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| Matt Spanger and the Brampton Excelsiors took on Shawn Williams and the Brooklin Redmen in both teams' season openers Wednesday. (Photo: Tim Prothero) |
Both teams were missing a handful of
players for various reasons, primary among them guys being involved
in the National Lacrosse League championship series. It's safe to say
that as the game went on, the Brooklin Redmen handled a
cobbled-together roster better than the Brampton Excelsiors did.
Brampton jumped out to a 4-3 lead after
one period and scored the opening goal of the second. But for the
final 34 minutes, it was all Brooklin as the Redmen scored nine
unanswered goals to take a 12-5 win in the Major Series Lacrosse
season opener for both teams at Whitby's Iroquois Park Sports Centre.
Junior graduate Austin Shanks led all
scorers with 3 goals and 3 assists for 6 points. Dan Lintner, fresh
off his NLL rookie season in Toronto, enjoyed being back with many of
his junior teammates with the Whitby Warriors, scoring 4 goals and
adding an assist. Two of those reunited teammates each added 5
points: Reilly O'Connor had a goal and 4 assists, Shayne Jackson 5
assists.
It wasn't just the youngsters producing
for Brooklin, though. Veteran Derek Hopcroft and uber-veteran Shawn
Williams each chipped in a goal and 3 assists.
Matt Spanger, Mike Burke, Mike Teeter,
Tyson Bell and Phil Caputo responded for Brampton, who outshot the
Redmen 45-42 but didn't get many quality chances against a stout
Brooklin defence.
Shanks and Lintner were sharp. Jackson
played a wily game, often sitting back near the half boards and
picking his targets with crisp passes as players cut into open space.
And Ryan Keenan, another Warriors junior grad, had an excellent start
to his first full MSL season. Keenan, who is expected to be a
first-round pick in this year's NLL draft, looked very good. He was
taking hits to make plays and did a good job of working both inside
and outside.
“It's nice,” Lintner said of
getting back on the floor with his former Warriors mates. “We've
played together before. It's nice to get out there with them again.
We play against each other all winter time and it's good to finally
be back on the same team.”
Defensively, the Redmen had a strong
team performance led by the Hossack brothers. Graeme, the second
overall pick in the NLL draft last year and one of the league's top
rookies, may even have been outplayed by his younger brother Matt,
who joined the Redmen this year after finishing his Warriors career
and should be a high pick in a very strong defensive draft in
September.
Quintan Martin got the start between
the pipes for Brampton and the Excelsiors junior grad did a good job
in his first MSL game. He faced a seemingly endless series of
breakaways in the second period and stopped about five in a row
before anyone finally managed to beat him.
Brampton had trouble getting inside or
creating quality scoring chances at the other end, and when they did
Zach Higgins was equal to the task of stopping them, making 40 saves
to earn his first win of the season.
The Excelsiors were missing key
forwards Dan Dawson, Daryl Veltman, Joe Resetarits and Tyler Fereira.
That left them with players more familiar with going out the back
door taking significant offensive reps, including Connor Sellars and
Tyson Bell.
The latter, fresh off a standout rookie
season with Calgary in the NLL, had a fantastic debut game in MSL.
Bell was aggressive and effective defensively and regularly used his
speed to push the ball up the floor, often staying for offensive sets
where he looked right at home. Brampton's first pick, third overall
in January's MSL draft, did more than enough to justify his high
selection.
Brooklin eventually dominated all
facets of the game, including the faceoff circle. Graham Bergsma was
credited with 14 wins in 18 draws. “He did very good tonight,”
Redmen head coach and GM Wayne Colley said of Bergsma. “He's one of
our protected Sr B players now because I made a deal with some other
guys and moved them, so now he hops up to the show and he's very
excited about even getting the opportunity to play here and he showed
tonight he played well.”
Both teams are right back in action
tonight. Brampton heads home to take on the Six Nations Chiefs while
Brooklin makes the trek up the 115 to face the Peterborough Lakers.
Both games start at 8pm.
