Lewis Ratcliff Sets NLL Record
Published on January 24, 2007 under National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Calgary Roughnecks News Release
Calgary, AB - Lewis Ratcliff, the Calgary Roughnecks leading scorer for the past three years, set a new National Lacrosse League record, in Saturday's 17-13 thrashing of the Colorado Mammoth.
He scored goals in every possible offensive category - shorthanded, even strength, power play, and on an extremely rare occurrence, a penalty shot.
"It's an incredible achievement," said Scott Neiss, the NLL's Director of Lacrosse Operations. "I've never heard of it -- and it is without a doubt a record in modern NLL history. In fact, I am confident it's an all-time record, but I can't say for sure because the keeping of statistics a few years back was not as intense as it is now.
"For a start, there aren't a lot of shorthanded goals in our league. But then to cap it off with a score from a penalty shot, of which there were only four the whole of 2006, well that's just amazing."
Kurt Silcott, the Roughnecks General Manager, said, "In my entire life, I've never seen a player record the 'scoring cycle' - and that's at any level.
"Lewis is playing phenomenal lacrosse right now, and not surprisingly, if you take the number of games played into the equation, he is the NLL's second leading scorer.
Ratcliff's 21 points in three games for a 7 point per outing average, is surpassed only by Buffalo's John Tavares' 31 points over four games.
Silcott continued, "With Lewis' continuing emergence as one of the league's top snipers, other teams are now forced to choose on whom they will focus their attention - Lewis, Tracey (Kelusky) or Kaleb (Toth). Whichever way they go, it has to be a defensive coach's nightmare. Thank goodness it is some other club's problem - and not ours."
CLUB RECORD ALSO SET
Last year, the Calgary Roughnecks had one of the worst records in the NLL for scoring shorthanded goals and recorded only five of them the entire campaign.
But thanks to three man down markers against the Colorado Mammoth last Saturday, the Riggers have already matched the club's entire output of 2006 - with 13 regular season games still to come.
"We're pretty sure that three 'sorties' in a single game is a Roughnecks record," said Silcott. "Nowadays, teams in the NLL are so well organized on defence you're glad to get one goal when you're a player down. To get three is simply terrific.
"Hopefully the trend will continue. When you score shorthanded, it lifts your team but thoroughly demoralizes the opponents."
Silcott added, "I think our success in that facet of the game can be attributed to our overall team speed and the energy the young players we've recently introduced have brought to the entire squad."
National Lacrosse League Stories from January 24, 2007
- Eliuk and Sharp Participate in Fifth Annual Bowling with Bubba - Portland Lumberjax
- Sting goalie named Player of the Week by NLL - Arizona Sting
- Lewis Ratcliff Sets NLL Record - Calgary Roughnecks
- Ryan Benesch named NLL Rookie of the Week - Toronto Rock
- NLL Announces Week Four Player Awards - NLL
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