CLax Checkin: Week 7 Recap

Is it seriously the halfway point of the Canadian Lacrosse League's first season already? Week 7 has come and gone and still nothing is decided in terms of standings. 4 games graced the schedule with 4 of the 6 teams playing double games in week 7 with 2 Oshawa double headers. Those 2 double headers were the games that carried the most weight in the standings with every team involved over 4 games.

In Saturday's action, the Ohsweken Demons faced an Oshawa Machine team heavily depleted by injuries. With no les than 4 of their starting 5 out Oshawa took to the floor against a Demons team that hasn't lost in 2 weeks since making a big trade with their Iroquois brothers. The game was a feisty one featuring 97 penalty minutes including 10 roughing or unnecessary roughness penalties, 3 fighting majors and 3 game misconducts. Marty Hill, who has been on a tear of late, lead all players with 4 goals and 4 assists for 8 points. League points leader Chris Attwood had only (only!) 4 goals and 2 assists for 6 points. Jeff Powless picked up his 2nd win as an Ohsweken Demon with 51 saves (on 58 shots) while John Chesebrough was shouldered with the loss. The Demons outscored the Machine 8-2 in the middle quarters, and that led to their 13-7 victory.

Following that game, the Durham Turfdogs took on the suddenly hot Iroquois Ironmen. Iroquois trailed 5-1 at halftime going the entire 2nd quarter without scoring. They came out firing in the 3rd quarter however and finished the game with 10 goals in the half. Unfortunately for the Ironmen, so did the Turfdogs. Mike Attwood played in net for the majority of the game for Iroquois, but it was Taseh Nanticoke who was saddled with the loss. Gary Muzzin made 50 saves on 61 shots to lead the Durham Turfdogs to victory. Scott DeFrancesco led all players with 3 goals while Dan Ransom, Graham Bergsma and John McClure for the Turfdogs, and Wayne Van Every of the Ironmen all had 2 goals and 2 assists. But the story was Cody Johnson who had 3 more penalty minutes than the entire Turfdog team; 2 fighting majors and a double game misconduct for 30 minutes.

Saturday's games, after the jump

On Sunday, in Oshawa, the Durham Turfdogs were back on the floor, this time against the league leading Brampton Inferno. It was a game of momentum shifts as both teams scored in bunches, starting with 3 goals for Durham in under 5 minutes. It would sit 5-3 after 1 before Brampton woke up. The Inferno finished the half on a 4 goal run to lead 8-6 at the break. However, after recess the Turfdogs responded with 5 straight goals to start the 2nd half and give them the lead 12-10 heading home. Brampton would tie it at 13, and again at 14, but that's as close as they would get as Durham held on for the 18-15 win.

Dan Ransom led the Turfdogs again with 3 goals and 4 assists while the sparkplug and fan favourite, Nic Grasby added 2 goals and 4 assists. But the big story was Brampton's Dylan Llord who put up a huge 10 point (4 goals, 6 assists) before being ejected for 5 penalties. He didn't get his first until a scrum at 9:53 of the 3rd quarter, but then took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty (for arguing a penalty to teammate Brett Shaw), a holding call and a double minor for a slash that didn't make contact. The final 4 penalties were called within a 7 minute span. It put a damper on what was a stellar performance by Llord.

In the prime time game, featured on the Lacrosse Radio Network, the Oshawa Machine returned to the floor to face the Peel Avengers. After the Turfdogs' win, a tie for 2nd place in the standings was up for grabs between the Demons and the Turfdogs. The game went back and forth with the teams matching each other almost goal for goal exactly with an 8-7 score favouring Peel at halftime. Oshawa would outscore the Avengers 3-2 in the 3rd quarter to tie the game at 10 heading home. 2:18 into the 4th John Quarrie took exception to Josh Ruys hitting Scotty Komer in the crease and tried to drop the gloves. Quarrie dragged Ruys out of the crease by his facemask and wanted to go, but Ruys was having none of it. The result was a 4 minute double minor for roughing, a 5 minute major for face masking, a 10 minutes misconduct and a game misconduct for unsportsmanlike conduct for Quarrie. Yes, a 9 minute powerplay. Ruys took a penalty later to break up the powerplay, and Coady Derks followed suit but Oshawa would outscore Peel 6-1 during those 9 minutes. They would finish the quarter 8-3 over Peel (including 2 empty netters) to end the game up 18-13.

Tyler Harris scored 6 goals for Oshawa while Jackson Gair had 3 goals and 3 assists. For Peel, Kim Squire led the way with a hat-trick, all of them spectacular goals that only Kim Squire can score. Craig Robertson made 45 saves on 58 shots for the victory while Scotty Komer took the loss on 38 saves off 53 shots in just shy of 56 minutes. The Avengers have now dropped their last 3 matches.