The Whitby Warriors opened their season Tuesday against the Toronto Beaches and made a statement with their win over Toronto. The Warriors humiliated the Beaches 21-5 and showed why they are the defending Minto Cup champions.

The Beaches were no match for the powerful Whitby team and continued to struggle in this 2012 season. Once again the Beaches goaltending proved problematic as Tyler McKendrick was victimized in net for the Beaches and allowed 16 goals on 47 shots on goal. Showing once again that the Beaches will have no chance this season unless they find a way to get some help in net. The positives for the Beaches were that they were very disciplined only giving up 5 power plays to the Warriors and were able to shut down the Whitby power play which went 1 for 5. These are things that the Beaches can take and start to build on because if they are able to shut down opposing team's power plays and stay disciplined they will take some pressure off their goaltenders. Once again the Beaches were lead on offense by Jordan Roberston who continues to rack up the points in this young 2012 season scoring 1 goal and getting 3 assists against Whitby. The Beaches also saw continued production from Jackson Hulbert who had a goal and 2 assists. The fact that the Beaches top two players are producing is good sign that could help the Beaches turn around this season.

The Warriors once again proved that they are the team to beat in 2012 by obliterating the Beaches and sending a message to all the other teams in the league that if you do not bring your A game against Whitby you will be in for a long night as the Whitby team is relentless. The Warriors were lead in net by Lukas Coote who played well stopping 25 of 30 shots and was solid for Whitby tonight. The Whitby defense played well and limited the shots the Beaches could get on Coote. The Warriors penalty kill played well tonight shutting down the Beaches who went 2 for 11 on the power play. The Warriors though will need to be more disciplined as they cannot give that many chances on the power play as top teams in the league will take advantage of this flaw and could cause Whitby problems in the future. This will be something for the Warriors to work on in practice and is the one flaw that could be found in this otherwise lopsided game. The second best Warrior on the floor tonight was Curtis Knight who showed off great playmaking skills and had 6 assists and also contributed 3 goals. The Warrior were lead on offense by an outstanding performance by forward Chad Tutton who scored 7 goals and had 4 assists. This is a great start to the season for Tutton and shows that Tutton has continued from where he left off in 2011. Two other Whitby players who also had great nights were Dan Litner and Ryan Serville. Litner scored 3 goals and 3 assists and will once again try to lead the Warriors in points in the 2012 season. Serville also jumped in on the offensive onslaught scoring 4 goals and adding 3 assists. The Warriors were firing on all cylinders Tuesday night and teams will be hard pressed to defend against the offensive depth of the Warriors.

The Warriors next game will be Sunday May 20th against the Orangeville Northmen which will be a great test to see if Whitby is as strong as last year. This will also be the first meeting between these teams since the OJALL final last year where Whitby defeated Orangeville to advance to the Minto Cup. Expect there to be fireworks in this game as these two teams will each come out with something to prove. The Beaches schedule gets no easier as they face a tough Peterborough Lakers team in search of their first win.

In two years the Ajax Rock of Major Series Lacrosse has managed just six regular season wins. Despite making the post-season in both years of existence, the club has yet to record a playoff win. This season, they have clinched a playoff berth, along with every other MSL team, so could this be their year? Sitting in the Eastern division, they will face either the Brooklin Redmen, or the Peterborough Lakers in the playoffs. Unless they finish first, they will have to pass both on their way to the OLA Finals. Not likely for a team with a -56 goal differential last year and a roster consisting of one player who dressed for an NLL club this season.

Jordan MacIntosh is the only player on the roster to dress for an NLL team this season. He was named rookie of the month for April, and made a case for rookie of the year while in Minnesota. Last season in MSL, he was named rookie of the year. In just fourteen games, MacIntosh scored fifty-two points, twenty-eight of them goals. Teammate Jason Mainer, who played five more games, was twelve points ahead at season's end, with four fewer goals. Only six players on the entire roster scored double digit goals last season, and four of them played at least nineteen games. The roster doesn't boast the firepower of the big boys in MSL, but the majority of the team did play this winter thanks to CLax so they may not take as much time to get going.

Brock Boyle could be one to watch this season. He does have NLL experience under his belt and he had a strong season in CLax with Peel and Brampton. Boyle is one point shy of a point-per-game player in both regular season play, and the post-season. Also, teams would be wise to keep an eye on Jesse Guerin who finished third on the team with fifty-one points, and was seventh overall in points in 2010. Guerin was drafted to CLax this season, but opted for a spot on Buffalo's practice roster before suffering an injury. If he returns, and is 100%, then he'll be a big part of Ajax's roster.

Last year's General Manager was Paul St John, with Jim Veltman helping on the bench. Due to their roles in CLax's head office, the pair has been forced to give up their summer titles. They are still with the team, but Clem D'Orazio, former Ajax Rock player, and assistant coach of Brock University's Canadian Championship field lacrosse team, has taken over coaching and general manager duties. It will be interesting to see if his coaching style will change the club, and if not, if he makes any personnel changes to improve their record.

The Ajax Rock have a long uphill climb if they want to compete in the Major Series. The pieces are there, but haven't fallen into place yet. The problem with summer lacrosse is, if you don't have the big budget, you can't attract the big talent. Ajax doesn't, so they are relying mostly on home grown, young players to grow with the team. Aiming for the Mann Cup would seem a little lofty a goal at this point, but in a few seasons it may not be. For now, the Rock will be focused on winning more than three games this season.

The Whitby Warriors, the defending Minto Cup champions will open their season tonight at home against the Toronto Beaches. The Warriors dominated the season series against the Beaches last year winning both games by scores of 14-4 and 20-4. The Beaches will need to bring their A game to have a chance against the Warriors.

The Beaches have already started their 2012 season losing their first two games to the Orangeville Northman and St. Catharines Athletics. The Beaches kept both games close losing to Orangeville 10-7 and St. Catharines 10-6. The Beaches have had a tough start to their season facing two of the top teams in the league and then having to face the reigning champs. Jordan Robertson and Jackson Hulbert have been leading The Beaches on offense this year. Robertson has 5 goals and 4 assists in 2 games played this season while Hulbert has 1 goal and 5 assists so far this season. The Beaches will need to get more offense from their other forwards if they hope to beat the Warriors. The Beaches have had trouble in net so far this year with Michael Lalani struggling and having a gaa of 9.21 and a save percentage of .529. Backup Tyler McKendrick has seen only 15 minutes of time so far this season and gave up 3 goals and had a save percentage of .727. The Beaches will hope that their goaltending can get on track but don't expect them to do so against the Warriors, as the Warriors have one of the strongest offences in the league. Keys to victory for the Beaches against Whitby will be to force Whitby's offense to settle for outside shots and to outwork Whitby in recovering loose balls. The more the Beaches can control ball possession, the better will be their chance of winning the game by limiting Whitbys offensive chances.

The Warriors have yet to start their 2012 season but are the team to beat after their success in winning the Minto Cup last year. The Warriors will hope forward Dan Litner can get off to a fast start this season and continue where he left off in 2011. The Warriors will hope to get the offense going quickly in this game in order to open up the floor and to capitalize on the Beaches weak goaltending. The Warriors will need to be aggressive in winning loose balls and dominate the faceoff circle where the Beaches have struggled so far this season. If the Beaches allow Whitby to control possession they will be in for a long night as their goalies will not be able to deal with the barrage of dangerous shots by the Warriors. Whitby will need to constantly take shots on the Beaches as their goalies are likely to crack.

Expect the Warriors to control this game due their ability to spread the defense and get shots on the Beaches goalies who have not performed well so far this season. The Beaches will also have a tough time getting goals as they will be facing standout goaltender Alexis Buque in net for Whitby who was one of the top goalies in the league last year. The Beaches will need to capitalize on the few chances they get as they won't get many past Buque. The Warriors look to get their championship defense started with a win, while the Beaches hope they can stop their two game skid and get their first win of the 2012 season.

The Burnaby Lakers finished 2011 by just missing out on making the playoffs. The Lakers finished 2011 with a record of 7-9-2 which left them in fifth place in the league. The Lakers missed the playoffs due to Maple Ridge having the tie breaker between the two teams. The Lakers will look to make the playoffs in 2012.

The Lakers will need forwards Dane Stevens and Clark Colton to lead the Burnaby Offense. Dane Stevens finished 2011 with 30 goals and 30 assists for 60 points, while Colton finished just behind with 21 goals and 37 assists for 58 points. Stevens and Colton finished 1 and 2 in team scoring respectively and will be expected to bring the same offensive output in 2012. The Lakers will have 2011 rookie goaltender Dan Lewis back in net for the 2012 season. Lewis who finished 4th in the league in goals against average, save percentage and goal against in 2011 was one of the best goalies in the league despite his 5-6 record. Burnaby will hope that Lewis will be able to pick up where he left off in 2011 and be one of the best goaltenders in 2012. Burnaby will have help in front of Lewis in the form of 2011 first round draft pick Matt Beers. Beers who plays defense for the NLL Washington Stealth has had a great season with 16 points and 59 loose balls won which helped him be named to the NLL Western All Star team. Beers looks like he will live up to the potential that Burnaby saw in him in 2011 that caused them to draft him in the first round. With Beers playing in front of Lewis expect other teams to have problems scoring on the Lakers in 2012.

The Lakers were quiet during the offseason and had very little turnover from the 2011 season. The Lakers ignored free agency and elected to improve their team through the draft. The Lakers had 3 picks in the top ten in the 2012 draft picking Jackson Decker as the 2nd pick in the draft, Casey Jackson as the 3rd and Justin Salt as the 10th pick. Decker had 28 goals and 27 assists for 55 points in 2011 with the Jr A Burnaby Lakers and lead the team in scoring. The Lakers will look for Decker to help boost their offense in 2012. Decker will be joined by 3rd pick Casey Jackson who played for the Jr A Coquitlam Adanacs who had 13 goals and 35 assists for 48 points. This duo of Jackson Decker and Casey Jackson will provide the Lakers with an offensive punch for years to come. The Lakers third pick in the draft was defenseman Justin Salt who played for the Jr A Salmon Bellies and had 35 points in 2011. Salt will help the Lakers defense as well as their transition game. The Lakers were able to add some great talent to their team through the draft and hope it will give them the necessary push to get into the playoffs in 2012.

The Lakers open their season at home on May 18th against the Victoria Shamrocks. This game will be an indicator to see how strong the Burnaby Lakers will be in 2012 as the Shamrocks are expected to be one of the top teams in this upcoming season. The Lakers' 2012 season will continue with another tough test on Wednesday May 23rd when they visit the defending WLA champs the Langley Thunder. These two matchups will be tough for the Lakers but expect the games to be close. The Lakers have improved their roster from 2011 and will be a playoff contender in 2012.

After a 10-7 loss to Orangeville on Saturday, the Toronto Beaches made their way to the friendly confines of the Ted Reeve arena for their home opener against the St Catherine's Athletics. The loss to Orangeville was a tough one for the Beaches club as the Northmen scored five unanswered goals to end the game. Toronto's Junior A squad was looking to rebound from the loss and put on a good show in front of the home crowd.

The game did not start as planned, however, as the Athletics took a two goal lead on goals by Joel Matthews and a beautiful, diving through the crease tally from Shayne Adams. Jordan Robertson, who had five points for Toronto in the match against Orangeville, caught a perfect leading pass from Jackson Hulbert and buried it to put the Beaches on the board, all while killing a penalty. After two players tangled together, they were both sent to the box on weak penalty calls, both teams traded four-on-four goals; Gary Davidson for Toronto and Mike Melynchenko for St Catherine's. The period ended with Chris Attwood scoring his first of the season on the powerplay to give the visitors a 4-2 lead at intermission.

With Drew Thomas still in the box following a high sticking penalty late in the first, the Beaches converted the powerplay opportunity just thirty-one seconds into the second period thanks to Mike Triolo. Triolo would strike again, this time on defence, as he dove through his crease to stop a ball on the goal line behind goaltender Michael Lalani. The stop helped preserve what would turn into a three goal run for Toronto as Rob King and Hulbert scored to give the Beaches their first lead of the game. With Toronto looking to keep momentum heading into the final period, Marcus Butters scored for St Catherine's to tie the game again, and Matthews' second of the game gave the Athletics a one goal lead heading to the final frame.

Unfortunately for the home side, that was as close as they would come to victory. The two late goals were part of an eventual five goal streak spanning intermission. As the Beaches scored within the first minute of the second to start a run, Jordie Daradick scored twenty seconds into the third. Toronto hit the post just over a minute later, which then led to Melynchenko's second of the game and the end of the night for Lalani. Tyler Kendrick took over in net for Toronto and was greeted by Adam Bellamy who was allowed to walk in alone and make a number of moves on the crease before finding the back of the net. With just over two minutes remaining in the game, the Beaches' Gareth Gibson took a penalty for high sticking. Not to worry though as Robertson would score the team's second short handed goal of the night. His club would be called for Too Many Players with thirty seconds to go, however, which handed Chris Attwood a penalty shot. Attwood made no mistake and that made the final 10-6 for St Catherine's.

Jordan Robertson, who came into the game with five points under his belt, added four more (two goals, two assists) to lead the Beaches. Also with two goals and two assists was St Catherine's Chris Attwood (yes CLax fans, THAT Chris Attwood). It was Shayne Adams, however, who would lead all scorers with five points (one goal, four assists).

Besides the fact Toronto has now surrendered twenty goals in just two games, their defence showed signs of brilliance including forcing a lot of outside shots by St Catherine's and running out their shot clock on numerous occasions. What else would you expect from a team coached by veteran NLL defender Bruce Codd, and assembled by Brodie Merrill? Eric Penney deserves credit for standing tall in the Athletics' net making key saves, especially during times when Toronto looked like they would put a run together. St Catherine's seemed to be fighting harder for every faceoff and loose ball, and that is where this game was won. The Beaches have a history of not fairing well in the OLA's Junior A ranks, but Codd is coming off coaching a great season with the Okotoks Raiders in Alberta. If anyone can work magic with this team, it is him. They'll figure this thing out.

Tonight when the Toronto Rock host the Rochester Knighthawks for the NLL's eastern conference championship, they will be without one of their defenders, Damon Edwards. Edwards was suspended by the league on Tuesday for a hit against the Buffalo Bandits' Ian Llord. He and the Professional Lacrosse Player's Association appealed the suspension yesterday, but he will be unavailable to Toronto tonight.

The league reviewed the incident again at the request of Edwards, but the former CLax and Boston Blazers player was unable to win his appeal, and will be out for the biggest game of Toronto's season.

In the waning seconds of the Rock's win over the Bandits, Edwards was called for a game misconduct and a match boarding penalty, which is an automatic suspension.

Edwards played last season in Boston and when they folded, he was drafted by Buffalo, but was released after training camp. He signed with the Durham Turf Dogs of the Canadian Lacrosse League, and after a great season Toronto signed him to help with injuries, and he stuck.

Hail to the Chiefs! The Six Nations' entry in the Ontario Senior A circuit, MSL, that is. As has been discussed in the previous entries in this series, Ontario's representative in the Mann Cup is a safe bet between either the Brampton Excelsiors or the Peterborough Lakers. However, over the past few seasons, the Chiefs have been slowly making moves to be grouped in with the big names of the league.

Six Nations finished the regular season as the fourth seed. Considering they beat lowly Ajax and Kitchener/Waterloo (who's combined seven wins sat just one over half the total of the Chiefs' twelve) doesn't say much for their season. Until it's considered that they were tied for wins with third place Brampton, and sat just one win back of the second place Brooklin Redmen. It appears the days of a two team MSL are gone and it is now a four horse race. It will definitely be three if the Chiefs have anything to say about it.

Further stating their case to be grouped with the elite, the Chiefs took Peterborough to game seven in their first round playoff series. Despite going home early, forwards Cody Jamieson and Colin Doyle still finished in sixth with thirty-four points and ninth place with twenty-seven points respectively in playoff scoring for the league for the entire playoffs. Keep in mind, all three of which these men played in just seven games, one of which their team scored just three goals. Stephen LeBlanc led the way for the Chiefs in the regular season with fifty-eight points, although Roger Vyse's thirty-one goals set the mark in that category. With a roster of this calibre, it should come as no surprise Six Nations finished third in league scoring.

Led by goaltender Matt Vinc last year, Six Nations led the league in goals against with 161, three less than the Anthony Cosmo led Excelsiors' mark of 163. Vinc was a force between the pipes for the Chiefs last year, but a trade earlier this season with those same Excelsiors sent Vinc to Brampton for the playing rights to Brandon Miller and Rory Smith. Looking at the names on the roster, one may think Mike Poulin would have the inside track on the starter's job. However, after the stellar CLax season put up by Ohsweken Demons' goaltender, Jeff Powless it is possible that the Chiefs trust his ability to lead them to glory as he did for Ohsweken in April. Last season for Six Nations Powless boasted a perfect 3-0 record over four games with an 87.3% of shots saved and an unheard of average of 5.47 goals allowed. As a whole, the team had an 8.05 goals against average last season.

It appears all the pieces are in place this season. With one more win last year, the Chiefs would've jumped to second spot and hosted a playoff matchup, and avoided Peterborough. Who knows what would've happened then. In Six Nations, the time for 'what-ifs' is over. 2012 is the year for them to prove last season was no fluke, and they will be one of the top MSL teams for years to come.

The good news for the Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks heading into their sixth season in the OLA's Senior A circuit (Major Series Lacrosse, or MSL) is that they have already clinched a playoff position. With the realignment of the league into East and West divisions, all six teams are guaranteed a spot in the post-season. The Kodiaks were just one of two teams (with Ajax) last year to miss out on playoff lacrosse. With just four wins, it's no surprise. Such is the case in Ontario where, unless you have the money to convince the multitude of top calibre players to give up their summers, you end up with a roster of 'on the cusp' players just happy to be given a shot.

Earlier in this series, we looked at the Peterborough Lakers and the Brampton Excelsiors. Both teams are a who's who of current lacrosse stars. It is hardly any coincidence, then, that they are the ones annually representing Ontario in the Mann Cup. On the entire Kodiaks roster, they have just seven NLL mainstays; however, two of them are in net. Assuming Evan Kirk returns, and repeats his NLL rookie performance, Kitchener/Waterloo will have on of the top goaltenders. Kirk handled the brunt of the duties, appearing in nineteen games, and logging over 1,000 minutes. Mike Poulin, on the other hand, clocked just over 100 minutes in two games played for the Kodiaks. Poulin also appeared in six games for Six Nations.

The majority of the remaining NLL players, to the Kodiaks' credit, play defence. Last year, the Kodiaks surrendered the second most goals in the entire MSL so defence and goaltending will be a focus this season if they hope to improve. Kichener/Waterloo's top two scorers last season were Ryan Benesch and Jesse Gamble, two notables from the NLL. Benesch scored fifty-six points over sixteen games for the Kodiaks last year, and he will have to be their leader once again in 2012.

Gamble is an interesting story. Toronto Rock fans will recognize the NLL rookie defenseman, but in superhero-esque fashion he steps into his phone booth after the Rock season, and plays offense for the Kodiaks (defenseman in winter, forward in summer? No?). Last season Gamble was one of just three players on the roster to appear in all twenty games. In those games he scored just ten points less than Benesch, while scoring five more goals (27).

The remainder of the roster is a smattering of CLax players, with up and comers making a name for themselves in Ontario lacrosse. Kitchener/Waterloo is in the playoffs, but will end up facing Brampton or Six Nations once they get there. This team is at least two full years away from going deep, but they're on the right track with their youngsters and draft picks piling up.