Dawson Has Career Day As Jax Win, 18-16

Published on May 4, 2008 under National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Portland Lumberjax News Release


SAN JOSE, Calif., May 4, 2008 - For the past three seasons the Portland LumberJax have made a second home at the HP Pavilion in San Jose. Sunday afternoon was no different as the Jax scored a franchise-high 18 goals en route to an 18-16 victory over the San Jose Stealth at the HP Pavilion in the West Division semifinals. Forward Dan Dawson had a career day as the six-year veteran led all scorers with 12 points (7 goals, 5 assists) as Portland won its first ever playoff game. The 12 points scored were a franchise and a career-high as were the seven goals scored.

The win sets up a meeting with the Calgary Roughnecks next Saturday, May 10th at the 6:30 p.m. at the Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary for the right to go to the Champion's Cup Final. Calgary, the No. 3 seed in the West, knocked off the No. 2 seed Colorado Mammoth Saturday night

"Today was probably the greatest game this franchise has ever seen and it's quite fitting it ended with the franchise's first ever playoff win", said Head Coach/General Manager Derek Keenan. "It was just an all-around great lacrosse game."

Keenan knew early on that Dawson was going to have a huge game as it took only 33-seconds for him to score his first goal of the game. Curling off a screen, Dawson beat Stealth goalie Anthony Cosmo for the early 1-0 lead. Forward Ryan Powell (4 goals, 4 assists) and transition player Scott Stapleford were credited with assists on the goal.

After a San Jose goal, Dawson curled off another screen and beat Cosmo again, this time with 12:01 left in the first quarter to make it 2-1. Forward's Derek Malawsky (2 assists) and Peter Morgan (7 assists) tallied assists on Dawson's second goal of the game.

"Dan was unbelievable today," added Keenan. "He really showed what he was capable of."

The lead would be short lived as San Jose went on a 3-0 run to turn a one goal deficit into a two goal lead. Down 4-2, the Jax finally responded with a Scott Stewart (1 goal, 1 assist) goal to cut the lead to 4-3 after one quarter of play. With 2:33 left in the first, defenseman Pat Jones hit a streaking Stewart, who scored his second ever playoff goal.

After being held scoreless the first quarter, Stealth forward Jeff Zywicki broke out in the second. After an early San Jose goal, Zywicki supplied three straight goals to give the Stealth an 8-3 advantage with 10:47 left in the half. The five-goal deficit left Portland hungry to get even and it would only be one run from doing so.

In a game changing run, the Jax would score six of the final eight goals of the half to cut the San Jose lead to 10-9 at the break

First, defenseman Brodie Merrill (2 goals, 1 assist) scored with 10:15 left in the second quarter. Then, after a San Jose goal, Dawson scored his third goal of the half with 6:50 left. Rookie forward Peter Jacobs scored with 4:53 left before Merrill scored again 44-seconds later.

Still down by two, the Jax looked to their most dangerous offensive weapon, Dawson. With 3:41 left, Dawson scored before setting up defenseman Richard Morgan for the game tying goal with 1:27 left in the half. After receiving a pass from rookie forward Cory Conway (2 assists), Dawson worked the ball into the Stealth zone before hitting Morgan for his first goal of the game.

The Stealth were able to score a late goal to take a 10-9 lead into the break.

Opening up the second half, San Jose scored the first two goals to take a 12-9 lead before Portland responded with its own 3-0 run to tie the game heading into the fourth quarter. Powell scored with 8:25 left, defenseman Brad MacDonald (2 goals) scored with 1:26 to play before Dawson tied the game at 12 with 58-secods left in the third quarter.

With 15-minutes left in regulation, Keenan's message was quite simple.

"We need to keep attacking", said Keenan. "We need to take care of the ball in transition, but we have to keep pushing the ball and not allow their defense to settle in"

The Jax clearly got the message as it took only 49-seconds for Dawson to score and give Portland its third lead of the game at 13-12.

The defense for both clubs took over for the next seven minutes until San Jose tied the game for the fifth time at 13 with 7:08 to play.

The teams continued to trade goals as Powell scored with 6:21 left before San Jose tied the game at 14 with 5:47 left. Then, San Jose scored with 5:26 before Powell tied the game at 15 with 5:12 left in regulation.

The trading continued as Dawson scored with 4:04 to play before the Stealth tied the game at 16 with 3:04 left.

Off the ensuing face-off, MacDonald scooped up the loose ball and went the distance, beating Cosmo for the game winning goal with 2:56 left. Powell would put the exclamation mark on the game with 1-second left as he buried the empty net goal to give the Jax an 18-16 win.

In the net, goalie Matt Disher stopped 33 of the 48 shots he faced.

Notes: Portland is now 5-1 all-time in San Jose against the Stealth...P. Morgan's seven assists tied the franchise-high, which Malawsky most recently matched on 3/20/08...Powell's eight points was a Jax career-high...With his 12 points, Dawson is now averaging 6.22 points-per-game in his nine career playoff games.

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