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NLL Panther City Lacrosse Club

Panther City Slays Mammoth, 10-6

March 27, 2022 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Panther City Lacrosse Club News Release


Fort Worth, Texas - The Panther City Lacrosse Club (6-8) beat the Colorado Mammoth (7-6), 10 - 6, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth Saturday night.

Goaltender Nick Damude denied a career-high 44 shots, finishing with a .880 save percentage, to extend Panther City's winning streak to five games and take the seasons series from Colorado. Many of those blocked shots ended up in the stick of Matt Hossack, who vacuumed up a game-high 13 loose balls.

Panther City's attack was spearheaded by Rookie of the Year contender Patrick Dodds, who dished out four assists and scored a goal late in the fourth quarter to help seal the win, his sixth straight game with at least five points. The team's power play continued to shine, as they went 3/5 (60%) on the night. Over the course of the month of March, the team has gone undefeated (4-0) and was 12/16 (75%) on the power play. Forward Phil Caputo continues to pace the team in goals, as he added two goals tonight, which brings his season total to 26 goals.

Panther City looks to extend their five-game winning streak against the Calgary Roughnecks (5-7) on Saturday, April 9. Faceoff is set for 8:00 p.m. CT at Scotiabank Saddledome.

Quotes

Head Coach Tracey Kelusky

On the five-game winning streak...

"Locker room is pretty pumped in there. It is a good feeling obviously. Young team and any time you win it is good, but I don't think anyone expected us to go on a five-game winning streak. It is a tough league to win in, none the less as an expansion club. We will always go back to the process. We stick with it. When we do the things that we need to do, good things happen. We have gotten good goaltending. Our power play with the addition of Dean Fairall and Cam Milligan have certainly helped us out a ton. Our guys are learning how to win."

On the play of Goalie Nick Damude...

"He has been our guy. I am certainly comfortable with both our goaltenders. We made some slight adjustments with [Damude] with what he is doing in net. He has done an exceptional job. He was our best defender tonight in a dressing room full of really good defenders. We were down to eight defenders for basically a whole half. Two of our guys go down, so it is not an easy task to play defense in this league and especially when you only have eight of them. Nicky was our best defender for sure."

On beating a division opponent and taking the season series from Colorado...

"Amazing. The hard work and the way everything is coming into play here for us. We were 1-8 and no one pushed the panic button. I am always going to revert back to culture. We talked about the importance of building a locker room where guys want to come to the rink. They want to learn. They want to share in each other's successes and create a culture that is exciting. A dressing room where guys want to come to the rink. I have said it from day one - wins and losses, if you chase wins and losses you are in a whole heap of trouble. If you do things for the right reason and you go out and you compete for your teammate and you enjoy each other successes, then good things happen and obviously you have to believe in it. Guys are starting to believe in it, which is real fun."

On maintaining the players focus during the course of the game...

"We have an unbelievable leadership group with Captain [Chad] Cummings, Hoss [Defenseman Matt Hossack], [Defenseman Connor] Sellars, Byrnesy [Defenseman Liam Byrnes] and Phil Caputo has done an exceptional job on the front end with such a young group. My job is easy. I have a great coaches in Toller [Defensive Coach Steve Toll] and Teater [Offensive Coach] Dan Teat] on both sides of the ball. They understand the game. They break it down. They make adjustments. My job is easy. At the same point, one of the things we identified when we went and picked players was let's make sure we get players that are coachable. Coachable is an understatement because these guys are coming to the rink - part of my post game [speech] was go back and review the game. There are still mistakes. There are still correctables. Let's clean those up. It is a lot easier to say when you are winning. It is a lot easier to swallow when you are winning. The guys are coachable and we have certainly a great coaching staff that helps in that."

On if playoffs have entered the picture for the team or if they are still taking it one game at a time...

"It is always one game at a time. Again, what did I say from day one? Day one I said, 'If you are not competing for a championship, I don't care if we are an expansion team or not, then why are you playing?' Low and behold we get guys that slowly but surely start to buy into that and it is a belief. We lose four one-goal games. Guys are like we are close. We are close. We start winning games. Like tonight - tonight we find a way to win a game. We bunker down. We have some poise at the end of it. We had a timely goal. We had great goaltending. Truth be told, I thought we played a full 60 minutes. To answer your question, we are putting one foot in front of the other, but we certainly know what is in the fore front, which is playoffs and we are going to fight tooth and nail to get there."

Goalie Nick Damude (44 saves, .880 save percentage Saturday night)

On the team's defensive goal...

"Our number is 11 goals for the game, but everyone on the D knows we can be better. Goals Against Average reflects the team where save percentage is my stat. Coach challenged us to be better and that's what we did tonight, we were better."

On being cemented in the starting goalie role...

"I think it allows me to get into a groove now. The biggest thing is trust, I trust everyone on this team, and I think they trust me, and I think that is the biggest thing for why we are having success right now."

On the defense forcing shots from farther away...

"I am going to have success when the defense is playing this unreal. They kept a lot to the outside and let me see everything. My success completely goes with them, so they played unreal in front of me and the O same thing. They scored when they needed too and held the ball when they needed too. It was a complete team effort.

On taking the series versus Colorado and the five-game winning streak...

"They are both big. Taking the series versus Colorado and five in a row. We are in a chase for the playoffs and coach has emphasized that we haven't done anything yet, so the biggest thing is making playoffs, getting in, and then anything can happen. So that is the objective on our mind."

On taking it one game at a time...

"One game at a time, one play at a time. The big thing is what's next. We can't get down, we can't get too high, we just have to stay even-keeled through everything."

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