NLL
NLL Report: Week 8 Recap, LaxAllStars of the Week
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4 games last weekend and 4 games this weekend make for just the right amount of NLL action for our field lacrosse packed weekends. Not too many big tilts this week, but don’t miss the video clips below each recap to see the best of the dropped gloves in Week 8!
I hope you enjoy our new navigation for the NLL Report! Try using the buttons above or the table of contents to the right (or at the bottom on mobile devices) to read each game’s full rundown and to check out our new NLL LaxAllStars of the Week!
NLL Week 8 Results
- Toronto Rock 13, New England Black Wolves 12 (OT)
- Rochester Knighthawks 13, Buffalo Bandits 12 (OT)
- Calgary Roughnecks 16, Vancouver Stealth 13
- Colorado Mammoth 14, New England Black Wolves 12
Coming up this weekend
Friday 2/27
Toronto at Edmonton – 9:30 PM EST – NLL Live; TSN GO
Saturday 2/28
Calgary at Rochester – 7:30 PM EST – NLL Live; TSN GO
Colorado at Buffalo – 7:30 PM EST – UniversalSports.com; TSN GO
Minnesota at Vancouver – 10:00 PM EST – NLL Live; TSN GO
NLL Week 9 Pick ‘Em
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NLL Report TOC
1 – Results & Pick ‘Em
2 – Rock/Black Wolves
3 – Knighthawks/Bandits
4 – Stealth/Roughnecks
5 – Mammoth/Black Wolves
6 – LaxAllStars of the Week
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Superhero Rock Force OT Comeback Win
Takeaway Moments
Overtime win #1 of the Week 8 was earned by the Toronto Rock moving them to 7-1 and an even more comfortable spot as First Place in the East… The Black Wolves fell to 2-4 after the 12-13 loss on Superhero Night at the Air Canada Centre… Josh Sanderson played the role of hero for the night, moving back into the #1 scoring spot in the NLL and netting his 2nd goal of the game 40 seconds into OT… attendance was over 7.7k.
Sanderson led with 2 goals and 5 assists, Brett Hickey had 4 goals and Rob Hellyer had 2 goals and 6 assists… Nick Rose was called in to relieve Brandon Miller and captured the W by only allowing 3 goals on 24 SOG… the Rock win came after being beat out on shots and loose balls by the Wolves by almost double digits in each category.
Ryan Hotaling dominated the face offs for New England, winning 20 of 28… Both Buchanans had 6 points, Kevin had 3 goals and 3 assists while Kyle had 4 goals and 2 assists… Joel White once owned the ground ball game, picking up 11 in Friday’s loss… Although they started 2-0, the Black Wolves have been on a losing skid since Week 3.
Boxscore
MD’s Take
It looks like the Rock really wanted to give that game away in the first half and if you look at the stats, they probably should have. Nick Rose was the best he could have been for Toronto and a phenomenal replacement for Miller. Toronto now have a more cushy seat atop the East, ahead of Rochester by 2 full games. This weekend they will be tested at they head off to face the #1 team in the West, Edmonton. The Rush are coming off of a week of rest and haven’t only lost in weeks 1 & 2.
This was only the first game of the weekend for the Black Wolves, who thanks to Bill O’Brien’s fight a couple weeks ago are gaining popularity. This was by far the closest the Wolves found to win since the dominated the Knighthawks 17-7 in Week 2. Scoring isn’t the problem for New England as much as it is filling in the Swiss cheese defense standing in front of Evan Kirk. The Wolves might not have a problem swinging fists, but they should be more focused on staying on the floor and helping out their keeper. They have the next two weeks in the NLL off to regroup and collect their composure before attempting to snap their streak and get back on track.
Around the League
“I was really disappointed with a lot of aspects of our game tonight,” said Rock head coach John Lovell. “I consider ourselves pretty fortunate to win this game. This is a good reminder that we are not as good as we think we are.”
“It was a tough loss,” said Joel White. “We’re not satisfied, that one is going to be in the back of our heads. It hurts.”
From NLL.com
[mks_icon icon=”fa-youtube-play” color=”#dd3333″ type=”fa”] Game Highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMtX-ztgThs
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[mks_icon icon=”fa-rss” color=”#dd3333″ type=”fa”] Related Articles
- Super comeback: Rock shock Black Wolves in OT, 13-12 (NLL.com)
- Sanderson plays OT hero for Rock (Toronto Sun)
NLL Report TOC
1 – Results & Pick ‘Em
2 – Rock/Black Wolves
3 – Knighthawks/Bandits
4 – Stealth/Roughnecks
5 – Mammoth/Black Wolves
6 – LaxAllStars of the Week
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K-Hawks Drop Bandits in 2nd OT Game of Week 8
Takeaway Moments
The Thruway Rivalry, aka the Battle of Upstate, was a beauty as the Rochester Knighthawks swept the Buffalo Bandits in all three of their 2015 meetings, this time with an 13-12 OT home win… the Hawks moved to 5-3, over half of their wins coming from Buffalo, two in as many weeks…. attendance was over 6.6k.
The Bandits scored 7 goals in the 3rd quarter, only to turn around to have a dismal 1 goal 4th, which led to overtime and Rochester had the momentum… neither team had a single penalty minute in the 4th period.
It took Cody Jamieson until the end of the 3rd quarter to get on the board, but once he was on, he couldn’t be stopped finishing with 4 goals and 1 assist, including the OT winner… Cory Vitarelli finished with a hat trick and 1 assist… Joe Walters completed the game with 6 assists… Craig Point earned 2 goals and 3 assists in Saturday’s win…
Alex Kedoh Hill had a breakout game in the loss, tallying 3 goals and 1 assist… Dhane Smith led the Bandits again with 3 goals and 3 assists… Ryan Benesch also frequented the stat sheet with 1 goal and 4 assist.
Box Score
MD’s Take
Not much to worry about for the Knighthawks, their 5-3 record keeps their heads above water as they host the struggling Roughneck squad this weekend. Cody Jamieson had the kick-start night he needed and Joe Walters is facilitating offense like the seasoned pro that he is. Matt Vinc has been strong in cage per usual for the Hawks. I expect them to pull out another home win on Saturday.
The Bandits were not pleased with how the game ended and the coaching staff left behind a certain souvenir which the Rochester social media team couldn’t help but to notice.
.@NLLBandits Do you guys want this back? Mr. Cordingley seemed to drop this with quite some force after the game… pic.twitter.com/HTbAe7fQHl
— Halifax Thunderbirds (@HFXThunderbirds) February 22, 2015
Although it was awesome to see Kedoh Hill have a breakout night, this team is going to be stuck in Rochester’s wake as they dropped all 3 of their games to them this year and they sit a game and a half back from the Hawks in the standings. They host the Mammoth this weekend, who are coming of a streak-breaking win and are scoring a ton of goals. If the Bandits expect to find their way to the win column, they are going to need to shoot the lights out in this matchup.
Around the League
“I think I just finally hit my spot,” Jamieson said. “I must have taken a lot of shots. I don’t even know how many. I didn’t hit my spot for a long time. I thought I should have scored a bunch of times- I missed the net, Cosmo made a nice save, or I put it in his belly. It was frustrating but I stuck with it. I’m glad my teammates stuck with me, because I just kept shooting and shooting. It finally started going in.”
“Great players come up big in big games like this at the right time,” said Knighthawks forward Joe Walters. “That’s why he’s our leader, that’s why he’s the league MVP. He’s that guy for a reason. He came up big at the end.”
From NLL.com
[mks_icon icon=”fa-youtube-play” color=”#dd3333″ type=”fa”] Game Highlights
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[mks_icon icon=”fa-rss” color=”#dd3333″ type=”fa”] Related Articles
- Thruway thriller: Knighthawks down Bandits in OT, 13-12 (NLL.com)
- Bandits bedeviled for a third time (Buffalo News)
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NLL Report TOC
1 – Results & Pick ‘Em
2 – Rock/Black Wolves
3 – Knighthawks/Bandits
4 – Stealth/Roughnecks
5 – Mammoth/Black Wolves
6 – LaxAllStars of the Week
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Roughnecks Find Desperate Win Over Stealth
Takeaway Moments
When they needed it the most, the Calgary Roughnecks found their first win of the 2015 season over the Vancouver Stealth, 16-13… Calgary bounced back from the previous week’s loss in BC to capture win #1 at home in front of over 11.6k fans!
Curtis Dickson was Superman again for the Riggers, he punched in astounding 7 goals and 2 assists in the win… Dane Dobbie earned 3 goals and 4 assists… Shawn Evans had a 2 goal, 4 assist night… Geoff Snider won 19 of 31 face offs… Frankie Scigliano held strong for all 4 quarters making 36 saves on 49 shots.
Rhys Duch led the way for Vancouver with 4 goals and 4 assists while Corey Small finished right behind with 4 goals and 3 assists… Johnny Powless had 1 goal and 3 assists in the loss.
Boxscore
MD’s Take
The first 5 penalties of the game, 3 for Vancouver and 2 for Calgary, were all for Roughing and all came separately in the first 12 minutes of the game. It was a heated rematch to say the least.
It couldn’t have been more clear that Curtis Dickson really, really wanted to win. This guy has carried the team on his back week after week with nothing to show for it. This week he was boosted by strong goaltending and a fundamental defense led by Mike Carnegie that helped push him to new heights. This team is too good to be 1-6, but now they go on the road for two weeks, first against #2 in the East, Rochester, and the following week at conference rival and first place seat, Edmonton. Do they get relief after that? Nope. Just another home stretch starting again with Rochester. These are either going to be hard fought, well deserved wins, or just more miserable notches in Calgary’s season from Hell.
Vancouver gets to host a struggling Minnesota squad before taking the week off. Only 1.5 games back on the first place spot, this weekend’s win is crucial to keep the Stealth at the front of the race. This team has been winning since OD came back and they’re in good shape. I’m not surprised the Calgary was able to get a win, a professional lacrosse team can’t go completely defeated and the Stealth just slipped by the week before. I
Around the League
“We had a little back-and-forth this week with Curtis Dickson,” Malawsky said. “He stepped up tonight in a big, big way. He takes a lot of abuse out there, he gets held, he gets hammered and he just stayed the course, stayed on his feet and just competed and battled. He’s a special lacrosse player. He can put teams on his back and he gets big goals at big times and that’s what makes him very good.”
From NLL.com
[mks_icon icon=”fa-youtube-play” color=”#dd3333″ type=”fa”] Game Highlights
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[mks_icon icon=”fa-rss” color=”#dd3333″ type=”fa”] Related Articles
- Rigged up: Dickson leads Roughnecks by Stealth, 16-13 (NLL.com)
- Calgary Roughnecks led by Curtis Dickson in win over Vancouver Stealth (Calgary Sun)
NLL Report TOC
1 – Results & Pick ‘Em
2 – Rock/Black Wolves
3 – Knighthawks/Bandits
4 – Stealth/Roughnecks
5 – Mammoth/Black Wolves
6 – LaxAllStars of the Week
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Jones & Co. Serve 2nd Weekend Loss to Wolves
Takeaway Moments
Stopping their losing skid and extending the New England Black Wolves‘, the Colorado Mammoth took the road with 14-12 on Sunday afternoon… Colorado was able to move above .500, to 4-3, with Sunday’s win while the weekend’s second loss moved the Black Wolves to 2-5 and last place in the East… attendance was over 3.7k amid the icy weather on the coast last weekend.
The Wolves defense was able to keep John Grant Jr. to only 1 goal and 2 assists… Adam Jones had the marquee night for the Mammoth scoring 4 goals and collecting 5 assists in the win… Bob Snider had 14 loose balls and Joey Cupido picked up 10…goaltender Dillon Ward made 49 saves on 61 shots.
Joel White led the NLL again with loose balls, taking 12 in the game… although he had 12 shots on goal, Kevin Buchanan only found 5 assists in Sunday’s home loss… after allowing 5 goals and making only 4 saves in the first few minutes of the game, Evan Kirk was yanked and replaced by Tye Belanger who stood tall and made 37 saves on 46 shots.
Boxscore
MD’s Take
After 3 rough games and 4 long weeks finally got behind them, the Mammoth were able to get the much needed W. Adam Jones has been mostly silenced in recent weeks before turing around with a 9 point night in Connecticut. John Grant Jr. has not been himself the past few games, only collecting 3 points in Sunday’s win. Dillon Ward has been the best part of Colorado’s defense, which has been lacking control on their end of the floor. From last game and on, the Mammoth are going to be running a marathon, not getting a bye until Week 17. Good luck to this team built around a group of seasoned veterans.
New England needs to pump the brakes hard, they don’t have a game for two weeks and not another home game for five weeks. The weather has done its part to keep fans away from the Mohegan Sun Arena, but this franchise is going to need wins on top of their SportCenter highlights to put butts in the seats. Goaltending is not the issue and the Buchanans are doing well on the offensive side, but the Wolves need longer possessions and earlier jumps on their games. They tied with Colorado in the 2nd half, but the 6-2 first quarter was too much to overcome. They’ve got a couple of weeks to rest up and attack the league when they return.
I’d also like to point out that Joel White is #2 in the NLL for loose balls with 86! That is unreal for a guy who doesn’t face off, the closest non-face off guy is Brodie Merrill who sits at 69 and has a one more game than Joel does. This guy loves loosies and giving his team possession, an easy way to get your stock up, kids!
Around the League
“A couple of my goals, I was just running up the floor and we had some defensive guys transitioning the ball up the floor,” said Jones. “To be honest, I wasn’t even using my stick so I didn’t know where it was going. If I don’t know where it’s going, I don’t think ‘Kirky’ knew where it was going either. A couple of them were pretty lucky, but it was good to get off to a good start, knowing we’ve lost three in a row.”
From NLL.com
[mks_icon icon=”fa-youtube-play” color=”#dd3333″ type=”fa”] Game Highlights
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152932067312911&set=vr.10152932067312911&type=2&theater
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[mks_icon icon=”fa-rss” color=”#dd3333″ type=”fa”] Related Articles
- Fur the win: Mammoth hold off Black Wolves, 14-12 (NLL.com)
- Jones, Mammoth Thrive Despite Gear Woes (Lax Magazine)
- Black Wolves Undone By Defense; Lose 5th Straight (Courant.com)
NLL Report TOC
1 – Results & Pick ‘Em
2 – Rock/Black Wolves
3 – Knighthawks/Bandits
4 – Stealth/Roughnecks
5 – Mammoth/Black Wolves
6 – LaxAllStars of the Week
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NLL LaxAllStars of the Week
Making the choice for #1 spot was a breeze this week. If they had more wins, we would likely have seen Curtis on this list a whole lot more!
Interested in helping me make my LaxAllStars of the Week selections? Drop a comment below after this weekend’s games and give me know your take on who deserves the accolades!
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[mks_two_thirds]#1 – Curtis Dickson
Finally Superman’s team finally got tired of being stuck in Curtis’ backpack and decided to help the guy out. No one told Curtis though, the dude went off scoring 7 goals and collecting 2 assists in the Roughnecks first win of the 2015 campaign. If only things were better for Calgary right now, Curtis would be an easy nomination for league MVP.
Hey Riggers, stop making Curtis do all of the work… F’real! This guy is 2nd in the NLL in goals scored, let’s help him out!
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[mks_two_thirds]#2 – Adam Jones
The real Adam Jones finally stood up this week. Both Jones and Junior have been quieted lately and it took a Sunday afternoon against the Black Wolves to crack Adam out of his shell. As one of the younger vets on the team, Adam is going to be relied up heavily to carry his team on the long stretch ahead as the Mammoth don’t get a break until the second to last week of the regular season.
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[mks_two_thirds]#3 – Josh Sanderson
Sanderson showed up big on Super Hero night for the Rock, helping them claw their way back for the OT win over New England. Josh’s second goal of the game was the huge overtime finisher that moved his team to a cool 7-1 record. Josh moved back into the #1 sport for scoring in the league with 52 points so far in 2015.
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[mks_two_thirds]#4 – Cody Jamieson
It hasn’t been the start that this 3-peat champion has been looking for, but this weekend we saw Jammer take over against their Thruway rivals. That said, with 10 weeks left, Cody has plenty of time to get himself on track and finish with his best season yet. With only the Toronto Rock in their way, we can expect Jamieson to get his team into high gear coming into the second half of the season and inch their ways closer to a 4-peat. Moving forward, I hope to see more 4+ goals games like this one!
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[mks_two_thirds]#5 – Nick Rose
Coming hot off the bench to relieve a struggling Brandon Miller, Nick Rose came into Saturday night’s game like a freakin’ champ. Only letting 3 goals sneak by in his half, including a huge overtime save helped earn Nick the big W and a 7-1 record for the Rock. I hope to see the big man starting in cage this weekend against the #1 spot in the West, Edmonton.
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