Brampton / Kingston series where Brampton pulled out the game seven win for the series. Despite being the ‘underdog’ in the series I think most people expected Brampton to win this series with their star Cody Hodgson back in the lineup. Kingston gave all they had but in the end it was just not enough.

Round two sees Windsor play Plymouth, London play Kitchener, Barrie play Brampton, and Ottawa play Mississauga with the teams listed first having the home ice advantage. These series should be a little more competitive but I’m thinking all the favourites will win except for Ottawa so the true top teams in the league will battle for the league title. The second round action begins tomorrow night for all four series.

What a crazy season

The 2010 National Lacrosse League season has been a really crazy one thus far. Toronto started 6-1 and looked almost unbeatable but have since lost five in a row and are sitting in a tie for second place in the East division. Buffalo on the other hand started 0-4 but have won four straight and have gone from last in the entire league to tied for second in the East. The Rochester Knighthawks, with John Grant Jr back, has struggled to get the offence going and are in danger of missing the playoffs. They do have a game in hand on those teams tied for second so they are not that far behind despite their inconsistent play.

Out in the West, the Washington Stealth, without the services of Colin Doyle after his trade back to Toronto, is sitting tops in the league and became the first team to clinch a playoff spot last weekend. Perhaps the craziest story of all this year is that the re-tooled Edmonton Rush are sitting in second place in the West (above the 2009 champion Calgary Roughnecks) and are one win away (or a Colorado loss) from clinching their first ever playoff spot.

This coming weekend can see two more teams enter the playoff picture in the West. If Buffalo can continue their great play and defeat Colorado Saturday night, and if Calgary can beat either Toronto or Rochester, both Edmonton and Calgary will claim a spot in the 2010 playoffs. The East as usual will likely come down to the last weekend and tiebreakers will likely be needed to decide the seedings for a third year in a row.

Can this season get any crazier? I'm thinking it can but we will have to wait and see what the last four(?) weeks has in store for us. Craziness or not, I expect we will be treated to some great lacrosse as the season winds down.

Tavares truly is the leader

The crowd at the HSBC Arena on Saturday night seemed rather quiet prior to the start of the NLL game between the Titans, now of Orlando, and the hometown Buffalo Bandits. Perhaps the crowd was still in shock from the Bandits loss a week earlier to the worst place team in the East division and was expecting another horrible showing from the orange and black against the division’s best and the player of the month for February in Orlando’s goaltender Matt Vinc. As if this feeling of impending doom was felt by the players, just over two minutes into the game John Tavares laid a heavy check on Greg Peyser who crumpled to the floor (and laid there in a lifeless lump only to get to his feet showing no ill effects once the trainer came onto the floor) causing a bit of a skirmish. It all ended with Tavares and Mark Steenhuis in the box and a Titans powerplay.

Despite being down a man, Banditland came alive during that heated exchange. The Bandits killed the penalty and finally scored on a powerplay of their own on a shot from Steenhuis. The first quarter ended with the Bandits up 4-0 and Mark Steenhuis getting a natural hat trick. The second quarter saw some fights that left two Bandit players injured and the teams defence short two men. The scoring was a bit back and forth but Buffalo increased their lead by 1 leading 8-3 at half.

Orlando came out gunning in the third quarter and scored the next three goals to close the gap to two. The crowd was quiet once again as nervous tension built up. Buffalo escaped the third with a three goal lead though as Steenhuis stopped Orlando’s scoring run by netting his sixth of the game. Heading into the fourth, Buffalo looked more like they were trying not to lose but another big hit from John Tavares (this time clean) got the crowd and the team right back into the game. A short time later JT scored on the powerplay to get back a three goal cushion and the crowd began to sense victory. With over two minutes to play Matt Vinc was pulled for an extra attacker but Orlando was only able to score one goal with the extra man and Buffalo held on for the 12-10 win.

The tone was set early in that game, not that there was a big surprise after the division final last year, and the action didn’t let up until the final whistle blew. The officiating left a lot to be desired and the Titans players found the new carpet a little too comfortable but overall, that was a great hard hitting, action packed game. The kind of game Buffalo excels at. That win also gave Darris Kilgour his record tying 93rd regular season win. The only other coach with that many wins is the late great Les Bartley.