Brampton Excelsiors @ Oakville Rock
Monday, July 7 – 8:00 pm
Season Series – 0-0
Monday marks the first meeting of the season between Brampton and Oakville, the two teams fighting for fifth place in the MSL. Each team has four points; Brampton received two from a Lakers forfeit and two from a win over KW. Oakville also received two points from the forfeited games, and lost two games in overtime. A win for either team in this game goes a long way to helping them out of the basement. While unlikely either team will catch KW for the last playoff spot, finishing last in the league is something no team aspires to.
Oakville has the advantage offensively, tallying 68 goals to Brampton’s 56. Brampton has only three scorers over 10 points. Oakville is led by Stephan Leblanc with 11 goals and 14 assists, while Brampton’s Mike Burke leads with 14 points. Defensively, the teams are almost equal with goals against totals of 84 and 87, respectively.
In goal up until now, Oakville has had the edge with Nick Rose, who has played well and loves being in Oakville; he just hasn’t had a team in front of him that can seal the deal. Tye Belanger struggled in net for Brampton, but now that Anthony Cosmo is back, the Excelsiors chances of shutting down the powerful teams has increased and could pose a problem for the Rock. Cosmo has a history of success in the MSL, while Rose is in his first summer in the eastern league, although he did play out west for the previous five summers.
Oakville will be without three players who are representing Team Canada at the FIL World Field Championships: Jordan MacIntosh, and brothers Jeremy and Jason Noble. Brampton will be missing defenseman Kyle Rubisch.
Expect nothing less than a hard fought game between these two teams, both desperate get on a winning track and set themselves up for a good 2015 season.
