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Jax Begin First Of Three Back-To-Backs

March 24, 2009 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Portland Lumberjax News Release


PORTLAND, March 24, 2009 - It's officially crunch time as the Portland LumberJax enter the final weekend in March and begin their first of three straight back-to-back weekends. On Saturday, March 28th, the Jax (5-4) travel to San Jose to meet the Stealth at 12:30 p.m. at the HP Pavilion. A day later the two West Division foes face-off at 3 p.m. at the Rose Garden Arena.

Portland leads the series history 7-4 and the season series 1-0. The two teams previously met on February 7th as the Jax scored a season-high 16 goals en route to a 16-13 win in Portland. Nine different players supplied goals and goalie Matt Disher stopped 45 of the 58 shots he faced in net.

The HP Pavilion has been a second home for the Jax as the team is 5-1 all-time there. Portland won all three meetings there last season, including an 18-16 West Division Semifinal victory.

Starting on Saturday, the Jax play their final seven regular season games in a span of 21 days. Every game will be played against teams from the West Division. The Jax are 3-3 against the West Division so far this season.

Portland's .500 division record stacks up quite well compared to the likes of Edmonton (3-5), San Jose (3-5), Minnesota (2-3) and Colorado (5-5). The Calgary Roughnecks, who lead the West by two-and-a-half games, are 6-1 in conference.

The Jax are coming off a 14-4 loss to the Buffalo Bandits last Saturday. In the loss, forwards Derek Malawsky (1 goal, 1 assist), Tim Campeau (1 goal, 1 assist), Peter Morgan and Cory Conway (1 goal, 1 assist) all supplied goals.

The defending National Lacrosse League champion Bandits were led by a seven point performance by forward John Tavares and three goal performance by forward Cory Bomberry. Ken Montour earned his first ever win over Portland by stopping 34 of the 38 shots he faced.

Despite the loss, Portland still finished 2-1 against the East Division this season. It's the first time the defending West Division Champions have ever had a winning record against the East in the regular season.

San Jose (4-7) is coming off a hard fought, 11-10 home win over the Edmonton Rush last Saturday. Forward Colin Doyle scored the game winner with 54-seconds left and forward Jeff Zywicki scored three goals and added four assists.

In goal, Matt Roik stopped 38 of the 48 shots he faced. Rush goalie Brandon Atherton, making his NLL debut, stopped 38 of the 49 shots he faced in the losing effort.

What's strange about the Stealth is that in spite of the team's losing record, they have still outscored their opponents. If this trend continues, San Jose will become only the fifth team in league history to outscore its opponents despite finishing the regular season with a losing record.

The Stealth are also modeling a new look on the bench. Chris Hall was promoted to Head Coach prior to the win and Jeff Dowling was reassigned from Head Coach to Assistant Coach.

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