National Junior Rankings: August 3, 2023
Cameron Pack, Orangeville Northmen (Photo: Sam Hossack/OJLL)
During the 2023 Canadian junior seasons, The Lax Mag will publish our National Junior Rankings, a weekly rundown of all 23 A-level teams across the country. The opening edition will begin on June 7 with future rankings published in the middle of every week (date dependent on league schedule for that week) until the start of the Minto Cup.
The rankings will include the Ontario Junior Lacrosse League (OJLL), British Columbia Junior A Lacrosse League (BCJALL) and Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League (RMLL).
The Lax Mag’s rankings will position teams based not only by overall record, but also the strength of their opposition and the quality of their results - win, lose or draw.
Yes, the Orangeville Northmen lost their very first game of the 2023 season last night to the Burlington Blaze in Game 1 of the OJLL Finals.
And yes, they remain our #1. Why?
Well, over 28 regular season & playoff games combined, that was their one & only lonely loss this year - a tight 12-10 result to the Blaze, a tremendously talented team we’ve had ranked #3 for most of the summer, and no worse than #4.
After last night’s defeat, we asked our 37.3K followers on Instagram who should we rank #1 this week? About 20 hours later, the Northmen ate up nearly 50% of the poll.
Yes, they lost, but the 2023 Orangeville Northmen have still been one of the most historically dominant teams ever, and while they did finally lose, it’ll take more than a 2-goal L to knock them off the top of the charts.
And while the Blaze’s victory in Game 1 was glorious, we also didn’t move them past our season-long #2 either - the Coquitlam Adanacs. Why?
Well, while the Adanacs have not been as dominant as the 27-1 Northmen (kinda forgivable), they have been damn good during both the regular season & playoffs. They’re currently up 3-1 in the BCJALL Finals against a stacked Victoria Shamrocks roster, who have struggled to solve Coquitlam’s composed yet crushing defensive end with any real regularity over the past two games of this series. One more win, and Coquitlam is Minto bound.
But, back to Burlington.
In addition to dropping the first L into Orangeville’s still-stellar record, they became just the second team this years to hit double digits against the Northmen in a single game (Mimico was the other, way back in May) and the first to touch twine twelve times. The 63 shots they overwhelmed goalie Chris Origlieri with was also the most the Northmen have given up this year, although they were outshot in three of four games in their previous series against the Toronto Beaches.
Orangeville led the OJLL regular season with 57 power-play goals (Burlington ranked 7th with 34). Last night, outside of two delay of game calls in the first period, the Blaze took 0 PIMs in the next two frames, allowing just one PPG early on. Although they had none last night (Orangeville, who led the regular season in penalties, didn’t serve a single minute in the sin bin during Game 1), it’s the Blaze who lead the playoffs with 21 PPGs.
Burlington are peaking at the absolute perfect time, and no matter where we have them ranked this week, they proved last night they are more than capable of making this year’s Minto and maybe more. With that said, there’s a lot of lacrosse left to go in Ontario.
Most likely noticed we slid the Edmonton Miners a bit last week, right out of the Top 5 in fact. Why?
Well, it was difficult to get a grip on where the team stood based on their recent run. The only club the Miners played since June 26 was the Saskatchewan SWAT, who we’ve had ranked dead last all year. Edmonton had not played at full strength for some time too, with key contributors stuck on the sidelines with suspected injuries.
Last night, they hosted Game 1 of the RMLL Finals against the Calgary Mountaineers, both teams already guaranteed a ticket to the Minto with Edmonton hosting. How’d they look? Ummm, pretty damn good. The Miners took the opener 16-6 with as complete an effort as you could ask, getting big games from all their top talent.
The Edmonton Miners are legit Minto contenders, again, no matter what the rest of the country has already concluded.
National Junior Rankings: August 3, 2023
1. (1) Orangeville Northmen (OJLL) 20-0 (7-1)
2. (2) Coquitlam Adanacs (BCJALL) 18-3 (6-1)
3. (3) Burlington Blaze (OJLL) 14-6 (8-1)
4. (6) Edmonton Miners (RMLL) 10-5 (5-0)
5. (4) Victoria Shamrocks (BCJALL) 15-6 (4-3)
6. (5) Mimico Mountaineers (OJLL) 13-7 (4-4)*
7. (8) Toronto Beaches (OJLL) 12-8 (3-5)*
8. (9) Calgary Mountaineers (RMLL) 7-7-1 (4-4)
9. (7) Raiders Lacrosse Club (RMLL) 10-5 (3-4)*
10. (9) Nanaimo Timbermen (BCJALL) 14-7 (0-3)*
11. (9) Oakville Buzz (OJLL) 13-7 (1-3)*
12. (12) Whitby Warriors (OJLL) 9-11 (0-3)*
13. (15) St. Catharines Athletics (OJLL) 8-13 (0-3)*
14. (13) Port Coquitlam Saints (BCJALL) 10-10-1 (0-3)*
15. (14) Six Nations Arrows (OJLL) 7-13 (0-3)*
16. (13) Brampton Excelsiors (OJLL) 7-13*
17. (17) Burnaby Lakers (BCJALL) 9-12*
18. (18) New Westminster Salmonbellies (BCJALL) 6-15*
19. (19) Delta Islanders (BCJALL) 6-15*
20. (21) Kitchener-Waterloo Lacrosse Club (OJLL) 3-17*
21. (20) Peterborough Lakers (OJLL) 4-16*
22. (22) Langley Thunder (BCJALL) 5-15-1*
23. (23) Saskatchewan SWAT (RMLL) 2-12-1 (0-4)*
*Eliminated