Rush aim to finish the deal now

Saskatchewan will try to capture NLL title on the road

The Rush celebrate a goal in Game 1 of the NLL title series.

    All the Saskatchewan Rush want to do is bring that new shiny National Lacrosse League championship trophy home.

    Tonight at 6 p.m. Saskatchewan time, the Rush will enter the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, N.Y., looking to capture the NLL championship against the host Knighthawks. The Rush took Game 1 of the best-of-three series 16-9 on May 26 at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon.

    Saskatchewan has two shots to capture the magnificent looking brand new National Lacrosse League Cup, which replaced the Champion’s Cup as the league’s title trophy. The Rush prefer to make good on this first opportunity to win the NLL championship.

Robert Church had a big night in Game 1 of the NLL final.

    While a potential Game 3 would be played back at the SaskTel Centre on June 9, the Rush would like to avoid a winner-take-all affair like that. The last three NLL Championship series have all ended in sweeps with the Rush winning the title in 2015, when the franchise was still located in Edmonton, and in 2016, when the franchise played its inaugural campaign in Saskatchewan.

    Of course, last year was a heartbreaker, where the Rush were swept in the NLL final by the Georgia Swarm. That loss has been the motivational force that propelled the Rush to a 14-4 regular season record to finish on top of the entire NLL standings.

    The Knighthawks rose up as the big nemesis for the Rush winning both regular season encounters in the 2018 campaign between the two squads.

Cody Jamieson (#88) is a dangerous offensive player for the Knighthawks.

    On Feb. 17 in Rochester, the Knighthawks claimed a 16-11 victory. On March 24 at the SaskTel Centre, the Knighthawks prevailed 13-10.

    Rochester had a solid regular season posting a 10-8 record. The Knighthawks downed the New England Blackwolves 15-11 in an East Division semifinal contest on May 4 and slipped past the Swarm 9-8 in the East Division Final on May 12.

    The Rush had a bye into the West Division final and downed their archrivals the Calgary Roughnecks 15-13.

    Going into the NLL final, there were questions on whether the Rush would be able to get past the Knighthawks stingy defence. Saskatchewan answered by turning a close game into romp.

Mark Matthews, right, had a quiet NLL final Game 1 for the Rush.

    The Knighthawks held a 4-3 lead, but starting at the 7:05 mark of the second quarter, the Rush rolled off seven straight goals to go up 10-4 and cruise to the ultimate 16-9 outcome.

    That was likely the best game the Rush had played to date in the 2018 campaign.
    Forward Mark Matthews, who topped the NLL in regular season scoring with 116 points, didn’t hit the scoresheet in Game 1 of the NLL final until scoring the Rush’s 10^th goal of the contest.

    Matthews set a new NLL record for most assists in one regular season at 84 to go along with his 32 goals.

Joe Resetarits topped the Knighthawks in scoring this season.

    Forward Robert Church, who finished second in NLL regular season scoring, was the main spark plug for the Rush offence in Game 1 netting four goals and two assists.

    Jeremy Thompson and Mike Messenger scored singles in transition, and defender Jeff Cornwall had a pair of tallies.

    Goalie Evan Kirk was solid in the Rush net making 35 saves to pick up the win for his club.

    The Rush had all facets of their game going. With the way things played out in Game 1, it would be hard to picture the Knighthawks pulling out a win in Game 2 to force the series back to the SaskTel Centre.

    With that said, the coaching in modern day sport never ceases to amaze me. You can expect Knighthawks head coach Mike Hasen and his staff to make adjustments for Game 2. The Knighthawks have a storied history that includes winning five NLL titles including three in a row from 2012 to 2014.

Jeff Cornwall scored twice for the Rush in Game 1 of the NLL final.

    Knighthawks forward Cody Jamieson was the NLL final MVP in the 2012 and 2013 championship wins, and he had a goal and five assists in the Game 1 setback. Joe Resetarits topped the Knighthawks in regular season scoring with 37 goals and 63 assists.

    Rochester has a solid goalie in Matt Vinc, so the Knighthawks have the tools to extending the series. They needed all three game to take the 2014 NLL championship series against the Roughnecks.

    Of course, Rush head coach Derek Keenan and his staff will do their best to ensure the result of Game 1 repeats itself in Game 2.

    Right now, it feels like the Rush have too much drive to recapture the NLL title after falling in the championship series a year ago.
    That drive might ensure the brooms are brought out for a series sweep on Saturday night.

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

-------

    If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.

Rush rally falls short against Knighthawks in NLL clash

Rochester prevails 13-10 over Saskatchewan

Cody Jamieson (#88) fires a pass to a Knighthawks teammate.

    In the face of defeat, Saskatchewan Rush captain Chris Corbeil didn’t lose his sense of humour.

    Following the Rush’s 13-10 setback to the Rochester Knighthawks on Saturday night at the SaskTel Centre, Corbeil emerged from the dressing room for a post-game scrum and joked with the throng of assembled local media that the team must have lost, because he was needed. 

    The Oakville, Ont.,  product gave a few lighthearted jabs that the media always request the guys that are the big goal scorers, when the Rush win, which is what the National Lacrosse League franchise has done a lot of in about the past nine years dating back to its time in Edmonton.

    When the Rush lose, Corbeil noted with a sly smile he has to come and speak his mind.

    Even with Saturday’s defeat, the Rush still sit first overall in the Western Division and the entire NLL with an 11-3 record. When the laughter died down and Corbeil became serious, he said he was disappointed with what transpired on Saturday before 14,811 spectators.

Knighthawks F Joe Resetarits, right, eludes Rush captain Chris Corbeil.

    His club dropped both encounters with the Knighthawks this season including a 16-11 setback in Rochester back on Feb. 17.

    “We watched what they did in previous weeks and had success against us in the past, and we knew what to expect,” said Corbeil. “That is what they did.

    “We game planned for them. We dropped the ball entirely. They were scoring goals the way we knew they would try to, and they were playing defence the way we expected them to.

    “Our defence, there is no excuse. We knew what they were going to do, and they did it to us. We dropped the ball.”

Knighthawks F Austin Shanks, left, fakes out Rush T Adrian Sorichetti.

    The Knighthawks jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and held a 7-5 edge at halftime. At the 2:48 mark of the fourth quarter, the visitors’ edge grew to 11-6.

    Rush head coach and general manager Derek Keenan said his squad wasn’t strong enough defensively on Saturday.

    “We didn’t play our game on the back end, and we gave them way too many quality chances,” said Keenan. “We just didn’t play hard enough at times. We didn’t play consistent enough at times.”

    The Rush stormed back with a four-goal surge capped by a snipe from forward Robert Church to cut the Knighthawks lead to 11-10 with 4:46 to play in the fourth quarter. Church led the Rush in scoring with four goals and two assists.

    With 3:25 to play in the fourth quarter, the Rush took a bad substitution penalty for too many men. On the ensuing power play, forward Cory Vitarelli scored to put the Knighthawks up 12-10 with 2:51 to play in the fourth quarter.

The Original 16 Crush Dance Team performs on Saturday night.

    Rochester forward Austin Shanks scored into an empty-net with under a minute to play in the fourth quarter to round out the win for the visitors. The empty-net tally was the fifth goal of the night for Shanks.

    “I thought to be honest we did a good job with a late comeback and kind of pushed things,” said Corbeil. “Too many men at the end there obviously was a bit of a back breaker.

    “We should be able to play in all situations with the lead, from behind. To be quite frank, we haven’t done a great job playing with a lead or playing from behind is now evident.

    “This team has to figure out. We are on top of the division and on top of the league right now, but we’re not playing our best lacrosse and there are only four games left.”

The SaskTel Centre crowd gets into the Rush comeback attempt.

    Ben McIntosh scored twice for the Rush, while Jeff Shattler, Corbeil, Mark Matthews and Ryan Keenan all picked up singles.

    Joe Resetarits had two goals and five assists to lead the Knighthawks in scoring. Eric Fannell had a hat trick for Rochester, while Kyle Jackson and Scott Campbell had singles. Cody Jamieson collected five assists for the Knighthawks.

    Evan Kirk stopped 40-of-52 shots to take the setback in goal for the Rush.

    Matt Vinc made 43 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Knighthawks. Rochester improved to 7-7 to stay a half-game behind the Toronto Rock (7-7) for first place in the Eastern Division.

    “They did a good job of keeping us out of the middle I thought,” said Derek Keenan. “At times when we did get good looks, (Matt) Vinc was really good.

Goalie Matt Vinc makes one of his 43 saves for the Knighthawks.

    “He made some spectacular saves tonight. We didn’t have enough. We were flat I thought at the start for some reason.”

    The Rush now head on their bye week, and they return to action on April 7, when they host the Colorado Mammoth at 7:30 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.
    They have advanced to the last three straight NLL finals and would like to extend that run to four straight this season.

    The Rush won the 2015 NLL title in Edmonton and the 2016 NLL championship in Saskatchewan.

    They were swept in last year’s best-of-three NLL championship series 2-0 by the Georgia Swarm.
    The Rush play three of their final four regular season games at home.

Robert Church, left, scored four goals for the Rush on Saturday.

    Corbeil believes the week off will help his team, who lead the Colorado Mammoth (9-4) by one-and-a-half games for first in the Western Division.

    “I think rest always goes a long way in this league, so that will help us for sure having a weekend off,” said Corbeil. “Obviously, our schedule is pretty front loaded.

    “These losses always seem to kind of wake us back up, which is nice. I don’t think we’ve lost too many back to back with the exception of maybe last year’s finals. We always usually have a good response, so maybe it will be a kick in the butt that we need.”

Back in the Express with feature on Rush coach

Rush HC and GM Derek Keenan speaks at a rally in 2017.

    I was back in the pages of the Saskatoon Express this week with a feature story on Saskatchewan Rush head coach and general manager Derek Keenan.

    Keenan is the all-time leader in career head coaching victories in the history of the National Lacrosse League, and he is basically the circuit’s Scotty Bowman.

    The bench boss is pretty personable, and the 56-year-old showed his sense of humour when he was asked to reflect on his wins record.

    “I’m old,” said Keenan with a laugh. “I’ve been doing it a long time.”

    Keenan has the Rush leading the entire NLL at the moment with an 11-2 record. Local area fans will be pumped to know the Rush play four of their final five regular season games at home. That final stretch of games begins on Saturday when the Rush host the Rochester Knighthawks (6-7) at 7:30 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.

    I found my one-on-one interview with Keenan to be real enjoyable, and I came away thinking the Rush were lucky to have him as their head coach and general manager.

    The story on Keenan can be found right here.

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

-------

    If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.