The CAMO Roadrunners along with eight other men’s teams met this past weekend, January 29-31, in Toronto and Etobicoke for Major League Water Polo (MLWP) regular season games.  The CAMO Roadrunners, the 2009 MLWP Champions, swept the weekend with five victories extending their unbeaten streak to nineteen games dating back to last season.  The Roadrunners finished the 2009 regular season with a perfect 8-0 record and swept the playoff weekend with four victories.  The Roadrunners have begun the 2010 season with a perfect 7-0 record and a league leading plus 44 in the goals for – goals against differential.   The Roadrunners Nicola Bicari, has already eclipsed his 36 goal performance from 2009, leading all goal scorers with 38 tallies in seven games for an average of 5.4 goals per game.

The highly touted Bowness Monster, from Calgary, competed this past weekend finishing with a record of two wins and four losses.  The Bowness Monster are loaded with ex-National team athletes which includes Noah Miller, Thomas Marks, Kent Hardisty, Dave Allan, and goaltender Nick Youngblud.  Marks and Youngblud were members of the Canadian Men’s Olympic team in 2008 and the record 8th placing Canadian squad at the 2009 FINA World Aquatic Championships.  Youngblud missed the team’s first two games this past weekend, and the Bowness Monster struggled to regain any momentum after staring the season with two losses.

The Dollard Devils, Gatineau Internationals, and the York Mavericks joined the Roadrunners amongst the top four MLWP men’s teams and are sitting in playoff positions.  The Roadrunners (7-0) as the Quebec Division leaders, the Mavericks (4-1) as the Ontario Division leader, the Internationals (5-2) as the playoff host and Central Division leader, and the Devils (5-2) hold the wild car playoff spot.  The Toronto Golden Jets are in 5th place with a 2-3 record, the Bowness Monster in 6th place with a 2-4 record, the Carleton Water Walkers are in 7 with a 2-5 record, the 8th place Toronto Chargers have a 1-3 record, while the 9th and 10th placed Hamilton AC and Laval Tritons are still in search of their first MLWP victory this season.  

The Mavericks only loss thus far this season was at the hands of the Roadrunners by a score of 12-9.  The Internationals lost to the 7th place Water Walkers by a 10-7 margin earlier in the season, and were beat up by the Mavericks by a score of 8-2.  The Devils lost two nail bitters, one of which to their long-time rival Roadrunners by a 17-16 margin, and the other to the Mavericks by a score of 18-17 in a seven round shootout thriller.

Bicari leads all scorers with 38 goals followed by the Devils’ Jon Ruse with 32, the Bowness Monster’s Miller with 28, the Devil’s Patrick Ahmarani with 27, and rounding out the top five is the Mavericks Dusan Lazarevic with 17.  The Internationals’ Dusan Aleksic leads all goaltenders with a goals against average of 6.43 followed by the Mavericks Milan Radenovic at 6.60, Youngblud at 6.75, the Devils’ Chris Jackson at 7.20, and rounding out the top five is Marc-Antoine Tanguay of the Water Walkers with an average of 8.00.

Each men’s team, with the exception of the Bowness Monster, will play a total of twelve regular season games.  The playoff weekend takes place in Gatineau March 26-28 where the three division winners and the wild card winner will compete in a four team playoff for the 2010 MLWP Championship.  Teams are ranked based on winning percentage.

For more information about the men’s and women’s 2010 MLWP season please visit www.waterpolo.ca, where you can find the schedule, results, standings, statistics, rosters, and much more.