New York Titans At Home This Saturday
February 22, 2007 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Orlando Titans News Release
The New York Titans are half way through the season and are preparing to take on the San Jose Stealth at home this Saturday, February 24 at Nassau Coliseum at 7:30 PM EST.
After losing a heartbreaker in the last minute to the Minnesota Swarm by one point (15-14) at last Saturday's home game at the Garden and losing to the Swarm again on Sunday (17-14) at Minnesota despite a strong rally in the fourth quarter, the Titans are ready for battle at Nassau.
The Stealth aren't just a regular opponent for the Titans. Four Titans players played for the Stealth last year, including Titans Assistant Captain Ryan Boyle and Titans starting goalie Matt Vinc. Boyle, Vinc and defenseman Matt Alrich were traded to the Titans in the off-season for the first pick in the draft. Defenseman Jarett Park also played for the Stealth last season and was picked up by the Titans in the expansion draft.
Boyle is currently the second all-time leading scorer for the Stealth. As a rookie in 2005 with the Stealth, Boyle captured the NLL Rookie of the Year award in his first year out of Princeton.
"As a player, you obviously want to win every game, but there's definitely a certain extra desire when you play your old team," Boyle said. "The fact that there are four of us on the team that played there last season; there is a lot of extra motivation. It's definitely going to be a physical game; I wouldn't be surprised if some tempers flare."
The Stealth are currently in the bottom of the West Division with a 1-5 record. Colin Doyle is the team's leader in points this season with 33 off of 26 assists and six goals. Jeff Zywicki is the Stealth's leader in scoring with 19 goals for the season.
While the Titans are also looking to pick up their second win of the season, Head Coach Adam Mueller is impressed with his team.
"They've been great all season, our team doesn't give up," Mueller says. "Our guys are full of character and fight every minute of the game and I'm very pleased about that."
Mueller has two NLL All-Stars on his team guiding the offense. Titans Captain Casey Powell and Assistant Captain Ryan Boyle were selected to the All-Star reserve team for the East Division. Boyle currently has 21 goals and 26 assists at the halfway mark of the season and is ranked 7th in the league in points. Powell currently sits atop the NLL as the leader in points with 56 and assists with 41 for the season. If he were to continue his current pace, Powell would finish with 76 assists for the season which would break the league record of 71 set by Josh Sanderson of Toronto in 2005. The 2007 National Lacrosse League All-Star Game will be played at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon on Saturday, March 10 at 10PM EST.
Titans forward Pat Maddalena was not selected to the All-Star reserve team despite ranking 5th in the league in points with 49 and 2nd in the league in scoring with 25 goals this season so far.
The Titans-Stealth game at Nassau Coliseum this Saturday will be televised live on SportsNet NY at 7:30PM. The last Titans game televised live on SNY was the high-scoring Titans-Rochester match on January 27th. That telecast registered a higher Nielsen television rating than its head to head competition - New York Islanders hockey on FSNY and the New Jersey Devils hockey on MSG - combined.
The Titans (1-7) taken on the Stealth (1-5) on Saturday, February 24 at 7:30PM EST at the Nassau Coliseum. Tickets are now on sale via Ticketmaster charge-by-phone, Ticketmaster.com, all Ticketmaster outlets, the Nassau Coliseum box office or by logging onto www.nytitans.com.
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National Lacrosse League Stories from February 22, 2007
- Stealth players Colin Doyle and Jeff Zywicki named Western Division All-Stars - San Jose Stealth
- Talented new Stealth acquisition Andrew Burkholder to debut against Titans - San Jose Stealth
- New York Titans At Home This Saturday - Orlando Titans
- Powell and Jones to Represent the LumberJax in the Western Division - Portland Lumberjax
- Gill picked for All-Star Game - Edmonton Rush
- Rochester's Scott Evans, Steve Toll and Shawn Williams named East All-Star reserves - Rochester Knighthawks
- Swarm's Cousins and Ward Named to NLL's All-Star Game - Minnesota Swarm
- Two more Riggers going to All-Star game - Calgary Roughnecks
- Steenhuis and McCready added to All-Star roster - Buffalo Bandits
- Four Mammoth players added to All-Star roster - Colorado Mammoth
- Sting captain Peter Lough named All-Star reserve - Arizona Sting
- NLL Announces All-Star Game Reserves - NLL
- Dietrich Captures Weekly Awards - Buffalo Bandits
- Tavares will start for Eastern Division All-Stars - Buffalo Bandits
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