The Saskatchewan Rush scored four unanswered goals in the third quarter on Friday night to build up a big enough lead to hold off a late surge from the Vancouver Warriors, giving the Rush a 10-7 victory. The win improves the Rush to 9-2 on the season, putting them solidly in second place in the NLL. The Warriors drop to 5-6, putting them in a three-way tie for eighth position in the standings.
The Warriors opened the scoring when Adam Charalambides potted his first of two on the night with a twister against double coverage. Saskatchewan responded with a three-goal run in the space of two minutes to take the lead, but Vancouver was able to get those back late in the quarter to tie the game at three apiece.
The Rush scored twice in the second quarter to retake the lead, with the Warriors answering with one of their own to stay within one, but it was the fourth quarter where Saskatchewan took over, scoring four times while keeping the Warriors offence silent.
The Rush added one more to open the fourth quarter, giving themselves a six-goal buffer. Although Vancouver pushed hard in the final seven minutes of the game and scored three times, it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit.
Clark Walter led the Saskatchewan offence, scoring twice and adding four assists on the night. Vancouver was paced by Keegan Bal, with two goals and two assists. Frankie Scigliano turned aside 31 shots for the win while Aden Walsh made 34 saves for the Warriors.
The Rush face their biggest challenge of the season on Saturday night when they host the first-place Buffalo Bandits in what might be a sneak preview of the league championship. The Bandits suffered their only loss of the season two weekends ago when the San Diego Seals beat them 14-13, but they came right back last week to beat the Seals and might be back on track heading into this weekend’s matchup.
Meanwhile, the Warriors get a bye week before heading to San Diego to face the aforementioned Seals.
