Another exciting week in the NLL.. Toronto holds #1 even after a bye week, Stealth soar to #2, Wings sweep their way to #5, and the defending champs flutter to #8.. Will there be more movement this week? Will teams begin to separate as we start the second half of the NLL season? Tune in at watch! You won’t regret it. But you may if you don’t watch.
Toronto Rock.(6-2) Hold the top spot even on a bye week. The Rock will now play 3 of next 4 at home. First up, division rival Buffalo Bandits on a rare Thursday night game. Game time 7:30pm
Washington Stealth. (5-4) Pulled into the #2 spot and a tie for first in the West with a 16-14 victory over the Roughnecks in their first meeting of the 2013 season. Could this be a changing of the guard n the West? Washington is in action this Sunday as the Swarm come to town for a 6pm eastern start
Calgary Roughnecks drop to #3 after a 16-14 loss to the Stealth. After Calgarys 16-8 win in Philadelphia they have gone 3-2. Their 3 wins were by a total of 5 goals, very uncharacteristic of the Roughnecks, while the 2 loses where by 7 goals. Calgary starts a 3 game home stand. First up…Edmonton Saturday night 9pm EST
Buffalo Bandits. (4-3) Stay at 4 even after the bye week. No word if Johnny Tavares will be activated for this weekend as the Bandits have back to back games this week. First they visit Toronto for a Thursday night matchup at 7:30pm. Then the Bandits face the Philadelphia Wings Friday night at home at 7:30 in the final meeting of the regular season. Season series tied at 1 game a piece
Philadelphia Wings. (4-3) Wings fly to #5 after a weekend sweep that not many people thought they would do (Phil Shore and I picked the sweep) Wings went into Rochester with an attitude, and came out with a hard fought 10-8 win, after trailing 4-0 after the first quarter. Brandon Miller was spectacular Friday night. The Wings then flew home early Saturday morning to prepare for a matchup with the Mammoth, and even after Jeff Reynolds rolled his ankle during pre-game warm-ups, and Brett Manney injures his hamstring in the third quarter, the Wigs come up with a 14-12 victory and a weekend sweep.(The first since Jan 28-29 2011). Wings will now face the Bandits on Friday night 7:30pm in the final regular season meeting as both teams have won a game a piece
Edmonton Rush (4-5) Leap to #6 with a split this past weekend against the Swarm. After losing 13-8 on their home floor Friday night, the Rush went into the hive and scored the first 9 goals , then took a 10-1 lead into the fourth and won the game 14-9. Edmonton will now start a 4 game road trip and not return home until April 6th. This week they will face the Calgary Roughnecks Saturday night 9pm. Then they travel to Rochester March 16 in a rematch of the Champions Cup. And on March 23 & 24 they face Buffalo and Toronto. This will show what this team is made of.
Minnesota Swarm (3-5) Drop to #7 after a split of the weekend with the Rush. Swarm picked up some momentum winning on the road, but had a flashback from the Western Conference final of 2012 as Edmonton went up 10-1 as they started the fourth quarter. Big loss this past weekend was captain Andrew Suitor who is lost for the season after tearing his ACL/MCL in Edmonton. Swarm now go on a two game road trip as they face Washington, Sunday 6pm est.
Rochester Knighthawks (3-5) The defending champs saw there three game win streak end last week and where hoping to start a new one as the Wings came to town. Rochester has defeated the Wings 11 straight games (including last years playoff win), also goaltender Matt Vinc held an 11 game win streak over the Wings going back to the Titan days. Rochester looks to toss the current 2 game losing streak away as they travel to Colorado for a Saturday night 9pm matchup. They will be looking to expose the goaltending of Colorado as go into their bye week on a winning note.
Colorado Mammoth. (2-5) To say this season has been a revolving door is an understatement. After rebounding against the Swarm 15-6, the Mammoth have lost 3 in a row by a margin of 16 total goals. There next 5 games will not be easy. First up Rochester comes to town Saturday 9pm. After this game the Mammoth with face Toronto and Buffalo on back to back nights (March 8-9), before returning home to face the Bandits a week later (March 16), then off to Calgary for March 23rd. If Colorado doesn’t pull it together immediately, they may be eliminated from playoff contention before the end of March.
LW TEAM
- 1 Toronto Rock 6-2
- 4 (+2) Washington Stealth 5-4
- 2 (-1) Calgary Roughnecks 5-4
- 5 (+1) Buffalo Bandits 4-3
- 8 (+3) Philadelphia Wings 4-3
- 9 (+3) Edmonton Rush 4-5
- 6 (-1) Minnesota Swarm 3-5
- 4 (-4) Rochester Knighthawks 3-5
- 8 (-1) Colorado Mammoth 2-5
