Sting And Stealth Set To Clash In West Division Championship
April 26, 2007 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Arizona Sting News Release
This Saturday night, Jobing.com Arena will bear witness to a spectacle fraught with awesomeness, as the Arizona Sting and San Jose Stealth will do battle to determine supremacy in the National Lacrosse League's West Division.
"We're not going to be satisfied with anything less than a victory on Saturday," said Sting defenseman Bruce Codd. "We know that San Jose has a very strong team, but we're confident in our ability to play well in big games and we love playing on our home floor. Our fans have been really great all season long and hopefully we can pull out a big win for them this weekend."
Arizona defeated the Stealth twice during the regular season, outscoring their perennial rivals by a combined score of 24-20 in wins in northern California (January 13) and Glendale (March 31). The Sting are now 7-3 versus San Jose all-time, and have won their past six head-to-head matches dating back to January of 2005.
Despite having accrued substantial success versus San Jose in the past, Sting Head Coach/GM Bob Hamley is very aware of the skill possessed by the 2007 version of the Stealth, and is by no means taking Saturday night's title match lightly.
"The Stealth are probably the hottest team in the West right now," said Hamley in Wednesday's pre-game press conference. "Full credit to them - they deserve to be here and we're looking forward to the game on Saturday. There have been some great games played between these two teams in the past few seasons, and I fully expect this game to be highly competitive as well."
With last weekend's upset win over Colorado, the Stealth have now won nine of their past eleven contests after starting the season 1-5. Colin Doyle, a five-time NLL Champion, registered 10 points (1G-9A) in last Saturday's win, and sophomore forward Jeff Zwicki tallied seven goals against the Mammoth, including the game-winner in overtime.
"Jeff is a great player," said Stealth Head Coach Walt Christiansen. "He has great hands, agility, and vision, and when you put those tools together along with a tenacious work ethic, he's really hard to stop out there."
Coach Hamley echoed his counterpart's sentiments in reference to the dynamic abilities of San Jose's top goal producer of 2007.
"(Jeff) Zwicki is a natural goal scorer," said Hamley. "You can never really completely shut down a guy with natural ability like that over the course of an entire game, but our defense has done a good job of containing the oppositions' big guns all season long, and we're confident that they'll perform well on Saturday."
The San Jose defense, meanwhile, is anchored by star net minder Anthony Cosmo. Cosmo led the NLL in G.A.A. this year, posting a mark of 10.22. The 29-year old goalie's .792 save percentage was also the best in the league.
"Coz is definitely a world class goalie," said Sting forward Dan Dawson, who played with the San Jose keeper on the Victoria Shamrocks of the Western Lacrosse Association last summer. "We really respect his abilities and he has multiple championships for a reason - he knows how to win. We need to be very selective with our shots on offense and utilize the clock to our advantage on Saturday in order to be successful against him. They're offense will have the exact same problems against our goalie though, so it will definitely be a very tight game."
Against Calgary last weekend, All-Star goalie Rob Blasdell was an absolute wall in net for the Sting, shutting the Roughnecks' talented forwards down with several spectacular saves in the fourth quarter as Arizona pulled out a 13-9 win at the Pengrowth Saddledome. The Riggers failed to score in the game's final 18 minutes that night, as their season came to an end on their home floor at the hands of the Blasdell and the Sting.
"Blazer has been stellar for us all season long," said Coach Hamley. "He's a very dependable goalie that comes up with timely saves for us, so there's not much more you can ask for. We have all the faith in the world in him."
Arizona's offense made use of a balanced attack in Saturday's semifinal match in Calgary, with seven player tallying goals in the victory. Derek Malawsky (2G-4A) and Craig Conn (1G-5A) led the way with six points each at the Saddledome, while Dan Dawson and Curt Malawsky both tallied hat tricks in the win. Defenseman Scott Self, not known for his scoring ability, registered 2G-3A-5P on Saturday - his highest point total in over one hundred career games (playoffs and regular season).
All things considered, the Sting appear to be firing on all cylinders going into their second round tilt with the Stealth. Meanwhile, San Jose is playing their best lacrosse in years. With both teams clearly poised to do whatever it takes to earn a berth in the Champion's Cup Final, the preliminary forecast for conditions inside Jobing.com Arena on Saturday night call for a 100% chance of excitement.
Game time on Saturday is set for 7:30pm. Tickets are available through the Jobing.com Arena box office or by calling 623-842-GOAL.
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National Lacrosse League Stories from April 26, 2007
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- NLL scores content deal with YouTube - NLL
- Sting And Stealth Set To Clash In West Division Championship - Arizona Sting
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