Saturday night brings a matchup with the St. Catharines ShockWave for the Peterborough Timbermen, who travel to the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena for what could be a preview of their first-round playoff game.
All seven teams in the Arena Lacrosse League will make the playoffs, with the first-place team receiving a bye through the quarter finals.
If things in the league remain as they are, first place will be fought for between the Toronto Monarchs, Paris RiverWolves and Whitby Steelhawks, who have done very well as an expansion team. St. Catharines has a two-point lead over the Oshawa Outlaws and Timbermen for fourth place. The Six Nations Snipers are in last place.
Peterborough has been hit and miss, alternating between winning and losing. Oshawa has won only one game since they started the season 3-0. According to the ALL website, Oshawa holds the tiebreaker over the Timbermen by a one-goal differential.
Timbermen defenseman Joe Wasson said that part of the ALL’s allure is how close all the teams are, and that makes it fun to play the game.
“Every team in this league is close so every weekend is a battle no matter who you play,” he said. “The key is to come ready to play.”
The last few weeks of the season are important, and the preferred standings will go to those who come together at the right time, said head coach Joe Sullivan.
“That’s three weeks down the road from now and that’s what we’re really gunning for and that’s what I want to keep the guys focused with,” Sullivan said.
The Timbermen have a pretty formidable lineup if all their players are available. Part of their consistency problem stems from playing shorthanded, but the players believe they are capable of competing with the ALL’s top teams.
“Hopefully we have a few more guys this weekend, because with a full lineup we can play with anybody in this league,” Wasson said.
A quick look at the league stats shows that the Timbermen and ShockWave each have one player in the top five in goals. Joel Matthews and Caleb Wiles are tied for fourth with 24 goals. But the Timbermen have the advantage in points, with Mark Vradenburg sitting third in total points and first in assists, while the ShockWave have no scorers in the top five, although Bryan Neufeld is averaging 6.8 points per game.
But Sullivan said he expects the ShockWave to be a tough opponent.
“We beat them in OT before but they’ve had a real hot go the last little while. I expect them to come out and try to beat us, like everybody’s going to. They’ve got some scoring power, as do we and if we have all our players it’s going to be a heck of a game.”
After this weekend, the Timbermen will have two more games: Sunday, March 18 at 3 p.m. in Oakville (which was rescheduled from Feb. 10), and Saturday, March 24 at 7 p.m. at Children’s Arena in Oshawa.
