The Saskatchewan Rush’s grip on first place in the NLL faltered this weekend as they lost back-to-back games for the first time all season, dropping a 11-10 contest to the Buffalo Bandits on Friday, and then losing 13-12 to the Rochester Knighthawks on Saturday. Both were overtime losses.
The rough weekend drops the Rush record to 10-3, still clinging to a half-game lead in the standings over the Colorado Mammoth and Vancouver Warriors.
On Friday, the Rush got behind in the second quarter but shut down the Bandits for the final 17 minutes of regulation time, while scoring three unanswered goals to tie the game and force overtime. They were unable to complete the comeback, however, giving up the game winner at the 8:13 mark of overtime to Buffalo’s Josh Byrne, his only goal of the contest.
Saturday’s game saw a flurry of goals in the first five-and-a-half minutes, with Saskatchewan scoring the first three quickly followed by Rochester scoring three to tie it up. After that, neither team had a run of more than two goals and the game was tied on five more occasions, with neither side able to gain a big advantage. A Knighthawks goal with 9:55 left in the fourth quarter tied the game taking them to overtime and it took another five minutes and 51 seconds for Rochester to seal the deal in the extra frame.
The Rush goalies each had a start in net on the weekend, with Frankie Scigliano stopping 37 shots on Friday night and Thomas Kiazyk making 52 saves in his first start of the season.
The team also had solid offensive contributions both nights, with Zach Manns recording six points (2 goals, 4 assists) on Friday and Robert Church doing the same on Saturday.
So there doesn’t appear to be reason to panic in Rushland. The team now gets a week to rest up before hosting the San Diego Seals on March 14. The Seals are currently 6-6 and still very much in the playoff hunt
