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Jax Meet Roughnecks for West Division Crown

May 7, 2008 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Portland Lumberjax News Release


PORTLAND, May 7, 2008 - The Portland LumberJax took care of business last weekend when they defeated the first place San Jose Stealth 18-16 at the HP Pavilion in the West Division semifinals. The Calgary Roughnecks progressed as well by upsetting the second place Colorado Mammoth 15-13 at the Pepsi Center. Now, the Jax (6-10) and Roughnecks (7-9) meet on Saturday, May 10th at 6:30 p.m. PST at the Pengrowth Saddledome for the right to represent the West Division in the 2008 Edge National Lacrosse League Championship Game.

Across the country, the New York Titans travel to Buffalo to meet the Bandits at 4:30 p.m. PST on Saturday to crown a champion in the East. The Portland/Calgary winner will meet the New York/Buffalo winner during the weekend of May 16-18 in the championship. Specific date and time will be announced after the division finals are complete.

Both Portland and Calgary have taken interesting roads to their fourth meeting of the season on Saturday.

The Jax started the season 1-5 and playoff hopes lingered until the team won five of its final 10 regular season games to lock up the fourth spot in the West and setup the fourth meeting of the season with the Stealth.

In San Jose, the Stealth held an 8-3 lead early in the second quarter before the Jax scored six of the final eight goals of the half to cut the lead to 10-9.

By the end of the third quarter the game was tied at 12. In the final 15-minutes of regulation, forward Dan Dawson scored two of his franchise-high seven goals and defenseman Brad MacDonald scored the game winning goal with 2:56 to play. The 18-16 win was the first playoff victory in franchise history for Portland.

Forward Peter Morgan tied a franchise-high with seven assists and forward Ryan Powell poured in a Portland career-high eight points (4 goals, 4 assists) as the Jax came from behind in the fourth quarter.

The Roughnecks won their final three regular season games to cement third place in the West. Facing a tall order of playing the Mammoth in front of a capacity crowd in Denver, Calgary trailed 12-10 in the fourth quarter until the stingy Roughneck defense locked the Mammoth down and the offense took over by scoring five straight goals.

Kelly Hall scored, then Scott Ranger and Kaleb Toth. Jeff Shattler and Chris Seller also scored, erasing a two goal deficit and taking a commanding three goal lead that Calgary never surrendered.

Calgary has not been to the finals since the team won the title in 2004 and Portland has never advanced past its current position in the West. Both clubs will look to make history this weekend and the Jax hope that they're the ones entering the record books.



National Lacrosse League Stories from May 7, 2008


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