The National Lacrosse Season is at roughly the halfway point after this weekend’s action, so we’re getting a good picture of what crowds are looking like for the 2017-2018 season. Disappointingly, they are way down from last season. After two years of slow but steady improvement, this year’s average per game attendance is 8,519 fans, well down from last year’s 9,152. If this number holds up, it will be the…
After the Vancouver Stealth tied the game late in the third quarter, the Georgia Swarm went on a six-goal run to put the game out of reach, winning 16-12 in Vancouver on Saturday night. The win lifts the defending NLL champions to a 3-3 record on the season and a tie for third place in the East Division with the Buffalo Bandits. The Stealth fall to 1-6 after losing twice…
One bad quarter and too many powerplay goals surrendered resulted in the Calgary Roughnecks dropping an 11-7 decision to the Colorado Mammoth on Friday night. The loss drops Calgary to 1-2 on the season, good for third place in the West Division, while the Mammoth remain undefeated at 3-0, putting them a half-game ahead of the Saskatchewan Rush for the division lead. Ryan Benesch led Colorado with five goals (three…
Former Saskatchewan Rush goalie Aaron Bold was given a rude welcome back to SaskTel Centre Saturday night as his former team handily beat the New England Black Wolves 24-11. The win keeps Saskatchewan (2-0) in a tie for first place with the Colorado Mammoth in the NLL West Division, while the Black Wolves drop to 1-1 and a second-place tie in the East. The Rush came out strong, getting off…
The Colorado Mammoth didn’t dominate the stat sheet, but they did dominate the scoreboard, beating the hometown Vancouver Stealth 15-8 in their season opener. The Stealth got off 56 shots on Mammoth goalie Dillon Ward, but were unable to consistently beat him, getting shut out for the entire second quarter. At the other end, Tye Belanger got lit up for 14 goals on only 37 shots before being replaced late…
Evan Kirk and Tyler Carlson have been reunited as a goaltending duo with the Saskatchewan Rush after Kirk came to the team during the offseason in a blockbuster trade with the New England Black Wolves. Kirk and Carlson entered the National Lacrosse League as a goaltending tandem for the Minnesota Swarm in 2012. Kirk was the sixth-overall pick in the draft leading up to that season and highly touted; Carlson…
The 2017 NLL season saw the Calgary Roughnecks miss the playoffs for only the second time in franchise history, the first time being their inaugural season (2002). After what was a disappointing year, Calgary needs to make some changes to herald a new look and a new approach for 2018. Following an 8-10 season where the Roughnecks finished with the seventh-most goals for (212) and the sixth fewest goals against (220),…
Prior to the start of the 2017 season, I predicted that the Saskatchewan Rush would three-peat in the Champion’s Cup. However with the finals just days away, the Rush appear to be the underdogs and the Georgia Swarm look to be the unstoppable force destined to win it all. But let’s not count the Rush out just yet. Saskatchewan is a combined plus-10 in two playoff games so far this…
The Stealth haven’t earned a playoff berth since moving to Vancouver until now. And this year, they’ve even managed to pick up a home game for the first round, as they will host the Colorado Mammoth in a one-game semi-final tilt on Saturday night. While in Washington state, the Stealth went to the Champion’s Cup three times in four years, winning once. The successes have been much harder to come…
The Calgary Roughnecks travel to Vancouver to face the Stealth tonight at 7:00 pm PST in a game that may very well determine the third and final playoff berth in the NLL’s West Division. The Roughnecks (7-9) currently hold a half-game lead over the Stealth (6-9) in the standings, but Vancouver has a game in hand, so they still control their own destiny. Further, the Stealth go into this matchup…