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Edmonton Rush at Calgary Roughnecks
Although the Edmonton Rush made their first playoff appearance ever in team history, it didn’t show in their play. Veteran goalie, Matt Disher ,was a strong asset for the Rush as he made 60 saves on 67 shots whereas Mike Poulin made 23 saves on 33 shots. Disher and the Edmonton Defense shut down many of the Roughneck stars including Josh Sanderson who went 0/13 and Tracey Kelusky who went 1/11. It certainly didn’t help Calgary that while the Roughnecks went 0/4 on the power play, the Rush went 3/3.
Proving how dangerous their offense can be, the Rush had goals from six different players with Gavin Prout, Andy Secore, and Corey Small each with two, Dean Hill had three, Ryan Ward and Jim Quinlan each notched one. Dane Dobbie was the only Roughneck able to notch more than one goal and he got three.
A definite rivalry has been developing between the Edmonton Rush and the Calgary Roughnecks because of their proximity to one another, but this game definitely added fuel to the fire. Edmonton has been playing very well the second half of the season and their momentum has carried them forward to the semi-finals next week.
Edmonton Rush 11, Calgary Roughnecks 7
MVP: Matt Disher
Attendance: 10,388
Minnesota Swarm at Washington Stealth
The Minnesota Swarm showed the Washington Stealth why in the NLL, no lead is safe, despite how large it is.
The Washington Stealth went in to the second quarter with a commanding five goal lead over the Swarm and it appeared the Stealth were going to notch an easy win over the Swarm who have been struggling the past few weeks. The Swarm on the other hand weren’t going to give up without a fight. The change in both teams was so dramatic in the second quarter, it was hard to believe it was the same teams. The Stealth were kept scoreless after the first couple of minutes in the second whereas the Swarm went on a run of their own to bring the lead within two ending the half Swarm 6, Stealth 8.
The Swarm struggled on the power play, going 1/5 while the Stealth went 2/4 plus notched two shorthanded goals.
Minnesota had a revolving door with their net minders. Goalies Nick Patterson and Kevin Croswell, swapped duties four times with Patterson finishing off the game.
Rhys Duch proved why he should be the game MVP notching six goals on ten shots and five assists for the Stealth while teammate Jeff Zywicki scored five goals on ten shots.
Minnesota Swarm 10 ,Washington Stealth 14
MVP: Rhys Duch
Attendance:3,268
Buffalo Bandits at Toronto Rock
It looked like the Buffalo Bandits were going to run away with this game, especially with Mike Accursi scoring six goals nearly in a row. But whereas the Rock’s momentum continued to build until it peaked in the 4th quarter, the Bandits seemed to peak early and just couldn’t get back into the game once they relinquished the lead.
While Mike Accursi was on fire only missing four shots, All Star Forward Mark Steenhuis only scored twice on ten shots and, future Hall of Famer, John Tavares went zero for eight. Colin Doyle and Stephan Leblanc led scoring for the Rock with Doyle notching 4/8 and Leblanc 5/11.
Looking at the shots on goal can be slightly misleading. The Rock finished with 46 and the Bandits 37. However, showing how much stronger the Rock played towards the end, 31 of those 46 shots were in the second half whereas the Bandits only had 15.
Buffalo Bandits 11, Toronto Rock 13
MVP: Stephan Leblanc
Attendance: 9,367
Boston Blazers at Orlando Titans
To say this was a close game is a bit of an understatement. These two teams were so well matched that as the clock wound down, you half expected it to come down to the wire in overtime. It didn’t go into extra quarters, but it was still a close contest.
Shots on goal were only separated by three with Titans on top, but Blazers led in the other important areas such as looseballs and faceoffs. All of the penalties were in the first half, with Orlando only capitalizing on one, and Boston on zero although the Blazers did have two shorthanded goals in the first quarter.
In the end, it came down to a battle of the goalies with neither team scoring in the final four minutes.
Boston Blazers 11, Orlando Titans 12
MVP: Casey Powell
Attendance: 4,205
