Rochester Knighthawks. After securing their first win of the season the defending champs are in action twice this week. First they travel to the Wells Fargo Center to face the Philadelphia Wings. The Hawks have defeated the Wings 9 consecutive times along with a playoff victory last season. Can the Knighthawks continue their control over the Wings by making it 10 straight regular season wins? How will Dan Dawson do in his return to Philadelphia?
Part 2, the Hawks shuffle off to Buffalo for a Saturday night game vs Buffalo. This will also be a big game as well regardless of how they do Friday. The Bandits will be without captain John Tavares again. With a weekend sweep of wins the defending champs can put themselves in second place in the east. With two loses this weekend, the team may be on the ropes.
Philadelphia Wings. After coming off a bye week the Wings are back in action for an 11am matchup versus the Knighthawks. This is what the lax experts have been waiting for.. Can the team handle adversity? Wings started at 2-0, then came two loses. First a 14-13 heartbreaker to the Bandits, then a crusher 16-8 to Calgary. Can this young American team come back and get on the winning track again, and also end the Hawks dominance over the Wings in the last 3-4 years. Is Paul Rabil’s hat trick last game the start of his offensive power, or just an occasion flash in the pan for goals?
Buffalo Bandits. The Bandits will face a second week without John Tavares as they face the Knighthawks Saturday evening. Can the veterans, Steehuis, Wiles, Williams, Wilson along with rookie Dhane Smith be enough to hold off the Hawks? Or will the defending champs pick up more speed?
Toronto Rock v Minnesota Swarm. Sitting up atop of the NLL east, this boulder of a team heads to the Hive and faces a young Swarm team who they defeated two weeks ago at home 13-12. Can the Rock continue their winning ways and improve to 6-1, or will the youth of the Swarm and Rookie of the Week Shayne Jackson finally prevail? Even though the Swarm sit at 1-3, two of their loses are by 1 goal. Do not sleep on this team.
Calgary vs Edmonton. Rematch of last weeks Alberta Shootout that had the Roughnecks prevail 18-15 in Edmonton. This week Calgary returns home after a 3-0 road trip and scoring 53 goals in those 3 games and has shown they are the team to beat in the Wild West. Can they continue this wild ride and capture their first home win of the 2013 season? Can #1 pick Mark Matthews get back his scoring ways and help the Rush even up the season series with the Roughnecks and make the West truly WILD!?
Washington vs Colorado these teams faced off in their season opener in Colorado where the Stealth used a 6 goal third quarter to put the game away 17-13. Since then the Stealth have gone 2-3, and the Mammoth 2-1. Can the Mammoth use last weeks 15-9 drubbing of the Swarm as a stepping stone to continue winning? Has their goalie issue been resolved by Roik being the #1 guy? For the Stealth, they are coming off a defensive battle in Rochester as they fell 7-6 in a game dominated by goaltending. Its obvious the goaltending is there, but can the offense show up this week? They have the fire power, it just seems the guns are shooting blanks.
