It was a quiet week 10 in the National Lacrosse League with just three games on tap and four of the league’s nine teams on bye weeks. The Toronto Rock were crushed twice over the weekend including a massive 19-13 beat down at the hands of the Calgary Roughnecks.
Several Calgary players lit up the scoreboard against Toronto on Saturday including Dane Dobbie (4 goals, 2 assists), Jeff Shatler (1g, 7a), Karsen Leung (2g, 2a) and Shawn Evans (1g, 7a) but there is only room for two Roughnecks on this list; here are the NLL 3 Stars for Week 10:
3rd Star – Mike Poulin of the Calgary Roughnecks
The Poulin Wall was at the top of his game in Saturday’s huge win over Toronto as he shut the door for the entire first quarter and allowed his team to enter the break with a 7-0 lead. Poulin stayed steady throughout the remainder of the game while making some huge saves (especially on Garrett Billings) in the second half. Although the Rock pressed hard at times they never came closer to within four goals and this was largely to do with the stellar play of Mike Poulin. He had a ton of offensive power helping out in front of him but without Poulin in net they would not have been able to play with the ease and confidence that they showed in this game. It was a big win and a huge moral boost for the Roughnecks as they continue their winning ways.
2nd Star – Stephen Keogh of the Knighthawks
The two time defending Rochester Knighthawks picked up a hard fought road win with an 11-9 victory over the Colorado Mammoth on Saturday night and five of those eleven goals were scored by Stephen Keogh. The third year forward is having his best season yet and with 17 goals and 33 points in 8 games, he’s well on pace to shatter his career high of 58 points which he set in his rookie season. Opponents usually keep an extra eye on Cody Jamieson, Dan Dawson as well as Johnny Powless and they tend to underestimate Keogh who has taken full advantage of the extra room on the floor. Keogh was at his best on Saturday with (at least) two of his five tallies being highlight reel type goals.
1st Star – Curtis Dickson of the Calgary Roughnecks
Superman was up to his old tricks once again over the weekend, scoring a sock trick (6 goals) with 4 helpers as the Roughnecks blasted the Rock right out the Saddledome. Believe it or not but Saturday was the first time that Dickson has reached the double digits for points……ever. His previous career high was 8 points (in a 14-13 playoff loss to the Washington Stealth last year). Calgary is on a four game win streak and are one of the hottest teams in the NLL right now; if scoring in double digits is going to be the new trend for Curtis Dickson, the rest of the league better look out!
