When the No. 1 teams in each division face each other, you hope for a down-to-the-wire contest and that’s what we got on Friday night when the Toronto Rock beat the Edmonton Rush 16-15 in overtime. The Rock improve to 8-1 on the season—best in the NLL—while the Rush drop to 4-3 and are now tied with the Colorado Mammoth for first in the West Division. The first quarter saw…
The Calgary Roughnecks finally got the monkey off their back on Saturday when they finally picked up their first win of the season, a 16-13 victory over the Vancouver Stealth. The Roughnecks were able to reach their full potential on the offensive end by scoring five powerplay goals, by winning the loose ball battle 51-41, and by getting some critical saves from goalie Frankie Scigliano. If they can maintain that…
The Calgary Roughnecks winless one third of the way through the 2015 NLL season. When a team gets off to such a poor start there is usually plenty of blame to go around. But one of the main targets of scrutiny for the Roughnecks right now is the goaltending tandem of Mike Poulin and Frankie Scigliano. The Poulin Wall has been one of the keys to success for the Roughnecks…
After earning an 11-7 victory on Friday night in Colorado, the Edmonton Rush host the Mammoth on Sunday in the second game of their weekend series. Following Edmonton’s Friday win, they are now tied with Colorado for first place in the West Division, both at 3-2, so this game is of particular importance to both teams. On Friday the two teams had a see-saw battle in the first half with…
As the NLL season approaches the one third point, it’s time to have a look at who is off to a great start and who is off to a not-so-good start. Underachievers 1. The Calgary Roughnecks—Who would have imagined that the Roughnecks, who came within minutes of winning the Champion’s Cup last year, would be in dead last after five games, with an 0-5 record. Granted, three of their losses have…
In the 2014 Champion’s Cup finals, the Calgary Roughnecks came within five minutes of winning their third NLL title in team history. So it comes as a bit of a shocker to say that this year, these same Roughnecks have gotten off to an 0-4 start for the first time in franchise history. While the Roughnecks still have 14 more game to play to earn a spot in the postseason,…
The Calgary Roughnecks are off to the worst start in franchise history, an unprecedented 0-3 In their very first game they were on the receiving end of the most goals surrendered in a single game—but they didn’t start the season 0-3. And here we are in 2015, where the Roughnecks were expected to once again challenge for the Champion’s Cup. Instead, they have the worst record in the NLL. So…
After finishing the 2014 season as the top two teams in the NLL West Division, both the Calgary Roughnecks and the Edmonton Rush have stumbled out of the blocks in 2015. They are currently tied for dead last in the division with 0-2 records. Tonight they face each other in Calgary for the first time this season—one team will break the goose egg and one team will be facing a…
Just two weeks into the 2015 NLL season there are a couple players who are looking like they’re ready to take their games to the next level. Three of the four people on my early season list are members of the New England Black Wolves, a strong indication of why the Wolves have had such a hot start. Kyle Buchanan—New England Black Wolves: Last season Buchanan was a breakout star,…
The Edmonton Rush did not have the start to their season that they were hoping for when they dropped their season opener 9-8 to the Buffalo Bandits. This week they’ll try to redeem themselves when they host their home opener against the Minnesota Swarm. The Swarm also lost their season opener last weekend when the Colorado Mammoth poured in 11 fourth-quarter goals to take a convincing 20-13 win. For the…