After suffering two tough losses this weekend the Barrie Blizzard are still winless on the season. Saturday they lost 15-7 in Oshawa against the Durham TurfDogs and then they were blown out 21-5 versus the Niagara Lock Monsters the very next day.
The regular referees were at a clinic in Ottawa so the CLax was forced to use replacement refs for Saturday’s matinee. The inexperience of these referees was evident as the game was filled with poor calls, especially in the second half. In the third quarter the Blizzard had five cheap penalties called against them in just a two minute span. With three guys already in the box the last two calls were automatic penalty shots which resulted in one TurfDogs goal.
Faceoffs played a huge role in this game too. Out of twenty five face-offs only nine were won cleanly; the rest were decided by the refs. One referee in particular was the issue there. He would not give players the opportunity to try and draw the ball; he kept blowing it down before they even had a chance. He seemed lost and when asked after the game what the issue was in the face-off circle he responded with a confused look on his face, “what do you mean”. That pretty much sums it up. Everyone in the arena noticed the problem except for him. Possessions off the draw are key in lacrosse and when the referee is deciding sixteen of them that definitely hurts the game.
Refereeing aside the Blizzard still lost by eight and they need to produce more offense if they want to snap this six game losing streak. In two games this weekend they only managed to score twelve goals while allowing thirty six against.
Barrie was led on Saturday by Mike Teeter who had 1 goal and 3 assists. Teeter controlled most of Barrie’s offense and was their best player Saturday. Neil Mayerhofer and Tyler Patterson each had 2 goals while Jason Mainer scored 2 goals and added 1 assist in the losing cause. John Rae was held off the scoresheet but was impressive in this game. Rae showed his strength by driving to the net hard and often, sometimes bulldozing through two guys to get there.
Sunday was a tough game for Barrie and it’s one they would probably like to forget. Surprisingly, goaltending was not the issue in this 21 to 5 defeat as Scott Komer played a solid game making 47 saves. Komer was peppered with 68 shots and without him the Lock Monsters would have scored 30 goals. Offense was once again the problem for Barrie; they need to score more than 5 goals if they want to give themselves a chance to win a game this year.
On the positive side this weekend every Blizzard player worked their tail off and never gave up, even when the score was out of reach. They hustled at both ends of the floor and kept playing until the final buzzer which makes both losses even tougher. There’s no quit in this team and their hard work is bound to pay off soon. Barrie’s next game is Saturday when they travel to Brampton to face the Inferno who are on a three game winning streak. Game time is 2:05pm at the Powerade Centre.
