Rush Face Roughnecks with Playoffs on the Line
March 17, 2011 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Edmonton Rush News Release
Edmonton, AB--The Edmonton Rush will try to keep their playoff hopes alive in the final installment of the National Lacrosse League ¬â¢s 2011 edition of the Battle of Alberta as they take on the Calgary Roughnecks.
Edmonton has a slim half-game lead on the Colorado Mammoth for fourth place, and the final playoff spot, in the NLL ¬â¢s West Division. With the Rush involved in the lone game on the NLL schedule this weekend, the Mammoth will hold two games in-hand on Edmonton following Saturday ¬â¢s contest. The Rush are 2ý games behind third-place Washington.
Calgary leads the West Division and is tied with Buffalo for the second-best record in the league. The Roughnecks hold a 1ý-game lead on second-place Minnesota and are five games up on Edmonton.
The Rush are coming off a bye week which followed a devastating 18-10 home-floor loss to Washington back on March 5. Calgary rides a three-game winning streak into the matchup, which was bolstered by last weekend ¬â¢s 17-13 road victory in Washington.
The Roughnecks have won all three meetings with the Rush this season including a hard-fought 12-11 win at Edmonton in the most-recent encounter which came back on February 20th in the first matinee matchup in Rush history. Jeff Shattler, Calgary ¬â¢s leading scorer on the season, led the Roughnecks ¬â¢ attack with three goals and five assists, while hot-shot rookie Curtis Dickson supplied three goals and two assists. Scott Evans had a breakout game for the Rush, netting five goals, while Corey Small chipped in seven assists. Jimmy Quinlan and Dean Hill scored two goals each for the Rush with singles going to Gavin Prout and Jarret Toll with his first NLL career marker.
The Roughnecks have won five straight regular-season clashes with their provincial rivals, highlighted by a sweep of a home-and-home series earlier this season. Calgary took the opener at Rexall Place 15-11 and then slipped away with a 12-11 OT win the next night at the Saddledome.
In the opener, Dane Dobbie sparked the Roughnecks with a nine-point effort (3 goals, 6 assists), with Scott Ranger firing in four goals. Gavin Prout was the top producer for the Rush with seven points (2 goals, 5 assists), while Corey Small collected the hat trick. Dane Stevens, Ryan Ward, Jimmy Quinlan, Andy Secore, Kedoh Hill, and Scott Evans also replied for the Rush.
The following night, Calgary ¬â¢s Mark Scherman ended overtime at the 2:30 mark with the game-winner. Jeff Shattler led the Roughnecks ¬â¢ attack with seven points (2 goals, 5 assists). Ryan Ward collected six points (4 goals, 2 assists) for the Rush. Gavin Prout, with two, Corey Small, Brodie Merrill, John Lafontaine (with his first NLL goal), Jimmy Quinlan, and Dane Stevens also scored for the Rush.
Edmonton is 4-15 including three overtime losses all-time against Calgary, but the Rush can count some of the most-important wins in franchise history among those four victories. The Rush also claim the victory in the lone playoff matchup between the two clubs which came last season.
The teams met three times during the 2010 regular season with the Roughnecks taking away two victories including a 14-13 overtime win at Rexall Place that locked up second place in the West standings. Josh Sanderson notched the game-winner for the win and guaranteed home-turf advantage in the West Division semifinal.
But the Rush earned a huge measure of revenge and the first playoff win in franchise history with an 11-7 victory over the defending league champs in the West Division semifinal. While a number of players stepped up in the playoff win, it was a dominating outing from goaltender Matt Disher that made the biggest difference as he set an NLL playoff record with a 60-save performance.
Edmonton ¬â¢s history against Calgary includes the Rush ¬â¢s first-ever win in franchise history, coming seven games into the inaugural 2006 season. Cam Bergman scored the game-winner with less than one second remaining in regulation time as the Rush stunned the Roughnecks with a 12-11 upset. One year later, the Rush did it again to the Roughnecks on their home floor as Chris Gill set a Rush team record for goals in a game with a six as Edmonton slipped away with a 13-12 decision. The Rush finally earned their first home-floor win over the Roughnecks in 2008 with an 11-9 verdict anchored by four goals from Jimmy Quinlan
With this past week ¬â¢s trade of Gavin Prout to Colorado, Corey Small now assumes the top spot in Rush scoring heading into the game, leading the way with 34 points ¬" one up on last year ¬â¢s team leader Ryan Ward. Small is the Rush ¬â¢s top sniper with 15 goals, two better than Scott Evans. Ward and Brodie Merrill share the team lead in assist with 21 apiece.
Brodie Merrill leads the Rush and is second in the league with 113 loose balls (eight behind league-leader Paul Rabil of Washington), and the all-star transition is ranked fifth in the league in forced turnovers with 15. Fellow all-star Brett Mydske is second among NLL defenders with seven goals, and sits sixth in points among defenders with nine.
Calgary ¬â¢s attack is anchored by Jeff Shattler, who was named the NLL ¬â¢s Overall Player of the Week for his performance against the Washington Stealth. Shattler racked up nine points (4 goals, 5 assists) and added two forced turnovers plus five loose balls. Shattler sits 10th in league scoring with 50 points and is ranked eighth in assists with 29. Scott Ranger leads the Roughnecks and is ninth in the NLL with 23 goals ¬" two better than Shattler.
Rush vs. Roughnecks - Season-by-Season Glance
2011
15-11 Roughnecks win at Edmonton (Dane Dobbie collects three goals and six assists)
12-11 Roughnecks OT win at Calgary (Mike Scherman pots the game-winner)
12-11 Roughnecks win at Edmonton (Jeff Shattler notches hat trick plus five assists)
2010
14-11 Rush win at Edmonton (Dean Hill notches hat trick and adds one assist)
13-8 Roughnecks win at Calgary (Josh Sanderson picks up three goals and three assists)
14-13 Roughnecks OT win at Edmonton (Josh Sanderson earns hat trick including game-winner)
*11-7 Rush win at Calgary (Ryan Ward notches nine points including eight assists)
*denotes playoff game
2009
10-9 Roughnecks OT win at Calgary (Curt Malawsky notches the game-winner)
22-10 Roughnecks win at Edmonton (Dane Dobbie collects 11 points including seven goals)
14-13 Roughnecks win at Edmonton (Tracey Kelusky racks up eight points including four goals)
2008
11-9 Rush win at Edmonton (Jimmy Quinlan pots four goals plus one assist)
18-7 Roughnecks win at Calgary (Kaleb Toth registers nine points including four goals)
12-8 Roughnecks win at Edmonton (Curt Malawsky registers four goals and one assist)
2007
13-12 Roughnecks win at Edmonton (Kaleb Toth and Lewis Ratcliff each with four points)
13-12 Rush win at Calgary (Chris Gill sets club record with six goals)
17-11 Roughnecks win at Edmonton (Tracey Kelusky collects two goals and seven assists)
2006
11-9 Roughnecks win at Calgary (Lewis Ratcliff scores five goals)
12-9 Roughnecks win at Edmonton (Kaleb Toth and Tracey Kelusky each with seven points)
12-11 Rush win at Calgary (Pat Campbell earns player of the game with 54 saves)
16-9 Roughnecks win at Edmonton (Lewis Ratcliff notches four goals and two assists)
In The News: Ryan Ward takes over the Assistant Captain duties vacated by the Rush ¬â¢s trade of Gavin Prout to Colorado. The Prout trade yielded a nifty return in forward Mike McLellan, who will make his debut against Calgary, along with a first-round pick in the 2011 NLL Entry Draft ¬Â¦ In addition to the Prout trade, the Rush made a handful of other roster moves this week. The club signed free-agent goaltender Rob Blasdell to back up starter Matt Disher, and scooped up transition Kyle Sweeney off waivers from Philadelphia. The Rush moved defender/faceoff specialist Pat Jones to the practice roster, and released defender Bruce Murray along with goaltender Brandon Atherton ¬Â¦ Andy Secore and rookie Kedoh Hill have been named to the roster of the Iroquois Nationals for the 2011 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship set for Prague, Czech Republic, in May.
Statistically Speaking: The Rush have scored 103 goals so far this season but given up a whopping 128, the second-most in the league behind only Washington (135) ¬Â¦ Calgary has scored 121 goals on the year, the second-best total in the West Division and third-best in the NLL. The Roughnecks have been fairly stingy as well, surrendering only 109 goals, also second-best in the West ¬Â¦ Edmonton ¬â¢s special teams have been anything but this season and the Rush rank last in the NLL in both power play and penalty killing. The Rush ¬â¢s power play is firing at just a 24.5% clip (13-for-53) while the penalty killing is at a mere 51.0% (24 goals surrendered in 49 shorthanded situations) ¬Â¦ Calgary ¬â¢s power play is ranked fifth in the NLL at 41.0% (21-for-65) with the penalty killing situated sixth at 61.9% (24 goals surrendered in 63 shorthanded situations) ¬Â¦ There ¬â¢s more to the Roughnecks ¬â¢ vaunted special teams as well. Scott Ranger leads the NLL with 11 power-play goals and Dane Dobbie is second in power-play assists with 13. On the penalty-killing front, Curtis Dickson, Scott Ranger, and Jeff Shattler are all tied for second in the NLL with three shorthanded goals ¬" as is Edmonton ¬â¢s Ryan Ward, who is tied for first in the league with three shorthanded assists ¬Â¦ The Roughnecks are tops in the NLL with 10 shorthanded goals on the year, but the Rush aren ¬â¢t far behind and are tied for second with Toronto at seven shorthanded tallies ¬Â¦ Calgary ¬â¢s Curtis Dickson is on his way to winning the NLL ¬â¢s Rookie of the Year honors, as he leads all freshman players with 31 points. He is tops among rookies with 20 goals and is second in assists with 11.
By The Numbers: The Roughnecks are 2-2 on the year at the Saddledome, while the Rush are 1-5 on the road ¬" the lone win coming in Washington ¬Â¦ Calgary is 5-2 vs. the West Division and the Rush are 1-4 ¬Â¦ Scoring first has been a detriment for the Rush as they are 1-4 when notching the game ¬â¢s first goal. Calgary, though, is 3-0 when getting off to a quick start ¬Â¦ Power forward Scott Evans leads the Rush and is 15th in the league in power-play goals with four. He also is second in the league and the team leader in penalty minutes with 43 which is just 24 minutes off the Rush team record set by Jamie Floris in 2009 ¬Â¦ Kedoh Hill is fourth in NLL rookie scoring with 10 points (4 goals, 6 assists) ¬Â¦ Edmonton ¬â¢s struggled are at least in part due to slow starts. The Rush have allowed a league-high 71 goals in the first half ¬Â¦ Calgary ¬â¢s Mike Poulin and Edmonton ¬â¢s Matt Disher are two of the busiest goaltenders in the NLL this season. Poulin is second in wins with seven, and fourth in both minutes-played (606:01) and saves (376). Disher is sixth in minutes-played (575:32) and fifth in saves (353) ¬Â¦ The Rush and Roughnecks are tied for fifth in the NLL with an average of 20.4 penalty minutes per game ¬Â¦ Calgary ¬â¢s Geoff Snider is third in the league in faceoffs at 131 wins in 202 attempts
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