Key East and West matchups in NLL Friday night
New England @ Georgia
In the first game of the night, the New England Black Wolves paid a visit to Gwinnett Arena where they dropped to 0-3 on the season after a 14-9 loss to the now 3-0 Georgia Swarm.
Three road games to start the season have not been kind to the Black Wolves, who don’t have their home opener until January 28. Previous losses to Rochester and Colorado have the Wolves in an early hole.
A frustrated Shawn Evans is no good to anyone, and the Black Wolves lack of scoring early in the game visibly frustrated him on the floor. He didn’t score until the third quarter, tallying just his fourth goal of the season. He ended his night with an early shower, picking up an intentional dead ball foul penalty, an unsportsmanlike conduct, a 10 minute misconduct and a game misconduct at the 10:52 mark of the fourth quarter.
Pat Saunders scored on the same stoppage Evans took his penalties and that kicked off a run for the Wolves, who scored twice shorthanded on Evans’ penalties for three goals in 31 seconds. They got one more to get it to 13-9 but Connor Sellars, with his first NLL goal, iced the game for the Swarm into an empty net.
What makes the loss even more frustrating is that the Wolves fired 61 shots at Mike Poulin, who made 52 saves. Evan Kirk made 30 saves on 40 shots and was replaced by rookie Doug Jamieson for part of the third/fourth quarter.
Kirk could also face some supplemental discipline for an elbow to the head of Reilly O’Connor at the end of the first half. O’Connor was attended to by trainers but did return.
Georgia built a 4-0 lead through the first quarter, led 5-2 after the second and 10-5 after the third.
Lyle Thompson led the Swarm with four goals and two assists, while Jordan Hall had three goals and four assists. Other Swarm goals were scored by Miles Thompson, Shayne Jackson, Kiel Matisz, Bryan Cole, Randy Staats, and Mitch Belisle. Jerome Thompson had four assists.
Pat Saunders, Chad Culp, and Kevin Crowley all had two goals each for the Wolves. Reilly O’Connor and Jay Thorimbert also scored. Evans had three assists.
Georgia is in Vancouver next Saturday while New England hosts Buffalo.
Calgary @ Colorado
So Calgary and Colorado still hate each other. A wild third quarter gave way to a 14-12 win by the Roughnecks who move to 2-1 on the season. Colorado falls to 2-2.
The Mammoth fell behind in the game early and did their best to catch up but looked like they were missing some veteran leadership that could have settled things down. Calgary led 4-2 after the first and 8-6 after the second.
Zach Herreweyers, the ninth overall pick in 2016, scored his first NLL goal in the second quarter after some drama. The goal had to be reviewed after it was initially called a goal and then waved off. Referee Ian Garrison eventually determined that Herreweyers, who enthusiastically jumped into the end boards, stayed out of the crease as he flew over it to beat Frankie Scigliano. Herreweyers was activated from the practice roster to replace an ailing John Grant Jr.
There’s still a lot of animosity between the two western clubs stemming from Alex Buque’s hit on Karsen Leung last season. And wouldn’t you know it, Buque saw the bulk of the minutes for the Mammoth after coming off the bench in relief of Dillon Ward, who allowed six goals on 12 shots over 19 minutes.
To Calgary’s outrage, Scigliano was run twice in the third quarter. Tensions boiled over after Greg Harnett tossed Jeremy Noble into the boards from a long way out. Noble had hit Scigliano earlier in the quarter. The Roughnecks argued shoulder to shoulder contact but Noble’s head into the boards convinced the refs a major penalty was warranted. Josh Sullivan also received a major for roughing. The Mammoth’s only power play from that situation came from an unsportsmanlike penalty to Jon Harnett for arguing the call.
Calgary scored three power play goals in the third quarter. Joey Cupido had a pair of fast break goals for the Mammoth, both coming off faceoffs after he left the penalty box. The Roughnecks led 11-10 after the third.
Lacrosse doesn’t have shootouts, so penalty shots are still fun to watch, especially when Zack Greer completes his hat trick to pull your team within two goals with less than a minute left. Anything can happen in this sport. Calgary won the ensuing faceoff, however, so nothing else actually happened for the Mammoth.
The penalty shot was the second for Scigliano this season. He also surrendered one to Corey Small last weekend.
Calgary’s Dane Dobbie scored his 300th and 301st goals of his career. Tyler Digby led the Roughnecks with five goals and an assist. Curtis Dickson had three goals and four assists, Jeff Shattler two goals and five assists, and Tyson Bell two goals and one assist. Wesley Berg had five assists.
Jeremy Noble had a hat-trick for Colorado before being knocked out of the game. Also scoring for the Mammoth were Jordan Gilles, Eli McLaughlin, and Callum Crawford.
The rivals play again next weekend at the Saddledome in Calgary.
