We have the CLax playoffs with the Final Four this weekend and the last week of the NLL season, plus the Canadian lacrosse world has seen its share of stories this week.
Connor Danko Goalie of the Year
The Canadian Lacrosse League is pleased to announce Niagara Lock Monsters Connor Danko as the 2013 CLax Goalie of the Year and the Brampton Inferno’s Ben McCullough as the 2013 CLax Defensive Player of the Year.
The Victoria Shamrocks have made big moves all off season, first acquiring forward Scott Ranger of the Calgary Roughnecks and then goaltender Matt Vinc of the Rochester Knighthawks. Today they traded for forward Cory Conway who plays with the NLL’s Edmonton Rush, from the Western Lacrosse Association’s Nanaimo Timbermen.
As part of the team’s final weekend of training camp, the Boston Cannons of Major League Lacrosse will scrimmage the CroART Lacrosse All-Stars this Saturday, April 20, in Harvard Stadium at 6pm. The scrimmage, free and open to the public, will be used to raise funds to support the Boston Marathon victims, with 100% of the money raised going to The One Fund, established Tuesday by Governor Deval Patrick and Mayor Tom Menino.
The Canadian Lacrosse League is pleased to announce Barrie Blizzard forward Caleb Wiles as the 2013 CLax Rookie of the Year. ”As a newcomer to CLax, Caleb proved to be one of the most dynamic and prolific scorers in our game,” said CLax Deputy Commissioner Jim Veltman. “Game in and game out he would produce highlight reel goals made of magic.”
The Langley Thunder have the western rights to Mark Matthews after they made him the fifth overall pick last season. However, his overall rights currently belong to Major Series Lacrosse’s Brooklin Redmen. The Thunder have won the Western Lacrosse Association for two years in a row, and Matthews says he wants to play for them. However, Brooklin is refusing to release him.
Knighthawks, Mammoth and Bandits Battle
Seems like only yesterday I was doing an article about the free agent and rookie camp for the Philadelphia Wings, back in early November. Then as the season progressed some teams started out well, and then struggled (some more then others). In early March I said that all playoff berths will be claimed by months end and April will be a seeding month.
The 30-year-old netminder from St. Catharines, Ontario currently leads the league with 636 saves and is nine shy of breaking the NLL’s record for saves in a single season. Rob Blasdell established the current record of 644 saves with the Albany Attack in 2002.
Every team plays this weekend except for the Toronto Rock. Garrett Billings has 100 points on the season, two back of the league leader Shawn Evans from the Calgary Roughnecks. This means that Billings will not be able to reach Evans. In third place is Callum Crawford with 89. It is unlikely that Crawford will be able to score 13 points while Evans scores none.
Ok lacrosse fans here we are, the end of the 2013 regular season. Already?! Well time fly’s when your having fun. And this season has been one of the most exciting ones I have experienced in all of the leagues 27 years. As I said in previous articles, I thought by now the only game that would mean anything would be the Colorado Mammoth/Minnesota Swarm. The only thing we know for sure is, the Toronto Rock have won the NLL East and will play Sunday April 28th at 3pm.. Also, Wings, Rush, Roughnecks, Stealth, Swarm have all clinched a playoff berth. We have 2 spots left and 3 teams fighting for them. Colorado, Buffalo, Rochester.
On the first team, Niagara and Ohsweken have two players each and Niagara has one player on the second team, giving them three all stars overall. Brampton has two, one on team one and one on team two, while Barrie has two players on team two. Iroquois has one player on team two while Toronto has one player on team one.
