Canadian Lacrosse League (2012–2016) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Canadian Lacrosse League (2012–2016)

Sport	Indoor lacrosse
Founded	2011
Inaugural season	2012
Ceased	2016
Commissioner	Jim Veltman
No. of teams	5
Country	Canada
Last champion(s)	Durham TurfDogs (2016)

The Canadian Lacrosse League (CLax) was a special league for men's semi-professional indoor lacrosse. It was started by Paul St. John in 2011. This league was only in Ontario, Canada. CLax stopped playing on August 31, 2016. The owners decided that the way the league was set up was not working anymore.

CLax was a bit like the National Lacrosse League. It played its games in the winter. This was different from most other Canadian box lacrosse leagues, which play in the summer. The playoffs and championship games happened in early spring. CLax started its first season with six teams. These teams were in three cities: Brampton, Ontario, Hagersville, Ontario, and Oshawa, Ontario.

History of CLax

The league first planned to have teams in both eastern and western Canada. But this idea changed. Instead, they decided to have many teams in Ontario. They also wanted one team in Quebec for the first year.

The first three teams announced were from Ohsweken, Peterborough, and Montreal. A newspaper also mentioned a team in London. But in the end, only Ohsweken actually had a team in the 2012 season. Because there were only three teams, the league decided to have two teams in each announced city. This led to new teams like the Iroquois Ironmen, Peel Avengers, and Durham TurfDogs. Rodney Hill owned the two Ohsweken teams. The league itself owned the other clubs at the start.

The very first games were played on January 7, 2012. They started in Ohsweken. The first game saw the Brampton Inferno win 18–11 against the Iroquois Ironmen. In the second game, the Peel Avengers beat the Durham TurfDogs 16–9. To finish the first day, the Oshawa Machine played the Ohsweken Demons. The Machine lost that game 13–9.

On October 3, 2012, CLax announced it would add three new cities. These were Barrie, Toronto, and St. Catharines. The Oshawa Machine team moved to Toronto and became the Toronto Shooting Stars. The Peel Avengers moved to St. Catharines. Barrie got a brand new team. Also, the Durham Turf Dogs changed their name to the Oshawa Turf Dogs.

In November 2013, the Iroquois Ironmen announced they were stopping. They were the champions from the year before. Then in December, the Toronto Shooting Stars also stopped playing. The Brampton Inferno became a touring team. They were based in Southwestern Ontario and called the SouthWest Cyclops for 2014.

Former Teams in CLax

Here are some of the teams that used to play in the Canadian Lacrosse League:

Creators' Cup Championship History

The Creators' Cup was the championship trophy for the CLax league. Here are the teams that won it each year:

See also

• Continental Indoor Lacrosse League
• National Lacrosse League
• Major Series Lacrosse
• Western Lacrosse Association