LaSalle eliminates mighty Sugar Kings

[Port hockey1]

LaSalle jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead & hung on for the 3-1 win. They now advance to the Sutherland Cup finals and will face Caledonia.

Kind of a shocker, Elmira looked legit...Maybe the Mid-West just wasn't as good as the other two conferences this season...Made Elmira look better maybe?

[Marcie]

Two years with a wild card format and both years the wild card team makes it to the finals. Perhaps an indication of how much parity there is among the top clubs. The LaSalle win has to go down as a big surprize especially after losing the first two games by such a wide margin - both 7-2 Elmira wins. I'm sure most folks had LaSalle written off at that point. i'm very happy for Bill Bowler and the Vipers but I still feel uncomfortable with the wild card format. Perhaps I would feel different if my club made it to the finals as a wild card. Was the double round robin a better format?

[Beehive]

Something must have happened on the bus ride home from Lasalle after Game 2 because the Sugar Kings were never the same after that. Who knows what goes on in the minds of these young men when momentum can change so quickly and for whatever reason. The Vipers deserve a lot of credit for the comeback but in my opinion they cannot afford to fall two games behind the Corvairs and expect the same results.

[LincBrass]

Two years with a wild card format and both years the wild card team makes it to the finals. Perhaps an indication of how much parity there is among the top clubs. The LaSalle win has to go down as a big surprize especially after losing the first two games by such a wide margin - both 7-2 Elmira wins. I'm sure most folks had LaSalle written off at that point. i'm very happy for Bill Bowler and the Vipers but I still feel uncomfortable with the wild card format. Perhaps I would feel different if my club made it to the finals as a wild card. Was the double round robin a better format?

Round Robin was by far the better format. Hopefully this goes the way of the 6 team round robin used in the early 90s.
This format only serves a purpose in a sport/tournament where you require a host such as the Memorial Cup, or any HS Offsa tournament.

[Port hockey1]

I hated the round-robin.

[Administrator]

You may have hated the round robin, but there's just something wrong with Team A winning the western Jr B championship by eliminating Team B in a best of 7 series only to watch Team B move on to the Sutherland Cup finals.

[three dog night]

No easy solution until they create a fourth division in the round robin it looked to some fans they games were fixed esp late on baseball has the wild card some winning the championship thou I do not think La Salle is going to win I take Caledonia in five.

[RocketGirl]

This is the 2nd year of the Wild Card and both years, the Wild Card team is in the Sutherland Cup finals.

A lot of people didn't like the Round Robin, and a lot don't likes the Wild Card, so what is a fair system to determine who plays for the Sutherland Cup? I realize adding a 4th Conference would solve this, but that doesn't look to be happening anytime soon. The OHA, or someone, came up with an idea on how to add a 4th team, but it's not going over well, so now what?

[Administrator]

Well, I don't think the wild card was the answer. The round robin was a much better solution as far as I'm concerned.
There's not much you can do to "fix" the games in round robin. I realize the strongest team (if they were up enough games) could potentially decide their opponents by winning or losing when needed, but that comes with a risk.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

I know that the Wild Card solution is not perfect, but in the end you do end up with usually the top 4 teams.
I'm not crazy about it either but it is a big improvement on the Round Robin.

The Wild Card format does not let you choose who you get to play in the finals. Too many times with the old
Round Robin format, teams would sit out their top players and blow their last game to avoid playing a certain team.

No system is perfect but until they develop a fourth division, I say stay with what we have now.
The fans in LaSalle and St.Catharines would probably agree with me.

[Caledonia Fan]

Maybe the wild card is not the best, but I like it better than the round robin .
It gives you 4 spots to fight for during the playoffs.
I think more people were watching the wild card spot, more than the conference champs.
St Catharines last year had one of the best jr B teams in years and so did Caledonia they battle all year.
St Catharines got the wild card after losing to Caledonia in the conference final.
St Catharines handled Leamington fairly easy and the same with Caledonia taking care of Waterloo.
Caledonia and St Catharines conference rivals met in the finals. The final was 7 games and wow what a series.
You can't tell me that the two best teams in the GOJHL never met in the finals last year.

Now look at this year what a story LaSalle has been.
Only if Leamington would have beat Caledonia, then Leamington would of been in the finals with LaSalle.
Even with LaSalle (or who ever) winning the wild card gives that conference or any conference a change at meeting there rival like St Catharines and Caledonia did last year.
I don't think anyone in LaSalle or St Catharines likes the round robin better than the wild card.
That really goes to show that any one of the teams that get the wild card are not going to like it in the future.

[hurricane73]

Although imperfect I believe the wild card is a better solution than the round robin. There is much more suspense watching the ultimate second place finishers battle it out for the best winning percentage. This also puts more emphasis on winning every game in the preliminary rounds and permits the lesser teams to act as spoilers, thereby making many more games important during the playoffs. And yes, teams can let up and lose a game they should have won to influence the final results, but this is also true in the round robin scenario. For example, two years ago, in their last game at home to Cambridge, London lost thereby eliminating St. Catharines from the finals and allowing Cambridge to advance. London went on to handily beat Cambridge in the finals. Many thought that London did not put out their best effort in the last round robin game, and they did have many good reasons for doing so. Looking forward to an exciting Caledonia - LaSalle finals! Good luck to both teams!

[Port hockey1]

You may have hated the round robin, but there's just something wrong with Team A winning the western Jr B championship by eliminating Team B in a best of 7 series only to watch Team B move on to the Sutherland Cup finals.

Tell that to the CHL.

Seriously though, really surprised you don't like this format better. The round-robin, it seemed like almost every year a team would start the round-robin 3-0, then toss their last game by resting players.

I always hated it.

[Port hockey1]

Well, I don't think the wild card was the answer. The round robin was a much better solution as far as I'm concerned.
There's not much you can do to "fix" the games in round robin. I realize the strongest team (if they were up enough games) could potentially decide their opponents by winning or losing when needed, but that comes with a risk.

Really? Teams have taken dives in order to pick who they play in the round-robin, in fact, that happened all the time.

[flyers2011]

The one downfall about the wild card is, St Catharines last season and possibly Lasalle this year, you could play until the end of april beginning of May, make it to the Sutherland cup finals and end up winning nothing. That's a long time to be playing and not win any sort of championship

[insanity]

I remember Elmira years back laying an egg intentionally to avoid Chatham in the final, then they turn around and got spanked and lost anyhow. Actually was just as good as if Chatham had won. Totally classless move. Got what they deserved.

[RocketGirl]

The one downfall about the wild card is, St Catharines last season and possibly Lasalle this year, you could play until the end of april beginning of May, make it to the Sutherland cup finals and end up winning nothing. That's a long time to be playing and not win any sort of championship

But they can say they're Sutherland Cup Finalists, and that helps with recruitment. I agree that it's unfortunate that St. Catharines was playing until May and got nothing to show for it, they might as well have went out in the first round, but at least they were there unlike the other 25 teams.

And what about the day that comes when the Wild Card wins the Sutherland Cup? The Wild Card has been in the final the last 2 years, it's bound to happen.

[Marcie]

I suppose the premise here is what if the best 2 teams in the GOJHL are from the same conference. They would like to have the two of them playing off for the cup. That may have happened last year. Caledonia and St. Catharines may have been the best 2 teams in the GOJHL and they both played for the cup. This year, who knows? Caledonia is certainly the best team. The second best team? Not really clear. It is difficult to say that LaSalle, who finished 4th, is the second best club. However a quick look at the NHL will show many lower ranked teams in recent memory who have won the Stanley Cup. The two Sutherland Cup semifinal series just didn't seem as intense as the double round robin games. In the round robin, evey game seemed like a life or death situation. Didn't seem that way with the semis. It felt just like another best-of-seven playoff round. Neither way is perfect until we get that fourth conference.

[Vairs61]

The second best team may be St. Catherines from what I have seen in the playoffs so far. They pushed Caledonia in there series with all the injuries they had.

What if they they made four divisions and two conferences with the teams there are now. It would mean splitting up the current divisions. There could be 13 teams in each conference made up of 7 and 6 team divisions. With top 4 in each making playoffs. Play each team in the conference 4 times with 1 showcase game.

[flyers2011]

and RG you don't get much for being finalist. People only remember who wins the league and the suthy. Hopefully for there sake they find a way to win the suthy. Long time to play with nothing to show for it.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

I would think being the Wild Card team and getting beat out in the finals is not all bad. You can get 3 home games in the semis and three more in the finals. Sure you want to win it all but if you do as St. Kitts did last year and get those 6 extra home games, it sure helps your bottom line and gives you better financial footing for the upcoming season.

[flyers2011]

For sure, extra money always helps.

[Port hockey1]

The one downfall about the wild card is, St Catharines last season and possibly Lasalle this year, you could play until the end of april beginning of May, make it to the Sutherland cup finals and end up winning nothing. That's a long time to be playing and not win any sort of championship

It is a long time, but the 20 year olds probably don't mind.

[Administrator]

I remember Elmira years back laying an egg intentionally to avoid Chatham in the final, then they turn around and got spanked and lost anyhow. Actually was just as good as if Chatham had won. Totally classless move. Got what they deserved.

I was going to bring this exact situation up but then got lazy ad didn't want to look up the year etc. I remember how this felt back then.