Rush host Swarm in do-or-die NLL quarter-final

Saskatchewan back in post-season after six years out

The Rush celebrate a goal during a game on January 25.

The Saskatchewan Rush ended a post-season drought with a memorable regular season.

Now, they will try to ensure the appearance in the NLL Playoffs isn’t a brief one.

The Rush finished second overall in the NLL regular season standings with a 13-5 mark, which is their best regular season record since going 14-4 in their NLL championship campaign in 2018. They last appeared in the NLL post-season in 2019, when they fell 11-10 in overtime to the Colorado Mammoth on May 3 of that year.

Saskatchewan opens the 2025 NLL Playoffs on Saturday hosting the seventh seeded Georgia Swarm (9-9) in a single elimination quarter-final contest at 7:30 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.

“It has been a long stretch without the playoffs,” said star forward Robert Church. “We’ve had some rough years, but we’ve been building back towards this and getting back to a championship caliber team.

Zach Manns led the Rush in scoring with 74 points.

“I think that is what we have in this room. The boys, we just got together and kind of just saw everyone. I think everyone is excited.

“For a lot of guys, it is their first time in playoffs, so they’re real fired up.”

The Rush’s NLL post-season absence started in 2020 and 2021 when the NLL Playoffs were cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Saskatchewan was 7-3 in the 2020 regular season before that campaign was stopped.

The Rush posted respective 8-10 marks over three straight NLL regular seasons from 2022 to 2024 to just miss making the playoffs in each of those campaigns. The current campaign has been the breakout season where the work in the reload is paying off.

“I think we’re a very talented team, a deep team,” said Rush co-head coach Jimmy Quinlan. “We have a lot of buy in.

Robert Church had 73 points in 14 games for the Rush.

“They’re all selfless individuals, and I think we’re fortunate to have the veterans we have that kind of lead them. I thought the last few years we had to learn how to win, and now we’re kind of understanding what it takes. It doesn’t really matter too much what goes on in a game.

“We kind of right now have that mentality of staying the course. It has got us to where we are, and we’re going to continue that this weekend.”

Zach Manns topped the Rush in scoring during the regular season with 74 points coming off 35 goals and 39 assists. Church had 73 points coming off 33 goals and 40 assists even with missing four games due to injury this season. Captain Ryan Keenan also had 73 points coming off 26 goals and 47 assists, while Austin Shanks had 72 points coming off 35 goals and 37 assists.

Rush star goalie Frank Scigliano had a great season posting an 11-4 record, 9.40 goals against average and an 80 per cent save percentage.

The Rush look to get a boost from their home crowd.

Lyle Thompson topped the Swarm in scoring with 94 points coming of 42 goals and 52 assists. Forwards Shayne Jackson and Andrew Kew each recorded 74 points for Georgia. Jackson recorded his 74 points on 32 goals and 42 assists, while Kew had his 74 points coming off 28 goals and 46 assists.

Brett Dobson has carried the load in goal for the Swarm posting a 9-8 record, an 11.82 goals against average and a 76 per cent save percentage.

The Swarm roster also contains Lyle Thompson’s brother and gritty transition player Jeremy Thompson, who used to be a fan favourite when he played for the Rush. Jeremy was a member of the Rush’s 2016 and 2018 NLL championship teams and the 2015 NLL title winner when the franchise was still located in Edmonton.

Frank Scigliano had a big season in goal for the Rush.

The NLL Playoffs got underway on Friday when the top seeded and two-time defending champion Buffalo Bandits slugged out a 5-4 victory over the eighth seeded San Diego Seals. The Bandits posted a 13-5 record in the regular season and downed the Rush 9-7 on March 1 at the SaskTel Centre in the only head-to-head meeting between the two sides to gain the standings tiebreaker for first place. The Seals posted a 9-9 mark in the regular season.

The single elimination quarter-final round has the potential to favour lower seeded teams that just snuck into the playoffs, because you need to be hot just for one game to move on. Shanks believes his squad is ready to handle the winner takes all contest.

“I think we played really well with our backs against the wall,” said Shanks. “We kind of try and put some pressure on ourselves, and that is all this is.

“It is one game. We’ve said it all year that we have to play 60 minutes, and there is no better test than tomorrow night.”

Ryan Keenan had 73 points this season for the Rush.

The NLL post-season will be a new experience for numerous Rush players. The Rush only have four holdovers from their last NLL championship team in 2018 including Church, Keenan, Mike Messenger and Matt Hossack.

Keenan was in his second season with the Rush when they captured the NLL title in 2018. He admitted the team’s post-season drought gave him a little more appreciation for how hard it is to make playoffs and how hard it is to win in the post-season after experiencing early career success.

“I mean those years the talent was just off the charts,” said Keenan. “It was kind of just an expectation to win every game and win it at the end of the year.

“It became more challenging, but this year, the success has just come down to just the hard work part of our game and loving that grind aspect of it. That comes with a young group who is hungry and wants to win.”

Austin Shanks had 72 points for the Rush this season.

Shanks, who is 31-years-old, is one of the veterans who is hungry to win a league title which has eluded him in his career. He signed with the Rush this past off-season after spending four campaigns with the Halifax Thunderbirds.

Back in 2018, Shanks began his NLL career with the original Rochester Knighthawks, who fell to the Rush in the best-of-three NLL final 2-1.

The Rush claimed a 15-10 victory in a series-deciding Game 3 on June 9 of that year at the SaskTel Centre. Shanks hasn’t forgotten what it was like being on the losing end of that contest even after the original Knighthawks moved to Halifax to become the Thunderbirds.

“It has been eating at me for seven years,” said Shanks. “I got a taste my rookie year, and I didn’t get that trophy.

“I’ve been playing to win championships. That is all I want to do, and to have a chance to do that again is cool. There is a lot of work to do.

The Rush aim to celebrate a playoff win on Saturday.

“This is just round one.”

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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