Canadians in the NCAA 2013 – Edition 1

As many of you have reminded me, the NCAA season is now well underway and so far no “Canadians in the NCCAA”. Sorry folks. This thing gets harder and harder to do each year as I try to keep up with other things like my job, my kids, my laundry, etc. As such, while I continue to track the stats, my ability to keep up with the write-ups has been reduced dramatically.

Here’s a brief update on “Canadians in the NCAA” with a focus on Division I. In the next edition I will add in Division II and in the next edition, Division III.

Canadian men looking good but different in 2013

First of all, the number of Canadian men playing Division I lacrosse continues to rise with 123 players on rosters this year vs. 118 last year. The second thing to note in 2013 is the ascendancy of defensive players and/or two way players with great defensive stats. These include players like Dylan Webster, Jordan Houtby and Jason Noble, all of whom were strong performers in 2012, but also include some new names like Ethan O’Connor, Pat Root, Luc Magnan, Reid Acton and Jack Donnelly. The third thing to note is that this rookie class looks really strong with players like Dan Lomas, Nicholas Beaudoin, Pat Root, TJ Sanders, Challen Rogers, Kyle Jackson and Griffen Leclaire putting up big numbers in their inaugural season. This indeed might be the deepest Canadian rookie class ever. Finally, goalie Dillon Ward, who hails from the same hometown as “All World Goalie” Chris Sanderson, is having a tremendous season at Bellarmine that is not captured in the stats that I track. So as I said at the outset, the Canadians are looking good in 2013, but it’s not just about goal scorers anymore.

Canadian women looking different in 2013 too!

The number of Canadian women playing Division I lacrosse continues to rise slightly from 22 in 2012 to 23 in 2013. However, there has been a significant changing of the guard over the past year and many of the highest impact players in 2013 are freshman and sophomores. Vanessa VanderZalm, Kaylin Morrisette and Tori Quinn lead the youth movement but veterans Jen Freymond and Katie Guy remain high impact players on their respective teams.

Final thoughts – It really feels like there is a changing of the guard with respect to Canadians in the NCAA. Even two or three years ago, Canadians (mainly men) who were playing in the NCAA had only the benefit of a few years of field lacrosse before they got to college – they arrived primarily as box lacrosse players and learned field rules and tactics on the fly. The current class of freshman is different. Most have been playing field lacrosse for a decade, have attended top prep schools and play in many cases non-offensive roles. From a Canadian fan perspective, it’s a really exciting development because it makes the game more interesting and means our national teams will be even more competitive. Lacrosse season has arrived and it feels so good!

Yours in lacrosse – JP Donville

Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary – The Roughnecks played host to the Colorado Mammoth last night at the Saddledome. Both teams are coming off loses in their home openers. The Riggers lost once at home and won once in Colorado last season.

Shawn Evans opened the scoring for Calgary, continuing from his 5 point performance from last week. Calgary goes ahead by 2 when Chris Levis loses sight of the ball in his pads and it trickles into the net. Roughnecks goalie, Mike Poulin, looked sharp early with help from his teams smothering defence.

The Mammoth finally got on the board with a power play tally from John Grant Jr at 8:19 of the opening quarter. Calgary responded with a similar play on the power play, 13 seconds after. The ‘Necks scored on 3 of 4 shots thus far and finished the quarter scoring on 4 of 7. Calgary lead 4-2 after fifteen.

Colorado scored 51 seconds into the second frame, followed by 2 more goals from Calgary, Scott Ranger and Dane Dobbie, his first of the season at 1:34. Mammoth goalie, Chris Levis, was injured on the play, and replaced by Matt Roik. Geoff Snider recorded his 200th career point at 3:50 of the second, to make it 7-3 for the Roughnecks.

There was no scoring for the next seven minutes until Grant notched his hat-trick at the eleven minute mark. That ended scoring for the half. Calgary lead 7-4. The Riggers defence controlled most of the play in the 2nd quarter and allowed Poulin to have a clear view of every shot.

Grant scored in the first minute of the 3rd quarter. Two minutes after, Evans replied with his 2nd of the night. After another goal by Colorado, Evans scored his 3rd and 4th goals on the power play. Calgary’s power play was much better this week, going 5-8.

Grant scored his 5th of the game, from the doorstep, to keep his team within range, 7-10. Snider scores, going coast-to-coast about a minute after, but the Mammoth managed to pot one more on the power play to maintain the 3 goal deficit, 8-11.

Jeff Shattler, with his 2nd, made it 8-12 earlier in the final frame. There would be no scoring for the next eight minutes, until Grant scores the double hat-trick. The Mammoth keep plugging away and it soon becomes 10-12 and 11-12. Calgary started to look sloppy on defence and allowed Colorado multiple shots of rebounds. Adam Jones ties the game with 1:20 remaining in regulation.

If not for the heroics of Poulin in the final seconds of play, the Riggers would not have the opportunity of overtime. Clearly the save of the game was Poulin throwing out his arm to block a shot by Grant, after a mad scramble in front of the net during the final seconds regular time.

Sean Pollack sealed the deal for the Mammoth, scoring at 6:02 of the overtime period.

Calgary has a chance for redemption as they travel to Colorado next week for the rematch.

Grant lead all scorers (6-2); Gavin Prout (1-6).

Evans lead Calgary (4-3), Shattler (2-2), Dobbie and Scott Ranger (1-3).

Edmonton, AB – A little over 16 hours after winning in Calgary, the Toronto Rock defeated the Rush 10-9 at Edmonton’s Rexall Place on Sunday afternoon. The win moves the Rock’s record to 2-0 on the season.

“It’s absolutely huge,” said Rock head coach Troy Cordingley. “To come out of this road trip with a pair of wins over two incredibly talented teams says a lot about the character of our group. We’ll enjoy this one for a couple hours and get right back to business and preparing for Saturday’s home opener in Toronto.”

The Rock dug themselves an early hole when Toronto defender Patrick Merrill took a pair of minor penalties just 31 seconds into the opening quarter. Edmonton scored two power play goals, including one from 2012 first overall pick Mark Matthews, taking an early 2-0 lead. Toronto battled back in the in the frame but still trailed 4-2 after the opening 15 minutes.

At the end of the quarter, a late hit was delivered on Rock forward Garrett Billings that resulted in a scrum and several penalties being assessed. One of those penalties was a second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty dished out to the Rock bench and as a result, head coach Troy Cordingley was ejected from the game.

The penalties worked out in the Rush’s favour as Edmonton scored on the man advantage early, but while still shorthanded Kasey Beirnes answered for Toronto and the score stood at 5-3. The Rock added another pair, with one coming on the power play from Billings, tying the game 5-5. Edmonton added another goal before the end of the half to carry a 6-5 advantage into the break.

Edmonton got on the board first to gain a two-goal lead, but the Rock went on a three-goal run to take their first lead of the game. Two of those three goals came from Scott Evans who was released by the Rush at the beginning of their training camp in December. The Rock lead was short lived as the Rush tallied with just 8 seconds left in the third quarter to tie the game 8-8 heading into the final quarter.

Beirnes continued his clutch goal scoring with the go-ahead marker just over five minutes into the fourth quarter to put the Rock ahead 9-8. Rob Hellyer followed that up with a goal at the 12:08 mark to give Toronto their biggest lead of the night. Edmonton was able to close the gap to one, but couldn’t get any closer in the final moments despite pulling their goaltender for the extra attacker.

Billings scored a pair and added three goals for a five-point game and captain Colin Doyle also had five points, all assists. Beirnes, Evans and Josh Sanderson each scored twice for the Rock.

Nick Rose was sensational for the second consecutive night making 44 saves to pick up his second win of the season. Aaron Bold made 34 stops in a losing cause for the Rush.

Brandon Ivey sustained a lower body injury in pre-game warmup and did not play on Sunday. Damon Edwards, who left Saturday’s game early, also didn’t dress after suffering a lower body injury against Calgary. Scott Johnston was the other player scratched for the Rock. All this meant that Toronto needed to play Rock forward out of the back door on defence for portions of Sunday’s game.

Scotiabank Saddledome – The Calgary Roughnecks played host to the Toronto Rockin their 2013 home opener. The teams played twice last season, each team with avictory in the others barn. Curt Malawsky made his debut as the Riggers new benchboss along with Bruce Codd as defensive co-ordinator and Bob McMahon on offence.

Noticeably absent was Dane Dobbie, serving a one game suspension from an altercation in the ‘Necks last playoff game, May 5 vs the Edmonton Rush. Also missingwas the recently retired, Kaleb Toth. Toth will be honored, March 2, as the first recipient of the “Forever A Roughneck” program.

Stephen Hoar got the visitors on the board early, scoring seven seconds off the opening face-off. Jeff Shattler replied about two minutes after, finding space through the 5-holeof former Roughneck, Nick Rose. Calgary’s transition made it quickly up the floor early
in the quarter, but couldn’t capitalize. Some good end to end action. The teams looked evenly matched and exchanged goals. However, the edge went to the Rock, with a tally from Blaine Manning on the power play late in the quarter and up 3-2. It could have been a 4-2 lead for Toronto if not for the keen eye of Coach Malawsky to challenge the play. The goal was called back for crease violation.

The Roughnecks received a couple power play chances at the beginning of the second quarter, but Toronto managed to score short handed with a break by Rob Marshall. That was the only goal until almost the eleven minute point of the quarter. Joe Resetarits, one of three Calgary rookies, kept the hosts to within one goal by scoring over the shoulder of Rose from the top of the crease. The Rock’s transition came up big, scoring the next two goals about 40 seconds apart to go up 6-3. Calgary replied with a goal from Aaron Pascas, acquired via trade from Toronto, but the Rock would score one more before the half to maintain their three goal lead.

During a half time interview, you could tell Coach Malawsky was not too happy with his troops, as you could barely hear him over the sound system due to his already hoarse voice.

The Riggers started the third quarter two men down with penalties to Curtis Manningand Mike Carnegie at the end of the half. Toronto managed to score once as Kasey Beirnes finished a nice zig-zag play to the crease. Calgary killed off the remaining penalty and was awarded a power play of their own shortly after. Shawn Evans scored his second of the night, top corner. At 2:41, Nolan Heavenor was given a 5 minute major for roughing. On the play, Garrett Billings took a long shot which hit the post and Heavenor was charged with a late hit. The Rock took advantage of this time to go up 10-5 with two goals from Josh Sanderson.

Calgary looked like they were struggling with the Rock D and Rose was being stingy in net. It wasn’t until the final minute of the quarter when Heavenor intercepted a pass and passed up to Andrew McBride who scored through the legs of Rose. Daryl Veltman scored 19 seconds later to bring the the Riggers back to within three (7-10). The Roughnecks would need a strong finish to get back into the game.

Toronto scored first again in the final quarter. Evans replied with his hat-trick goal, 18 seconds after. Curtis Dickson blasted an underhand shot that beat Rose top corner and Geoff Snider scored 7 seconds later, off the draw. This brought the Roughnecks to within one (10-11). The 11,653 fans in attendance started to “bring the noise,” cheering on their local heros. With a delayed call against Calgary, the Rock put an extra attacker on the floor and Beirnes scored his second of the night. The crowd quieted as Beirnes scored his hat-trick with 1:14 remaining.

The ‘Necks played the remainder of the game with Mike Poulin on the bench. Evans played goalie at one instance, and made the save. He then passed up to Curtis Manning to Dickson for the score. This got the crowd energized. Unfortunately, Calgary lost the final draw and Toronto ragged the clock down to 13 seconds. The game finished 13-11 in favour of the Rock.

The Colorado Mammoth visit Calgary, Saturday, January 19.
The Rock visit Edmonton tomorrow night for the Rush home opener.

There are 6 leagues listed here: MSL, Sr. B, CLax, Junior A, B, and C. 

Let’s see what ya got!

Arenas – RK = Rickard Arena Bowmanville, IP = Iroquois Park Whitby,  LG = Legends Centre Oshawa, MK = McKinney Arena Whitby.