Rush at Riptide Game Notes
December 28, 2019 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Saskatchewan Rush News Release
Saskatchewan Rush sideline
(Saskatchewan Rush)
Saskatchewan Rush (1-1) at New York Riptide (0-2)
6:30PM (CST), Saturday, December 28th 2019
NYCB LIVE, home of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, NY
Watch | B/R Live
Listen | 92.9 The Bull
Uniondale, NY - The three-time NLL champion Saskatchewan Rush will make their first-ever visit to the Big Apple as they take on the expansion New York Riptide.
The Rush are coming off a loss in their home-opener against the New England Black Wolves, while the Riptide are finally making their home-turf debut after they suffered road losses against the Halifax Thunderbirds and Vancouver Warriors to open the season.
Pro box lacrosse is returning to New York after two previous ventures, the Saints and Titans. The Riptide are based on Long Island in the newly named and refurbished NYCB Live, formerly the Nassau Veteran's Memorial Coliseum which housed the New York Islanders during their heydays in the 1980's.
LAST GAME: The Rush dropped their home-opener at SaskTel Centre 12-8 to the visiting New England Black Wolves. Mark Matthews led the Rush offence with four goals, including one on a first-quarter penalty shot.
The Rush fell behind 6-1 and trailed 9-4 at halftime before getting themselves together in the second half. Defenceman Kyle Rubisch, who has never scored more than four goals in a season, notched his second goal of the game just 23 seconds into the third quarter, and Jeff Shattler added another for Rush as they held the Black Wolves off the scoreboard in the frame. The Rush thought they had closed the gap to just two with 1:10 to go in regulation time, but Shattler's second of the night was ultimately waved off after a video review indicated his foot was in the crease before the ball went in.
Mike Messenger also scored for the Rush on a terrific transition goal that ended with the hulking defender putting his diving shot home.
HOME HEARTACHE: All five NLL West Divisions teams lost their 2019-20 home-openers. The Rush lost to New England but defeated Colorado in the Mammoth's opener, while the Mammoth beat Calgary in overtime on the Roughnecks' banner-raising night. The Roughnecks beat Vancouver in the Warriors' opener, and San Diego was beaten at home by Toronto.
MILESTONE MINUTE: A couple of Rush players could make a move on the team's all-time leaderboard. Returning defenceman Ryan Dilks needs to play in five more games to move past Jimmy Quinlan into fourth spot on the team's game-played list, while Ben McIntosh needs two more assists to move into third spot on the team's list past Curtis Knight.
Statistically Speaking: Two games into the season, the Rush's Mark Matthews is tied for sixth in league scoring with 10 points and is also tied for sixth in goals with five - four of which game against New England ... Saskatchewan's Robert Church and Ryan Keenan are tied for 16th in league scoring with eight points, while Keenan is also tied for ninth in assists with six ... The Rush lead the NLL with 175 loose balls through two games. Individually, Kyle Rubisch is second in the league with 22 scoops and Jeremy Thompson is tied for 11th with 16 ... Caused turnovers continue to be a trademark of the Rush's stellar defence. Ryan Dilks is tied for first with six, Chris Corbeil is third with five, and Matt Hossack is tied for fourth with four ... 2018-29: Last season, the Rush's Mark Matthews finished in a tie for third in the NLL scoring race, knotting Georgia's Lyle Thompson with 105 points. They finished 10 behind scoring champ Dane Dobbie of Calgary. Matthews finished tied for seventh in assists (64) and tied for fourth in goals at 41 with teammate Ben McIntosh ... Jeff Shattler of the Rush led the NLL with five game-winning goals. He also finished the regular season tied for 15th with 34 goals and tied for sixth in shorthanded goals with two ... Saskatchewan ended the season with the top-ranked power play at 57.4%, scoring 31 goals on 54 power-play opportunities. That was the fewest opportunities in the league - 10 less than Georgia ... Mark Matthews finished tied for seventh with nine power-play goals with Ben McIntosh right behind with eight. Matthews also finished tied for sixth with 17 power-play assists ... The Rush drastically improved their penalty kill down the stretch and wound up moving from last to seventh at 52.1% with seven shorthanded goals ... New England ranked ninth on the power play last year and gave up a league-high 12 shorthanded goals. The Black Wolves did have the fourth-best penalty kill at 55.1% ... The Rush's Jeremy Thompson led the NLL with 208 loose-ball scoops and he wound up third in faceoff wins with 263 ... Rush defenceman Kyle Rubisch was tops in the NLL with 45 caused turnovers. Teammates Mike Messenger (fifth, 31), Jeremy Thompson (eighth, 25) and Chris Corbeil (11th, 24) were also amongs the league-leaders.
By the Numbers: The Rush currently have the NLL's second-best power play at 60.0% (3-for-5). Ryan Keenan is tied for third in the NLL with two power-play goals, and Robert Church is tied for first with three power-play assists ... The Riptide have the league's sixth-ranked power play at 42.9% (3-for-7) ... New York is also ranked sixth on the penalty kill at 55.6% (four goals against in nine shorthanded situations). The Rush are ranked 13th on the penalty kill at 20.0% (four goals against in five shorthanded situations) ... The Rush are Riptide are both struggling with shooting percentage so far this season. Saskatchewan is 10th at 10.8% while New York is 12th at 9.6% ... 2018-19: Saskatchewan won the NLL attendance derby again last season with an average of 13,459 which was 413 better than Buffalo ... The Rush finished the season first in the West with 222 goals. They were third in goals scored per game average with 12.33 and fourth in goals allowed at 11.22 per game ... The Rush ended the regular season with 7-2 record at home and 9-3 versus the West. They were also 9-1 when leading after the first quarter, 10-0 when leading at halftime, 10-0 when leading after three quarters ... The Rush's Matt Hossack finished tied for fifth amongst defencemen with 17 points and tied for fourth with 14 assists ... Rush goalie Adam Shute ended the regular season second in the league with a 10.30 goals-against average.
Images from this story
 Saskatchewan Rush sideline |
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