OLA Jr A Power Rankings: Week Four

The Arrows remain at the top of the power rankings, as they continue to roll, picking up three straight wins this past week. The Arrows faced a tough task to open their week with a road game in Orangeville on the schedule. While the Northmen led the game after forty minutes of play, the defending Champs found away to squeak out a 10-7 road victory. Following the narrow win, the Arrows took on the struggling K-W Braves, and made quick work of them, picking up a 14-1 victory. To close out the week the Arrows made a trip into Whitby to take on the Warriors, no matter where these two teams sit in the standings, its always a battle, and Tuesday night was no different. The Arrows would come away with a 8-6 win over the Warriors, to earn their league leading eleventh win of the season. Brandon Bomberry’s return to the lineup has made an already potent offense, that much stronger, as Bomberry has come in and put up 31 points in just six games. The continued success of Josh Johnson, Austin Staats, Dallas John and Tehoka Nanticoke make the Arrows a handful offensively. Six Nations can outscore you or they can absolutely shut you down defensively, with the combination of the leagues top goaltender and arguably the leagues top d-core. Until the Arrows are beat, they remain the cream of the crop.

Before you call me crazy, keep in mind this is a weekly ranking, and remember the Beaches went 3-1 this past week, picking up two very quality wins over Peterborough and Orangeville, whom are both considered serious contenders for the league title this season. The Beaches are on a roll as of late despite a small blemish against the Brampton Excelsiors this past Sunday, as their 7-5-1 record leaves them sitting all alone in fourth place in the standings. With Brampton, Burlington and Peterborough on the schedule this upcoming week, the Beaches find themselves in a stretch of games that could make or break their season. The Beaches run and gun style of play seems to be working for them this season, as there’s been games where teams simply cannot run with them, and that’s when the Beach pounce. Leading the way offensively for Toronto is John St. John, the veteran has exploded for 58 points in 13 games this season, including 21 points over the Beaches last four games. The emergence of Anthony Joaquim in the Beaches last four games has given them yet another weapon offensively, while Aaron Forster continues to produce, making a seamless transition from the Junior B level. The depth of the Beaches offensively is what is allowing them to produce at such a potent pace recently, however their are still questions marks at the back end and in goal. The Beaches continue to get inconsistent efforts in net, and despite picking up the win against Peterborough, they did give up 12 goals, which could be a cause for concern moving forward.

The Lakers drop one spot this week, but its simply by virtue of their tough loss to the Toronto Beaches. The Lakers did not look themselves in the 17-12 loss to Toronto, as they simply couldn’t get the stops when they needed them. Its hard to fault an offense that puts up twelves goals, and its hard to be critical of a defense that is ranked among the leagues best. If the Lakers want to make noise this season the duo of Brett Lafonte and Patrick Pollock need to find more consistency in their games. On an positive note, the Lakers did pick up two wins this past week, kicking it off with an 8-4 win on the road over their rivals in the Whitby Warriors. It was a crucial game, as far as playoff seeding goes, as the Warriors are right on the Lakers heels. Picking up the victory gives the Lakers the tie breaker should the teams finish the season tied for points, and give the parity within the league this season, a 2 vs 7 match up could be much more desirable then a 3 vs 6 match up. Cam Milligan led the Lakers offensively over there last three games, picking up an outstanding 16 points on four goals and twelve assists. While Milligan is the unquestioned go to go on the Lakers offense, the emergence of Kyle Killen has been a pleasant surprise, while Zach Bryant, Dan Michel and Jake Fox continue to produce solid offensive numbers on a consistent bases. The Lakers athletic and physical defense may need to step up their play even more down the stretch, as match up’s against Orangeville and Toronto this week, will be sure to test them.

The Brampton Excelsiors back and forth season continues on, as their .500 record this past week is perfect evidence of a team that’s lacking consistency. On paper the Excelsiors are arguably the best team in the league, you could put them in the same sentence as the Six Nations Arrows, however the game is played on the floor, and the Excelsiors simply haven’t been able to put it all together. After a strong rookie season in the Junior “A” loop Quintan Martin was expected to be a standout netminder this season, however he struggled this past week, giving up an average of eleven goals this past week. The Excelsiors opened the weak with a strong effort against a weaker Mimico club, picking up a 15-11 victory. However the Excelsiors would go from high to low, a they have all season, as the following game the Excelsiors dropped a 15-11 game to a Burlington squad who had lacked offensive depth this season. The Excelsiors closed the week splitting games with a hot Toronto teams and the Burlington Chiefs, once again losing to the Chiefs, but putting a halt to the red hot beaches win streak. The Excelsiors offensive ability is unquestioned, as they are arguably 8 guys deep on offense and are getting offensive contributions through transition. However Brampton still is struggling to keep the ball out of their net this season, and while they may be able to outscore weaker teams, come playoff time they are going to need the defense and goaltending to step up if they want to win games.

The Warriors  continue to play to the level of their opponent, and that was never more evident than this past week. The Warriors took a 8-4 loss to the Peterborough Lakers, in a game with serious playoff implications on the line. However they where able to bounce back with a 10-8 road win over K-W, before narrowly dropping an 8-6 affair to the Six Nations Arrows. The Warriors play against the Arrows is reason to be optimistic as the club looks as though they could compete with Six Nations over the course of a seven game series. However their inability to dominate against teams like K-W and Mimico, make you wonder just how strong the Warriors are this season. Offensively the Warriors are certainly missing Reilly O’Connor’s 100+ points a season, however they still boast the likes of Austin Shanks, Ryan Keenan, Connor Kearnan, Luke Keenan and Tristan Rai. All five players have showed an ability at times this season to fill the back of the net with relative ease. The Warriors defense is starting to come on strong as of late, as Head Coach Derek Keenan can now put all his focus into the Warriors following a NLL championship run with the Edmonton Rush. Question marks still remain in goal however as Josh Delves and Mike DeGirolamo simply haven’t been able to come up with big save when they need it. Should one of the two netminders get hot, the Warriors would surely benefit, and likely find themselves on a lengthy win streak.

The Northmen opened the week very promising, and it just went down hill from there. On Friday night, the Northmen had a strangle hold on the Six Nations Arrows after 40 minutes, only to see their lead evaporate and the chance at a win go out the window, as the Arrows exploded in the third to pick up a 10-7 win. Now their’s no shame in losing to the talent Arrows squad, and the Northmen did bounce back with a 12-9 win over Mimico on Saturday night, however it was their play against the Toronto Beaches that was concerning. The Northmen where dominated in their loss to the Beaches on Tuesday evening, as they simply where run out of the Ted Reeve Arena. The Northmen are much better then they showed this past week, as even the narrow 12-9 win over Mimico came with a questionable effort. The Northmen while deep offensively, lack that big gun that they’ve had throughout the past ten seasons. Connor Brown was that guy last year, before that Jeremy Noble/Rob Hellyer and before that Adam Jones, Orangeville doesn’t have that this year, and the fact know one is stepping up, forced them to acquire Daniel Craig from the Barrie Lakeshores earlier this week. The Northmen close out the season without a weak game on the schedule as they’ll see Brampton and Peterborough twice, Whitby, Six Nations and Toronto to close out the season.

Easily the hardest team to predict on a week to week bases, the Burlington Chiefs never cease to amaze me, both in a good and bad way. You’ll see the Chiefs narrowly slip by K-W, only to blow past Brampton on two occasions, but then get blown out by Barrie. To say the Chiefs are inconsistent would be an understatement. Possibly the only consistent thing going for the Chiefs this season is the offense of Andrew Kew. Kew has almost single handily willed the Chiefs to victory in a few games this season, as his 71 points, are nearly 40 points up on Chiefs second leading scorer Nolan Apers. The Chiefs are at there best when they can find balanced offense and get strong goaltending from Doug Buchan. In wins this past week, Nolan Apers, Ryan Marchand, Ryan Lanchbury and Gianni Bianchin all had big games, while in their loss they where quite. Based on the Chiefs upcoming schedule, they have the chance to go 5-1 through the final six games, which would give them a 12-8 record which very easily could be good enough for home floor advantage in round one of the playoffs.

The Lakeshores fall victim to the teams slightly in front of them having big weeks. Had the Lakeshores gone 2-0 this week, they arguably would have cracked the top 5, but with a tough 12-11 loss to the St. Catharines Athletics, the Lakeshores slip some. Barrie continues to get surprisingly good goaltending from Zach Rex, who sits with a 6-6 record and a 8.78 goals against average. Rex has been able to steal some games for Barrie thus far this season, and will need to continue with his strong play if Barrie hopes to move up the standings as the regular season winds down. Moving Daniel Craig to Orangeville for Brenden Welsh not only adds some offense, as Craig had not suited up for Barrie prior to the trade, but also brings them another offensive threat for years to come. Welsh combined with Austin Murphy, Spencer Pyke, Nick Chaykowsky, Eric Gold and Colin Mawdsley provide five solid offensive options for Barrie, while a guy like Steph Charbonneau continues to chip in, in a quite way. Barrie has a tough one against Six Nations on Friday, but should be able to get a weekend split, if they come with a consistent effort on Sunday against Mimico.

The Athletics where struggling coming into last week, however with three winnable games on the schedule the Athletics seemed to step up their play to another level, taking two of their three match ups. While the Athletics narrowly squeaked out a 12-11 victory over Barrie, the Athletics lack the depth of the Lakeshores and that’s the main reason, Barrie edged them out for the eighth spot this past week.

With arguably the toughest set of three games any team faced this past week, the Braves were able to snag a single point, catching the Northmen during a week where they just were unable to find their game. The Braves really are a two player team, Chris Cloutier and goaltender Kevin Orleman have been the teams saving grace this season, as both players look to have excellent futures in the game. The Braves are very inconsistent offensively as players will explode for big games, then put up zero’s the following two or three. These inconsistencies are why the Braves are on the outside of the playoff picture right now, after such a promising start to the season. With Mimico up next its as simple as this, a win keeps the Braves playoff hopes alive, a loss all but kills there chances as advancing to the post season.

A tough stretch of games for the Mountaineers, as they went 0-4 this past week, however Mimico should still look for positives here, as they where right there in every game, with the lone exception being the blow out in Peterborough, Riley Hutchcraft hasn’t been all world, but he’s been really good, and his play is allowing Mimico to stay in games while their offense gets going. Mimico is fairly easy to key in on, on defense, as Dereck Downs, Tanner Thomson, Jonathon Donnville and Matthew Lee are their unquestioned leaders. Mimico will continue to give teams all the can handle and with a couple winnable games on the horizon Mimico is still not out of the playoff race in the OLA Junior A loop.