The Long Island Lizards are currently on a five game win streak and sitting in second place in the league and they’d like to keep it that way. A loss by the Lizards (5-2) and a win by the Boston Cannons (5-3) would send the Lizards down to third place and possibly into fourth.
A win against the Lizards would really help the Rochester Rattler’s playoff hopes. They are currently sitting in fifth place and three and a half points behind the first place Bayhawks (7-1). A win on Saturday and they’d be one game closer to having a playoff spot.
The game all starts at the faceoff, and Long Island is tops in the league for faceoff percentage. As a team, the Lizards are sitting at a .603 percentage, thanks to Greg Gurenlian. The Rattlers have a .429 save percentage with the combined efforts of Craig Bunker and Tim Fallon. So in this category give advantage to Long Island.
So far on the season the Lizards have scored 89 goals while the Rattlers have scored 72. Long Island’s Brian Langtry is currently ninth in the league for points with 24. The Rattlers leading scorer is Ned Crotty who is tied for 30th with 14 points. The Lizards have four players on the leading scorers list before even seeing one Rattler. So when it comes to scoring, give advantage to Long Island.
When we look at goalies and defense, the Lizards are again ahead of the Rattlers. Drew Adams is one of the hottest goalies in the league right now and is sitting at second place for save percentage with .552. With him and the combined effort of Long Island’s defense, they are allowing 11.20 goals against when Adams is in cage. Unfortunately for the Rattlers, their numbers aren’t so good. John Galloway currently has a .490 save percentage which is seventh out of nine goalies. Rochester’s defense has been struggling lately, seeing as Galloway has been seeing a lot of shots. The Rattlers defense is allowing 14.71 goals per game with Galloway is in the cage. So again, give advantage to Long Island.
Based on stats, it’s hard to see this game going in favor of the Rochester Rattlers. Long Island’s team is playing very good team ball right now and as a result, the standings and statistics show it. Catch the game Saturday at 7 EST when the Long Island Lizards travel to Rochester.
