Once again the draft will be webcast live by www.GRUMPmedia.com.  Jake Elliott and Teddy Jenner will be there to discuss all of the picks as they occur. To follow the draft live, check out www.theboxrocks.com for the links.

The 2011 Minto Cup Champion Whitby Warriors had six graduating players drafted Saturday in the 2012 Major Series Lacrosse draft.  Mark Matthews and John Lafontaine were protected by the Brooklin Redmen prior to the draft (per league rules only 2 Junior affiliated graduating players are permitted to be protected).  Shayne Jackson went 1st overall, and was drafted by the Ajax Rock. With three of the next four picks in the first round, Brooklin drafted Nick Diachenko, Adrian Sorichetti, and goaltender Zack Higgins.  The Redmen also later drafted Steve Fryer, capturing both goaltenders from last season’s thrilling Minto Cup final. Orangeville’s Craig England went 3rd overall to the Rock as well.  Brampton’s Kyle Davis and Bulrington’s Josh Ruys rouned out the 1st round selections going to Ajax and Brooklin respectively.

The first round consisted of seven picks, Brooklin having a pick from the now defunct St. Regis team in a prior trade.  Some wheeling and dealing on draft day, along with trades in previous years allowed Brooklin and Ajax to own the first round. Four of the first seven picks were owned by the Redmen, with the Rock holding the other three.

LITG was there to capture all of the selections and trades and that list can be found here in an earlier post.

League Realingment

Other news for the meeting was a new setup for the league; consisting of two divisions.  There will now be an East and West division.  The East will consist of Peterborough, Ajax, and Brooklin, while the West will hold KW, Brampton, and Six Nations.  The teams will play a 14 game regular season.  A double home and home wil lbe played within the division, with a single home and home being played against teams in the other division.

All Star Game

The league will also play an All-Star Game in 2012.  Fittingly, the great fans in Peterborough will be entertained this coming Summer, seeing the best the MSL has to offer.  The 2011 Lakers will take the floor against the best of the rest of the league.  The game time and date is to be determined.  More info will be forthcoming.

Check out LITG or www.majorserieslacrosse.com for more news.

Brampton trades 2012 3rd, 4th, and 5th round picks to KW for KW’s 2013 2nd round pick.

Brooklin trades MSL rights to Glen Bryan to KW for KW’s 2012 1st round pick and 3rdd round pick in 2014.

Ajax trades their 2nd 2012 4th round pick to Six Nations for a player to be named later or future considerations.

Brooklin trades their 2012 5th round pick to Brampton for Brampton’s 2013 5th round pick.

The 2012 Major Series Lacrosse draft is being held this Saturday January 28 in Whitby, Ontario.  The meeting is slated for 1pm and the draft should be starting around 2pm.  Check here on LITG for live updates from the draft. 

Below is the tentative draft order (could change due to last minute trades). Note in round 1 there are 7 picks, due to a trade between Brooklin and St. Regis (no longer in the league). That trade needs to be honored.   Also included is the list of protected Junior graduates for each team (maximum of two).

Next, vote for who you believe will be the Mann Cup MVP.  If your player is not listed, feel free to comment him in under “Other”.

The Brampton Excelsiors have booked themselves a date in the 2011 Mann Cup in Langley, British Columbia. Tonight the Excelsiors eliminated the 1st place Peterborough Lakers by a 9-7 final, taking the series in six games. Three of the Brampton wins came at the Memorial Center in Peterborough.

Zack Greer had a big night for the visitors, scoring two of his three goals on the night in the first period. His last goal in the third period was the eventual game winner. Mike Hominuck who played a great six game stretch in his own right was the playmaker tonight, tallying five assists.

The teams played a close game through the first period, tied at 3-3 after one. In the second the Lakers looked to take a 5-4 lead into the dressing room. However, Anthony Cosmo would hit Dan Dawson off the bench with only 46 seconds remaining in the period, and then Joe Resetarits, would put Brampton up by one, scoring with only 13 seconds left in the second frame. Resetarits rung one off the post and in behind Angus Goodleaf.

In the third, the two teams played almost half of the period before Geoff Snider would walk down the center of the floor and put a low shot past Cosmo to tie the game. But Brampton as they have done throughout the series would battle back and score three straight to take control of the game once again.

Tracey Kelusky would score a late goal to bring the Lakers to within one, but that was as close as they would get.

Peterborough outshot Brampton 55-40 on the night. Neither team scored on the Power Play with Brampton getting two opportunities, the Lakers getting three. The Lakers did have an extended five on three Power Play late in the first period, with three Excelsior players in the box, but could do nothing to capitalize on it.

The Excelsiors will now travel to Langley, to face the Thunder in the Mann Cup. Games start on Wednesday September 7th, and will be web cast from B.C. Check out www.theboxrocks.com or www.majorserieslacrosse.com for web cast details.

Don’t forget, LITG and G2 Stream will be there for game 6 (and game 7 if it is necessary), to bring you all the live action.  Game time for Tuesday August 30th game is 8pm EST.   Click on the two links below to purchase and then view the game.  Each game is only $6.95.

To purchase – https://secure.grumpmedia.com/CLIENTS/LITG/PPV_REG.ASP

To view – http://www.g2stream.com/clients/litg/viewer/index.aspx

The so called rebuilding year in Brampton might soon be taking a dramatic turn.  After defeating the Peterborough Lakers 13-11 on Sunday night in Peterborough, the Excelsiors are one win away from making plans for a trip to Langley,  British Columbia.

This MSL final series has been an incredible swing of momentum through each and every game and tonight was no different.  The Lakers would open up a 3-1 lead after one period of play, only to have the Excelsiors come back in the second to outscore them by an 8-3 margin.  The Excelsiors took advantage of a very fast start scoring 5 goals in the first 7 minutes of the second period.  This chased Laker starter Angus Goodleaf from the net in favour of Paddy Campbell.   Brampton would lead 9-6 after two periods.

The third period started very similar to the second, with Brampton again scoring three times in under six minutes.  With a 12-6 lead the game looked all but over.  The Lakers would however, make it interesting, going on a four goal run of their own in the third period.  However, it was a little too little, a little too late, as the Excelsiors hung on for the win.

Leading the way for Brampton was John McClure with 4 goals.  Dan Dawson had 1 goal and 5 assists, while Zack Greer had 2 and 2.  Tyler Burton, Branden Doran, Kyle Neufeld, Carter Bender, Kevin Ross, and Mike Hominuck all had singles.  Anthony Cosmo went the distance and made 50 saves.  For Peterborough, John Grant and Tracey Kelusky each scored twice, while singles went to Turner Evans, Kyle Sorensen, Mark Steenhuis, Shawn Evans, Cory Vitarelli, Brad Self, and Sean Thompson.  Goodleaf made 25 saves, and Campbell 9.

Game 6 in this series will go on Tuesday night at 8pm right back at the Memorial Center in Peterborough.  Due to a booking problem with the Powerade Center, the arena was not available.  Game time in Peterborough is 8pm.  If a seventh game is necessary, it will go Wednesday night at Brampton’s Powerade Center with the game starting at 8pm.

Other Game Notes:

- more players not in the lineup due to the MLL Finals.  Missing were Geoff Snider for Peterborough, along with Sandy Chapman, Joe Walters, Jarrett Davis and Kyle Rubisch all of Brampton.
- the winner of this series will travel to Langley to play the Thunder in the Mann Cup final. For the 1st time since 1977, the BC representative in the Mann Cup will not be from New Westmister, Victoria, or Coquitlam.

The task was simple really. Go into Peterborough, to a very visitor un-friendly atmosphere, without Dan Dawson, without Zack Greer, and win game three in these MSL playoff finals. If I were a betting man, I would have lost a bundle tonight. But the Brampton Excelsiors did just that by winning game three 12-10 against the Lakers, thus taking home floor advantage in this series.

Things looked bleak for Brampton right from the start as Shawn Evans and Tracey Kelusky gave Peterborough a 2-0 lead before many had even gotten to their seats. But in a game that saw no less than six lead changes, Brampton battled back to score three in a row, to take a 3-2 lead befoe the halfway mark of the first period. Mike Kirk, and brothers Joe and Frank Resetarits would give the Excelsiors the lead. But prior to the end of the first Shawn Evans and John Tavares would both score Power Play goals to put Peterborough back on top 4-3. Tavares’ goal was an absolute beauty. John Grant would toss a cross floor pass to Kelusky on the right crease. Kelusky had goalie Anthony Cosmo at his mercy, diving across to make the save. Kelusky very patiently went cross crease with the ball to Tavares, who had the yawning cage staring at him, and Tavares would not miss.

Special teams for the Lakers would be great on the night as Evans would score short handed in the second and Grant would notch a Power Play marker to give the Lakers their largest lead of the night at 6-3. But as Peterborough did in the first period, Brampton would score twice on the Power Play to draw back to within one at 6-5, as Mike Hominuck and Kevin Ross would do the honors. Cory Vitarelli and Shawn Evans again would score, with Frank Resetarits getting one in between for Brampton and after two periods the Lakers led 8-6.

Brampton came out of the gate in the third period and under four minutes in had tied it, before taking the lead themselves. Kyle Rubisch would intercept a pass in the defensive zone and run the floor beating Angus Goodleaf on a low bouncer, Mike Hominuck would score for me what was the goal of the night, and Kevin Ross would give Brampton a 9-8 lead. Hominuck would cut across the middle to take a shot on goal. A Laker defender hit him just as he was about to shoot, pushing him further away from the net running across the floor.  Hominuck took an extra step or two, and almost out of position on his wrong side, he whipped a back hander past Goodleaf.

The Laker faithful were very quiet. But as this game proved, that only lasted 3 minutes as Brad Self would score twice in a row, his second an absolute cannon to the top left corner of the net, and the Lakers were back out in front, now 10-9. Brampton’s Hominuck was not done as only a minute later he would walk through the Laker defence and throw three fakes on Goodleaf to draw him to the top of his crease. Hominuck then deposited the ball into an open net. Joe Resetarits would fire one from the dots only 37 seconds later to once agan give Brampton the lead at 11-10.

Peterborough tried with Goodleaf on the bench to get the tying goal once again, but Sandy Champman would capitalize on the enpty net and secure the road win for Brampton. Things got a little nasty near games end with Shawn Evans and Chris Corbeil tangling, as well as Scott Evans and Kyle Rubisch.

Other Game Notes:

- Christy Evans, 4 year old niece of Shawn and Scott sang Oh Canada for the crowd tonight to a roaring applause.
- Dawson, Greer and Mark Steenhuis were all at a Reebok photo shoot tonight and did not dress. Kyle Clancy was also scratched for Peterborough.
- Lakers were 4-6 on the PP, Brampton 2-7
- Lakers had 57 shots, Brampton 50

Game 4 is tomorrow night in Brampton at the Powerade Center. Game time is 8pm, and LITG / G2STream will be there once again doing the live web cast. You can purchase the game by visiting www.majorserieslacrosse.com.  Game five of the WLA finals is also slated for tomorrow night and will start at 7:45 Pacific time.  That game can be purchased at www.theboxrocks.com .

We are now into the 3rd round of the 2011 MSL playoffs and many are just starting to talk about the Excelsiors, and how well their defense is playing.  Most people know Sandy Chapman, Jon Harasym and Bill Greer; all formidable NLL stars.  But many others are wondering about names like Kyle Rubisch, Chris Corbeil, Tyler Burton, Dylan Evans, Mike Kirk, Kyle Neufeld, and Brendan Doran.  Most of them not real household names in the world of lacrosse.  Yet!

There is no doubt that having an all world goalie the likes of Anthony Cosmo certainly helps, but those defenders above have been exceptional in these playoffs in helping Cosmo keep their team in many games.  Looking at the playoff statistics so far, the Excelsiors have played a total of 11 games.  They played 3 against Ajax in round one, 6 in round two against Brooklin, and so far have played twice in round three against Peterborough.  Not including Overtime, which has occurred in 4 of their 11 games, Brampton has not allowed more than 7 goals in any game.  That includes both games they have won and lost.  And even if you do factor in Overtime, the most they have allowed in any game so far is 9, which occurred in game 1 of this current series against the Lakers (a double Overtime Laker victory). 

There is an age old saying that Offense wins games and Defense wins Championships.  This defense is certainly poised to at least make a run at securing a spot in this years’ Mann Cup Championship in British Columbia.  The series between the Excelsiors and Lakers continues tomorrow night as game three takes place from the Memorial Center in Peterborough, Ontario. We will see of this defence can continue to play at such a high level. 

LITG and G2Stream will again be there calling all the action live on our Internet broadcast.  To purchase and view the game, check out www.majorserieslacrosse.com or click the links below:

To purchase – https://secure.grumpmedia.com/CLIENTS/LITG/PPV_REG.ASP

To view – http://www.g2stream.com/clients/litg/viewer/index.aspx

Series

Lacrosse      

The Peterborough Lakers vs. the Brampton Excelsiors, game 2 action live from the Powerade Center in Brampton, Ontario

 Game 1 saw an incredible contest that went back and forth.  Tracey Kelusky was the hero of the night scoring in Double Overtime to get the win for the Lakers.

The Excelsiors will now try to use home floor to their advantage.

LITG and G2Stream will be there and will be webcasting once again. The links are below to purchase and to watch any or all of the next three games (two separate links).   You can also purchase from www.majorserieslacrosse.com.  All games are only $6.95.

Please note:

We typically get a few emails each game from folks that cannot log in. Remember, the login and password, are the login (your email address) and password that you have created in the first step of the process.

To make it easier (hopefully), I am providiing two separate links for eveyone.

To actually purchase the game, go here – https://secure.grumpmedia.com/CLIENTS/LITG/PPV_REG.ASP

To actually watch the game you have just purchased, go here – http://www.g2stream.com/clients/litg/viewer/index.aspx

As always, G2Stream has support staff waiting to help, simply email them if you are having issues. And yes they are there waiting, but you do have to send them an email!

Let’s hope this is a great series…..

Gary