Rush Looking to Clinch Home Playoff Spot this Weekend
April 4, 2013 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Edmonton Rush News Release
Edmonton, AB---The Edmonton Rush take a club record five-game winning streak into the stretch drive of the National Lacrosse League regular season that begins with Saturday night's clash against the Colorado Mammoth.
Edmonton is coming off the longest road trip in club history with five straight games away from the Crystal Glass Field at Rexall Place, but the Rush won all five of those games including a weekend sweep in Buffalo and Toronto. Those two victories secured a playoff berth for the Rush, who are the defending NLL West Division champs and Champion's Cup finalists from 2012.
The Rush, who had a bye last weekend, are now tied for first in the NLL's West Division alongside the Calgary Roughnecks, and have a three-game lead over fifth-place Colorado, which is coming off a 10-9 win over Philadelphia.
With their five-game winning streak, Edmonton has been the hottest club in the entire NLL of late, in particular the Rush's back-to-back wins on the road in Buffalo and Toronto. The Rush took out the Bandits 14-7 and then earned their first victory in eight trips to the Air Canada Centre by dropping the Rock 17-12.
Corey Small led the Rush past Buffalo as he potted four goals and added three assists for a seven-point game. Rookie Curtis Knight added a hat trick, which included a power-play marker, while Jarrett Davis and Ryan Ward each notched a goal and four assists. Zack Greer, with a pair, Chris Corbeil, with a shorthanded tally, Mark Matthews, and Brett Mydske rounded out Edmonton's scoring while Aaron Bold stood tall with 35 saves.
Less than 24 hours later, the Rush stormed into Toronto and took out the Rock behind hat tricks from both Mark Matthews and Zack Greer. Kyle Rubisch and Corey Small each picked up two goals and two assists for the Rush, and Chris Corbeil notched a pair, while Brett Mydske, Ryan Dilks, Curtis Knight, John Lafontaine and Jeremy Thompson all added goals.
With their dominant performances, the Rush took three spots on the NLL's Weekly Award Winners list - Corey Small for Offensive Player of the Week, Curtis Knight for Rookie of the Week, and Aaron Bold for Defensive Player of the Week. Small ended the two games with six goals and five assists, while Knight counted four goals and two assists. Bold picked up both wins between the pipes and totaled 64 saves.
The Rush have become a powerful combination of attacking offense and rock-solid defense this season as they are third in the NLL and second in the West Division in goals with 171, while giving up the second-fewest goals in the league at 139. Edmonton is 7-1 on the road this season, but just 1-4 at home - a record that the Rush hope to improve upon with their final three games of the season all coming at Rexall Place.
The Rush won the only other meeting against Colorado this season, taking a 14-7 win in Denver back on February 16. Edmonton exploded for seven goals in the fourth quarter to pull away for the victory, anchored by rookie Mark Matthews' five-goal effort. Fellow pro freshman Curtis Knight added a pair of the Rush with singles going to Corey Small, Chris Corbeil, Ryan Dilks, Ryan Ward, Alex Turner, Zack Greer, and Cory Conway. Aaron Bold supplied the Rush with 34 saves between the pipes.
Edmonton is 7-13 all-time against Colorado and the teams have evenly split their last 10 meetings at 5-5. The Rush have won the last two games, however, both played in Denver including a 14-11 verdict late last season which secured a berth in the Champion's Cup playoffs. Colorado had taken both previous matchups last season, stealing a win with John Grant Jr.'s winner with only 15 seconds remaining for a 13-12 victory.
Veteran Ryan Ward leads the Rush in scoring with 64 points, and is fourth in the NLL with 45 assists. Rookie Mark Matthews is the Rush's top marksman on the year with 35 goals which puts him in a tie for second in the league. Matthews sits second in points with 59, two ahead of Corey Small who is second on the club in both goals and assists. Zack Greer is third on the Rush with 22 goals, while Cory Conway is third in assists with 27.
Colorado's John Grant Jr. leads the NLL with 37 goals and is fourth in points with 75.
Rush vs. Mammoth - Season-by-Season Glance
2013
14-7 Rush win at Colorado (Mark Matthews tops Rush scoring with five goals)
2012
14-11 Rush win at Colorado (Zack Greer leads Rush with two goals and one assist)
11-7 Mammoth win at Colorado (Adam Jones, John Grant Jr. and Jordan McBride all notch hat tricks)
13-12 Mammoth win at Edmonton (John Grant Jr. leads with five goals and four assists)
2011
13-6 Mammoth win at Edmonton
14-13 Rush win at Edmonton (Scott Evans leads the way with four goals and two assists)
7-6 Mammoth win at Colorado (John Grant notches two goals and two assists)
2010
14-13 Rush win at Colorado (Ryan Ward scores four goals and adds three assists)
13-9 Rush win at Colorado (Ryan Ward notches hat trick plus four assists)
14-10 Mammoth win at Edmonton (Jamie Shewchuk collects nine points including four goals)
2009
11-9 Rush win at Colorado (Ryan Benesch has eight-point night featuring five assists)
10-9 Rush win at Edmonton (Callum Crawford nets four goals and adds two assists)
10-9 Mammoth win at Colorado (Jamie Shewchuk scores twice and adds two assists)
2008
14-11 Mammoth win at Colorado (Dan Carey pots hat trick plus three assists)
15-4 Mammoth win at Colorado (Jamie Shewchuk scores four goals and adds three assists)
13-8 Mammoth win at Edmonton (Jamie Shewchuk has second straight seven-point game)
2007
16-9 Mammoth win at Edmonton (Jamie Shewchuk notches hat trick plus two assists)
16-7 Mammoth win at Colorado (Dan Carey leads with two goals and three assists)
2006
15-10 Mammoth win at Colorado (Dan Stroup collects six points including hat trick)
13-7 Mammoth win at Edmonton (Ben Prepchuk racks up six points including four helpers)
Record Watch: Mark Matthews needs three goals to set a new club record for most goals in a single season. Chris Gill has the current mark of 37 set in 2006 ... Ryan Ward needs 11 points over the final three games to break his own record of 74 points set in 2010 ... If the Rush sweep their final three games of the season, they will eclipse the franchise record for regular-season victories currently standing at 10 from the 2010 season ... With the victory over Toronto, Aaron Bold tied the team record for single-season wins by goaltender at eight originally set by Matt Disher in 2010 ... Chris Corbeil needs one shorthanded goal to break a club record of three in a season held by both Ryan Ward and Randy Daly ... Jeremy Thompson has set a new franchise single-season mark for faceoff wins. He currently has 134, eclipsing the mark of 132 set by Pat Jones in 2010 ... The victories over Buffalo and Toronto established a new team single-season high for road wins at seven.
Statistically Speaking: The Rush are 8-2 on the year when leading at halftime, and 8-0 when leading after three quarters. Edmonton is also 6-2 when they score the first goal of the game ... The Rush have outscored their opponents 52-26 in first-quarter play this season. Edmonton has outscored its opposition in all quarters except the fourth where they trail 44-40 ... Speciality teams will be an area the Rush are working on heading into the playoffs. Edmonton is ranked sixth on the power play at 45% (25-for-56) while the penalty killing is at a league-low 40% (27 goals surrendered in 45 shorthanded situations). Colorado's power play is third ranked at 53% (42-for-80) and the penalty killing is tied for fourth at 47% (39 goals surrendered in 74 shorthanded situations) ... Colorado is the most-penalized team in the NLL with 359 minutes in the box so far this season. Chet Konetczyn (54) and Ilja Gajic (43) are third and fifth, respectively, in penalty minutes. Edmonton has totaled only 190 penalty minutes, second lowest in the NLL ... Rush goalie Aaron Bold is tied for second in the league with eight wins and is ranked third in both goals-against average (10.51) and minutes played (719) ... The Rush are ranked second in goals per game with 13.15 and have the second-best goals-allowed average at 10.69 ... Edmonton has averaged 52.6 shots per game, and allowed an average of 41.5.
By The Numbers: Rush defender Kyle Rubisch leads the NLL with 35 forced turnovers and is tied for fifth with teammate Jeremy Thompson with 105 loose balls. Thompson is also ranked fifth in the league with 134 faceoff wins ... Zack Greer is tied for second in the league with three game-winning goals, while Chris Corbeil is tied for second with three shorthanded goals ... Mark Matthews leads all NLL rookies with 59 points and 35 goals, and is second with 34 assists. Teammate Curtis Knight is fourth among rookies with 38 points and 23 assists, and fifth in goals with 15 ... Chris Corbeil leads all NLL defenders with eight goals, and he and teammate John Lafontaine are tied for fourth among NLL defenders with 12 points ... The Rush collected 96 loose balls against Buffalo, the highest single-game total in the league so far this season ... The Rush have scored 17+ goals in three road wins this season including the recent victory over Toronto. Prior to this season they had never scored 17 or more goals in a regular-season road game ... The Rush are 5-4 against the West Division this season, while the Mammoth are 2-5 against the division and 2-4 in overall road games ... The Mammoth have used four different goaltenders this season and have given up 163 goals - the third most in the NLL ... Colorado's John Grant Jr. is third in the NLL with 13 power-play goals.
KEENAN'S KORNER
Quotes from the Rush GM/Head Coach
"It was a tough weekend playing in Buffalo and Toronto so we welcomed the bye. We were a little banged up but now we're at 100 per cent."
- Keenan on the Rush's road trip sweep which was followed by a week off
"The four years I've been in Edmonton we've never been a good team at home and we've got to fix that."
- Keenan on the Rush's 1-4 home record this season and three games to come at Rexall Place
"At this point in the season we need to play our best lacrosse. We're facing a team that is a lot better than it was when we faced them a month and a half ago so it will be a big challenge for us."
- Keenan on the Rush's matchup with the Colorado Mammoth
• Discuss this story on the National Lacrosse League message board...
National Lacrosse League Stories from April 4, 2013
- Minnesota Swarm Doubleheader Weekend Kicks off against Buffalo - Minnesota Swarm
- Concert Series to Close Fan Appreciation on April 13 - Colorado Mammoth
- Rush Looking to Clinch Home Playoff Spot this Weekend - Edmonton Rush
- Knighthawks to Deliver 'Check' Saturday - Rochester Knighthawks
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
