Last year the Iroquois Ironmen finished with a record of 6-8 and made the playoffs. The Ironmen though surprised everyone in the playoffs knocking off the top team in Clax last year the Durham Turfdogs. The Ironmen fell though in the Creator’s cup final to the Oshweken Demons 15-10. This year the Ironmen hope to make it back to the Creator’s Cup final but do they have the team to make the journey?
The Ironmen had a great 2012 season but they will struggle to find the same success in 2013. The Ironmen’s offense was one of the weakest in the league last year as they did not have a single player with more than 40 points and at times struggled to find offense. The Ironmen offense is pretty balanced and relies on the play of Mike Nanticoke, Jerome Thompson, and Cody Johnson. These three are by far the Ironmen’s best player and need to step up their game an each of them needs to at least break 40 points this season for the Ironmen to hope to have success.
In net Mike Atwood was a rock for the Ironmen posting a regular season record of 5-2 with a goals against average of 11.88 although his save percentage was only.772. Atwood will need to be on top of his game this year as he will be facing a much tougher Clax league as plenty of teams have stronger more dynamic offenses so he will have his work cut out for him.
The Ironmen are a team that similar to the Demon’s did not improve over the offseason while many of the other teams in Clax were able to reshape their rosters. The Ironmen’s lack of change will cost them this year as many teams in Clax are much better such as the Niagara Lock Monsters and newly formed Barrie Blizzard. Expect the Ironmen to struggle unless they can get their offense going early and often in 2013.
