Editor’s Note: Thanks to the help of the innovative team at SISU Guard, the Official Mouthguard of the NLL, we’ve beefed up our National Lacrosse League coverage! We hope you enjoy our look at the 2016 NLL Playoffs through a new lens with the aid of our partner SISU, continuing with the Calgary Roughnecks versus the Saskatchewan Rush.
We can only pray to the lacrosse gods that the rest of the 2016 NLL Champion’s Cup Playoffs go like the first three games. The two overtime Divisional Semifinals were followed up with three-quarters of nail-biting lacrosse in Game 1 of the West Division Finals, unfortunately ending with a runaway 4th quarter sprint by the visitors. The faithful crowd in the Scotiabank Saddledome were loud and proud for their Roughnecks, rolling in 12,211 deep for what could very well have been the last Calgary home-game of 2016.
After getting the best of the Mammoth in the longest NLL Playoff game in history, the Calgary Roughnecks returned home to host the #1 seed Saskatchewan Rush, fresh off a bye and ready to rumble.
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How It Happened
Shaking off any dust they may have built up over the bye week, Jarrett Davis struck first, lighting up the scoreboard with little over a minute missing from the clock. Coming in seconds later with a quick answer, rookie forward Riley O’Connor registered his first, and only, goal of the night to knot the score at one. The stars wouldn’t wait long to get their names up in lights, first it was Mark Matthews burying a Rush goal on solid ball moment, matched by a rip from Curtis Dickson on the opposite end less than a minute later. Taking a full floor run for himself, defenseman Nik Bilic gave the Rush yet another lead on a tough, unassisted goal. Over 5 minutes would tick away before the officials would make the first call of the night, a Slash by Davis, which resulted in Jon Harnett on the power play, washing the score out once more. Waiting for the last shot, Robert Church would find twine, connecting for Saskatchewan to carry a 4-3 lead into the break.
In the second quarter, both teams got a few solid looks early, but the goaltenders were having no issues absorbing the shots. The Rush were able to kill off their second penalty, and when Calgary would eventually earn a Too Many Men minor, Ben McIntosh would find a way to capitalize to continue building on the Rush lead. Staying fairly quite all night, Wes Berg knocked down his only score of the night to chip away at the deficit, only to be sandwiched in by another McIntosh goal. Showing up as the fifth scorer in five goals, Jeff Shattler made his presence known at the 12-minute mark, to bring the game within one, with Saskatchewan up only 6-5 at halftime.
Coming out of the gates firing, Jeremy Thompson dominated yet another draw, winning the ball for himself and high-tailing it down the floor to bang in the half’s first goal in a matter of only 6 seconds. Starting a rally of their own, Dane Dobbie kicked off a scoring stent for the Necks just a minute in, followed by a goal from Tyler Digby under 50 seconds later, and the second goal from Dickson, under a minute after Digby, taking the lead for the first time. Nearly 9 minutes would go by before another ball would find the back of the net, and it would be defenseman Brett Mydske going the distance for an unassisted goal to knot the game back up. In the last-minute of the third quarter Jon Harnett was forced to sit for 2 minutes on a tight delay of game call by the officials, much to the disdain of the home side, and the first half of the penalty was killed off to head into the final frame short a man, but all tied up at 8.
Kicking off the fourth shorthanded, Dan MacRae and Karsen Leung both took off don the floor to make something happen, but nether attempt would result in a goal although they got the crowd back on their feet. Starting with a couple cool and collected saves by Aaron Bold, a monumental swing the other way resulted in Church getting fed on a beautiful cross-crease cut, burying it to take the lead. Not waiting to keep the streak going, Matthews dished the rock off to Church for a quick give and go, getting it back in front of the crease for the easy finish. Saskatchewan’s impenetrable defense continued to allowed no one to get inside, which paid off by forcing a low percentage shot on Bold only to be turned around to Bilic on his high-horse, blazing down the floor for his 2nd goal, the Rush’s 11th goal.
Putting a stop to all of ruckus cause by the Rush and bringing the stands back to life, Shattler stepped in from his sweet spot and charged his final goal of the game, cutting the score to 11-9 around the 9-minute mark. After Church’s helmet got ripped off mid-play to draw the foul, the Necks appeared to stop playing, allowing McIntosh to sneak in for a quick-stick hat trick goal. Pressure from the forecheck turned into sloppy clearing for Calgary and even when they got the ball back, Bold was standing on his head and the Rush were making the best of the Roughnecks’ mistakes. The Necks couldn’t take advantage of an open cage left by Bold going for a loose ball and defenseman Chris Corbeil would come up with it, cruise down the floor, wait, then rip for the four goal separator.
Between the pipes Mike Poulin was sharp all night, but the late streak for the Rush would chase him from the crease for Frankie Sciglianio. Poulin would be stuck with the L after posting 35 saves and a .729 average, while Scigliano saw 2 shots and kept both of them out. Down four goals with two and a half minutes left, Coach Malawski took Scigliano off the floor for the extra-attacker which would cost them McIntosh’s 4th goal on the open cage. Refusing to let the Rush rub it in, Dickson stepped down in the middle of the floor and sniped one past Bold, the final home goal of the game. Putting the extra-runner on the floor for the draw didn’t work out for the Riggers when Thompson pulled yet another win to the stick of Corbeil for another empty-net score. Throwing the ball around the open net, Jeff Cornwall had no choice but to roll the shot in but the 16th goal from the Rush led to some late extra-curricular activities and Dead Ball Contact penalties to Dobbie and Dickson for 2 minutes each. The heat of a runaway fourth quarter got the best of the Roughnecks emotions but Saskatoon didn’t feed into it and walked away with heads held high.
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Looking at Game 2 (+3)
It’s not over yet, but the series gets a whole lot tougher for the Roughnecks when trying to win their first game on the road in-front of what will surely be a sold out SaskTel Centre. If they do find a way to beat the Rush over 60 minutes, they’ll have to turn around and do it again just minutes later in the Game 3 mini-game that would follow the 4th quarter. Saskatchewan really diversified their scoring, allowing nine different runners to hammer in at least a single goal, with 7 of the team’s 16 coming from a member of the defensive backline. Just the the Roughnecks thought they had the answer for limiting the scorers like Matthews and Greer, they got lit up by the defense and a whole team of role players.
Like I’ve said before, if they hope to have any success, they need to stop letting Dobbie just shotgun balls at the net. 10 shots on goal plus 10 shots off goal total for a whopping 5% success rate after he was only able to knock down a single measly shot. Dickson put 12 on cage, connecting on 3 of them, but still misfired on another inaccurate 15 shots. Everyone else was at least 3 shots shy of even registering double-digit, that’s how little their scoring abilities were valued. That said, the Rush defense was at the top of their game and clogged any holes the Necks tried to create with ease, holding Berg, Digby and Dobbie to a single score. But it’s not like anyone was getting them the opportunities and lucky bounces were far and few between.
Both goaltenders were exceptional for their teams in Game 1. It’s going to be a necessity for these offenses to start sending more rubber toward the cage, because both net minders saw less than 50 shots on goal and got away with finishing with stops in the mid-30s. The first face-off is scheduled for 9:30 pm ET next Saturday night in what is guaranteed to be an absolutely rowdy barn in Saskatoon. The Green & Black crazies have been the 7th man on the floor all year for the Rush and if any support group can make a difference outside of Banditland, it’s in the SaskTel Centre. It didn’t seem that conditioning was the issue, but the Roughnecks lost all of their steam in the 4th quarter and were consistently unable to recover after a series of bounces that went against them. They get an hour to lay it all on the line to stay alive and if it pays out, they better cmoe with just enough gas to close out those evil 10-minutes known as Game 3.
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Radiant Rush
I love seeing someone like Ben McIntosh as the only scorer to register over two goals (4) while the Rush still put up 16 and a win, but I’m not convinced he was the game-changer of the night. Everyone tries to downplay the importance of a great face-off man in the National Lacrosse League and Jeremy Thompson squashed that on Saturday. Winning 19 of 30 takes meant 26% more possessions won for his team and when you look at his ability to move the rock where it needs to go, bury the ball when he’s open and still put in effort to grind it out every shift on defense, you can start to make a case for Thompson as the team’s MVP.
But you know who else was putting in work? Aaron Bold, of course. The poised veteran kept out 34 of the limited shots on goal his defense even let him see, earning a .772 average for his performance. He made some seriously athletic stops, smart decisions while clearing and covering the ball, and showed no hesitation to make a big play for his team. Despite a 3 goal, 3 save 3rd quarter for Bold, he still played at the level the Rush needed him to in order to close out the game with ice water in his veins. This composure is what Saskatchewan will count on in Game 2 next Saturday at home.
So who meant more to the Rush in the win over the weekend? You should let us know in the comments down below!
