At 4-7 the Calgary Roughnecks are in last place in the NLL West Division and in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since their inaugural season (2002). With just seven games left to play this year, Calgary probably needs to win at least four more games if they hope to get past the third-place Vancouver Stealth. The Roughnecks currently have the fifth-most goals for (127), the fourth-best…
After losing their sixth game in their last seven on Saturday night, the Vancouver Stealth are 3-6 mid-way through the season and in last place in the NLL West Division. Also of concern, their attendance through four home games is the worst in the league. Assuming nothing changes in the division, the Stealth will have finished in last place in each of their four seasons in Canada after going to…
The Calgary Roughnecks take on the Vancouver Stealth in the first game of the season for both teams. The Roughnecks and Stealth faced each other in the preseason, where Calgary easily won by a 13-6 score, but preseason games rarely tell the whole story, so it will be interesting to see how this one plays out. Calgary’s offense features several veterans who can score, including 61-goal scorer Curtis Dickson, Dane…
I attended my first Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League game ever on June 19, to see the Lethbridge Barracudas take on the Red Deer Renegades. The first-place ‘Cudas handily beat the Renegades 14-7 in a game where both goaltenders played well and there was some rough stuff, as I think can be expected when you’ve got a bunch of teen boys banging into each other. Having never been to a Tier…
The Saskatchewan Rush are one huge step closer to repeating as NLL champions with last night’s 11-9 win over the Buffalo Bandits. The win puts Saskatchewan in the driver’s seat in the best-of-three series as the two teams head west to Saskatoon for Game 2. In spite of a combined 26 shots on goal in the first quarter, both goalies frustrated the opposition offenses with rock solid performances. Aaron Bold…
After earning a decisive win in Game 1 of the West Division Finals, the Saskatchewan Rush will seek to move on to their second straight Champion’s Cup when they take on the Calgary Roughnecks in Saskatoon tonight. Game 1 was tied 8-8 after three quarters, but the Rush went on a three-goal run to open the fourth and build up a lead the Roughnecks had no answer for en route…
The Calgary Roughnecks (8-10) take on the Saskatchewan Rush (13-5) tonight in the Scotiabank Saddledome in Game 1 of the NLL West Division Finals. This is the third year in a row that this matchup determines the West champion, with the teams splitting the previous two series. Saskatchewan has to be considered the favourite in this series by a pretty wide margin. They tied with the Buffalo Bandits for the…
After tying the game with less than 30 seconds remaining in regulation, the Calgary Roughnecks finally sealed the deal more than 11 minutes into sudden death overtime, defeating the Colorado Mammoth 11-10. The win advances the Roughnecks to the West Division Finals against the Saskatchewan Rush next weekend. For the Roughnecks, it was the eighth time they’ve beaten the Mammoth in the postseason, with their only playoff loss to Colorado…
After making the playoffs on the last weekend of the regular season, the Calgary Roughnecks travel to Denver to face the Colorado Mammoth in a one-game semi-final to determine who will face the Saskatchewan Rush in the West Division finals. For the second year in a row, the 8-10 Roughnecks were snake-bitten in one-goal games—they were just 3-6 in games decided by a single goal in 2016 after going 4-5…
Since 2005, the average attendance per game in the National Lacrosse League has dropped from 10,236 to a meagre 8,981, only 11 more per game than the 16-year low the league experienced last season. Years upon years of teams choosing to relocate to smaller venues rather than trying to rebuild in places where there used to be success has put the league in a tailspin, losing momentum steadily, even as…