Red Hot Sting Face Tough Test Tomorrow Night
April 6, 2007 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Arizona Sting News Release
The Arizona Sting will be looking to score a second straight road win over an elite NLL squad this weekend when they travel to upstate New York for a Saturday night showdown with the Buffalo Bandits. Arizona won twice last weekend (over Colorado and San Jose) to clinch a berth in the 2007 Champion's Cup Playoffs and are playing arguably their best lacrosse of the season right now. The Sting have lost their only two games against the Bandits by a combined score of 26-21 however. Sting Head Coach/GM Bob Hamley is hoping that his team can turn the tide on Saturday and come up with their first win against Buffalo in team history.
"The Bandits are a very, very intense team," said Hamley in Wednesday's pre-game press conference. "They have a great work ethic and we know we'll have to put forth a tremendous effort to come out of there with a win."
Saturday's match will feature the NLL's top two scorers in the form of Dan Dawson (42G-50A-92P) and John Tavares (40G-51A-91P). Dawson passed Tavares for the league lead in points last weekend when he tallied 6G-10A-16 in two games played to capture his third Player of the Week award of 2007. The Sting record for points in a season was also eclipsed by Dawson, who broke his own record (84 points in 2005) on a fourth quarter assist in Friday's 14-8 win over the Colorado Mammoth at the Pepsi Center in Denver. The Sting followed up that victory with a 10-9 home win over the San Jose Stealth and now trail first-place Colorado by only 1.5 games in the standings.
"Last weekend might have been the most successful weekend in Sting history," said Hamley. "We're all very excited about how the team is coming together as we get ready for the playoffs."
Buffalo enters this weekend's action having won seven straight contests to clinch a playoff spot of their own in the East Division. Despite their recent success, Bandits Head Coach Darris Kilgour is expecting Saturday's contest to be an extremely challenging match for his team.
"Arizona is a very strong team that is extremely well coached," said Kilgour. "We're definitely expecting a tough game on Saturday."
The Sting can clinch a home playoff berth with a win over the Bandits and a Calgary loss to Edmonton on Friday.
Game time on Saturday is 4:30pm PST. Fans can catch the action live by logging onto B2 Networks (www.b2now.com) or tuning into SIRIUS Radio (channel 140). Sting defenseman Bruce Codd will be a guest on Inside the NLL, which precedes Saturday's SIRIUS broadcast.
THE MATCH-UP
STING ALL-TIME VERSUS BUFFALO:
Record: 0-2
Goals For: 21 Goals Against: 26
TOP SCORERS:
BUF: John Tavares (13GP-40G-51A-91P); Kevin Dostie (13GP-22G-26A-48P); Cory Bomberry (13GP-16G-28A-44P); Mark Steenhuis (12GP-22G-21A-43P); Dan Teat (13GP-19G-23A-42P)
ARZ: Dan Dawson (13GP-42G-50A-92P); Craig Conn (13GP-16G-48A-64P); Lindsay Plunkett (13GP-29G-29A-58P); Derek Malawsky (13GP-15G-28A-43P); Curt Malawsky (12GP-18G-16A-34P)
GOALTENDERS:
BUF: Mike Thompson (5-2 record, 11.49 G.A.A., .766 save %); Steve Dietrich (4-2 record, 12.41 G.A.A., .762 save %)
ARZ: Rob Blasdell (9-2 record, 10.13 G.A.A., .779 save %); Mike Attwood (0-2 record, 13.36 G.A.A., .710 save %)
STING FORWARDS VERSUS BUFFALO (CAREER)
PLAYER GP G A P GPG APG PPG
Craig Conn 5 9 15 24 1.8 3.0 4.8
Derek Malawksy 12 19 37 56 1.58 3.08 4.67
Curt Malawsky 14 24 37 61 1.71 2.64 4.36
Matt Brown 1 1 3 4 1.0 3.0 4.0
Lindsay Plunkett 2 2 6 8 1.0 3.0 4.0
Dan Dawson 4 8 4 12 2.0 1.0 3.0
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National Lacrosse League Stories from April 6, 2007
- San Jose Sweeps Season Series With Jax - San Jose Stealth
- Rush Fends Off Late Charge To Edge Roughnecks 13-12 - Calgary Roughnecks
- Rock Loses Heartbreaker To Swarm At Home - Toronto Rock
- Knighthawks John Grant To Play Scoro Tonight At Amerks Game - Rochester Knighthawks
- Red Hot Sting Face Tough Test Tomorrow Night - Arizona Sting
- Stealth goaltender Anthony Cosmo selected to play for Team Canada - San Jose Stealth
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