After recently clinching the top spot in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League, the Manitoba Blizzard travelled to the 2017 Founders’ Cup in Saskatoon to butt heads with some of the best teams in the country.
While their performance was a notable improvement over last year’s tournament, the Blizzard still couldn’t manage a podium finish, losing Sunday’s bronze medal game to the Seneca War Chiefs by a final score of 15–8.
“We should have won today,” said Taylor Ritchie, a three year veteran of the Blizzard and resident of Thompson. “We could not pull it together as a team. It was a bad game for us.”
As a result of this loss, the Blizzard ended up in fourth place overall, with a win–loss record of 2–4 throughout the entire tournament.
Ritchie admits that even though the team had higher hopes going in, there are a couple silver linings to take away from this year’s tournament.
“We beat B.C. for the first time ever,” he said, referring to their 14–11 victory against the Coquitlam Adanacs on Aug. 18. “And this is actually the first time since 1958 that Manitoba has made to the a-side medal game for any junior team, so I guess that’s something.”
Ritchie is also proud of the fact that they stood toe-to-toe with the Orangeville Northmen in an Aug. 16 match-up, especially since the Ontario team was the eventual winner of the 2017 Founders’ Cup.
Regardless of this latest result, Ritchie is confident going into his last year with the Blizzard, especially if he is backed up by fellow Thompson athletes like his brother Evan, William Lutz, and Isaac Babulic.
“They all had big roles this week. Played a lot of minutes [and] performed when we needed them.”
Try-outs for the Manitoba Blizzard will take place sometime around spring break of next year. The 2018 season starts during the first week of May.
