When the Edmonton Rush played the Calgary Roughnecks in the first round of the NLL playoffs last year, the Rush showed up with a plan and easily dispatched the team with the best regular season record in the league.
Entering Week 5 of the 2013 NLL schedule, the Rush are coming off a tough win at home while the Roughnecks have just won two straight on the road.
In the first of back-to-back games, Edmonton is hosting Calgary with both teams looking to get the upper hand.
The Roughnecks were on the happy side of two blow-outs last weekend, beating the Colorado Mammoth and the Philadelphia Wings by seven and eight goals, respectively. Along the way, they earned three of the fourweekly honors in the NLL.
Sean Evans set a Roughnecks record on Friday with his 13-point night, followed it up with a six-point game on Sunday to earn the Player of the Week award. As a bonus, Evans now sits atop the NLL leaderboard as top scorer in the league (31 points).
Geoff Snider picked up seven points, 28 loose balls and 43 faceoff wins, which made him the Transition Player of the Week.
Mike Poulin’s 80-save weekend, against just 20 goals, earned him the Defensive Player of the Week award.
Dane Dobbie also had an outstanding weekend, scoring eight goals and assisting on five more.
The Riggers will be facing a Rush team that has been revitalized by rookie phenom Mark Matthews. He is currently seventh in the NLL in scoring, at 19 points, and is leading the Rush’s offense, proving himself to be exactly the player Edmonton was hoping for when they took him first overall.
Goaltender Aaron Bold has once again been solid in net for Edmonton, posting a 10.90 goals against average, good for third-best in the NLL so far.
The Battle of Alberta is one of the most hotly contested rivalries in all of sports, regardless of which sport is being played. As a result, this game—and next week’s—will probably be emotional, aggressive and hard-hitting with both sides amped up to put a hurt on the other.
