THE FINAL SHOWDOWN
TORONTO, ON, July 21, 2024 –
After a day of upsets and hard-fought games, the WMSL Regular season crown is still to play for on the final league day on July 27th, 2024 in Mississauga.
This past weekend, heading into league day #4 on July 20th Mimico (6-0) was cruising and on paper looked to move to 7-0, but defending champs Whitby (5-1) ended their undefeated run beating them 7-1. Whitby then followed it up with another 7-1 win over Kingston to have both team’s records now tied at 6-1 with Whitby owning the tie-break.
Out West, the other undefeated team Arthur (5-0) got shocked by Hamilton (2-4) who came from behind to win 5-4. If memory serves me right this is Hamilton’s first ever win versus Arthur. Arthur did get back into the win column later in the day defeating Mississauga (0-4-1). This set’s us with a 3-way tie for first with all tied at 7-1. As it stands, Arthur leads on Goals Average formula and the teams sit Arthur first, Whitby second and Mimico third.
And it gets better because in League Day # 5, the final day of the regular season, Arthur plays BOTH Mimico and Whitby! So, Arthur is truly in control at this point. If they win their final 2 games, they will win the Becky Smith Memorial Trophy as the top finisher in the regular season. But the other teams won’t go down without a fight.
Whitby can clinch first if they are able to beat Hamilton and Arthur. This will put them on 16 points and regardless of what Mimico does, since Whitby own the tie-break they will be first.
Mimico therefore needs some help. They need Whitby to Tie or Lose one of their games, and they need to beat Arthur and London to be clinch 1st place. There’s probably a few other scenarios with a Mimico/Arthur Tie but key thing for them is win and hope Whitby drops a point.
Further down the table, newcomer Peterborough owns their own destiny for 4th place. They need to get 3 of 4 possible points on the final day to put themselves out of reach. Should they stumble, Niagara and Kingston both have a chance to take 4th from various scenarios. 4th place is very important this year since top 4 teams will have an automatic birth to the A Championship in provincials.
At the other end, 4 of the bottom 6 are set with Hamilton, Grand River, Mississauga and London in too big of holes to climb out. Final placing and seeding for Provincials Round Robin is still important so they can’t rest on the final day.
Don’t miss the drama of the final day and come out to support the teams in Mississauga’s Port Credit and Clarkson arenas on July 27th, 2024.