Last season the Boston Cannons struggled to score in the second half of games. This led to some late season losses and their ultimate playoff loss. On Sunday in their 14-11 loss to the New York Lizards, it looked like it would be the same old again.
Paul Rabil was in the lineup after the Philadelphia Wings got eliminated so that excuse doesn’t really jive in this case. Matt Poskay didn’t score once in the loss and they relied on Mike Stone and Ari Sussman for a lot of the offense.
One thing that did hurt was Chris Eck being out and Chris Mattes winning just seven of his 27 faceoffs. However, they still were able to score more early than they could late and this game looked too much like a 2012 Cannons game.
They did score five fourth quarter goals but but two came so late in the game that it was already over. They had a combined two goals in the second and third quarters after four goals in the first quarter.
Boston won their last three games last season against Chesapeake and Ohio to just barely squeak into the playoffs. Before those three games they lost to the Denver Outlaws. They scored late in the game but fell behind so early they lost 17-13.
This isn’t just a second half thing, but more of a consistency problem. All of their big guns are there and active, they just need to find a way to score more often, especially if they give up 14 goals to a team without Rob Pannell, Mark Matthews and Max Seibald.
