The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports 23 | Friday, September 26, 2014 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com "Connected to your Community" die Merrill, who was the runner-up. "It's obviously a huge honour," MacIntosh said. "The position has come such a long way and some of the best players in the NLL are playing it. To be at the top of that class, it's pretty special. Brodie Merrill made the position what it is in terms of a player doing it all." Though Cardy said it didn't take long for MacIntosh to adapt to his new role, he said it would be unfair to say it simply came naturally to him. "He worked really hard at it," Cardy said. "He would go away (to school) every year and come back and he would be that much better." While MacIntosh initially sacrificed some of the offensive side, he eventually became a two-way force in Jr. A with his point total increasing from 19 to 38 to 73 in each of his first three seasons. It was during that third season that MacIntosh began thinking that a pro career might be possible. After capping his junior career with an 81-point season, MacIntosh proved his ability to play against top competition by taking rookie-of-the-year honours in Major Series Lacrosse. That fall, Minnesota made him the fourth overall pick in the 2011 NLL draft. "Coming into Minnesota was the ideal situation, with how much I was able to play," he said. "It's rare for rookies to become fulltime starters, but that really helped my development." Now three years into his pro career, MacIntosh's views on playing transition have completely flipped. "Playing defence is actually a little more fun," he said, "because I'm still learning and still working at it." And once he's got it all figured out, watch out. Complete transition Once reluctant to accept his new position, there are now few better at it than Jordan MacIntosh By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff | photo by Scott Pierson -- Special to the Oakville Beaver When Jordan MacIntosh arrived at his first Burlington Chiefs training camp, coach Shawn Cardy saw a big, athletic player with a lot of skill. Knowing what MacIntosh was capable of -- they had both been members of the Oakville Buzz's Founders Cup-winning team the previous year -- Cardy had an idea in mind of how to best utilize the 6-foot-1 player with good stick skills. "Our focus was finding a way to get him into open space and getting him involved in more odd-man rushes," Cardy said. The plan was to utilize MacIntosh as a transition player who would instead come out of the back door with the defensive players. Throughout his minor career, MacIntosh had always been a player relied upon to provide his team with offence. Now, he was being asked to prevent goals. How was the proposal received? "I don't know," Cardy says hesitantly, "what did Jordan say?" "Being 16 or 17, I was fairly resistant to start playing defence," is what MacIntosh had to say. "I think everybody who has ever played lacrosse will tell you scoring goals is a lot more fun." But MacIntosh was willing to try and he soon realized there were advantages to his new position. His new defensive responsibilities were actually helping him at the other end of the floor. "Playing transition, I was able to create a lot of (offensive) opportunities," he said. "A lot of my goals were coming in odd-man situations and from turnovers in the middle of the floor." Seven years later, MacIntosh is playing transition at the highest level with the Minnesota Swarm. And Sunday, for the second year in a row, he was named the National Lacrosse League's transition player of the year. This season, MacIntosh led all transition players with 23 goals and 61 points. And those defensive duties? He finished second in the league by scooping up 204 loose balls and ranked among the top 10 with 198 faceoff wins and 25 forced turnovers. The selection made him only the second player to win the award twice, joining Bro- MacIntosh wasn't the only Oakville player up for an award Sunday. Chris Corbeil was one of three finalists for the NLL's defensive player of the year. He finished as the runner-up to Rush teammate Kyle Rubisch, who took the honour for the third straight year. Corbeil shared the league lead with five shorthanded goals and finished top eight in the league in forced turnovers (26) and Corbeil runner-up for NLL's top defensive player award loose balls (137). The Edmonton Rush captain also put up the best offensive numbers of his five-year career. He had 17 goals and 27 points in 18 games, nearly doubling his previous best single-season totals. Edmonton allowed both the fewest goals and shots on goal in the league. It finished with a league-best 16-2 record but was upset by Calgary in the semifinals. Hornets roll to 3-0 start, including win over defending OWHA champs By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff Amy Curlew has already helped one Oakville team achieve success. Now she appears determined to lift another to new heights. Making her Provincial Women's Hockey League debut, Curlew scored both goals to lead the Oakville Hornets to a 2-1 season-opening win over the defending Ontario Women's Hockey Association champion Mississauga Chiefs. The Goose Bay, Nfld. native followed that up by scoring the gamewinner in two Hornet victories over the weekend, opening the scoring in a 6-0 shutout of Ottawa Saturday and then scoring a third-period power-play goal in a 2-1 victory over Nepean Sunday. "I didn't know what to expect, I'm one of the new faces coming on to the team," Curlew said. "I'm extremely happy, but it's really all coming from our team." While Curlew's scoring touch -- she led all players with nine goals at last year's provincial high school championship to help Appleby College win bronze -- is certainly welcome, the Hornets will not have to rely to on the rookie to carry them. The addition of veterans Loren Gabel and Madison Field gives Oakville the type of players who in the past have left Oakville in the latter stages of their junior careers. Both have averaged more than a point a game in their first two seasons in the PWHL. Gabel put up 81 points in 77 games with the Toronto Aeros See Improved on pg. 24