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NLL Playoffs: Dawson Ends Stealth's Season
May 4, 2008
from staff reports For the past three seasons the Portland LumberJax have made a second home at the HP Pavilion in San Jose. Sunday afternoon was no different as the Jax scored a franchise-high 18 goals en route to an 18-16 victory over the San Jose Stealth at the HP Pavilion in the West Division semifinals. Forward Dan Dawson had a career day as the six-year veteran led all scorers with 12 points (7 goals, 5 assists) as Portland won its first ever playoff game. The 12 points scored were a franchise and a career-high as were the seven goals scored. The win sets up a meeting with the Calgary Roughnecks next Saturday, May 10th at the 6:30 p.m. at the Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary for the right to go to the Champion's Cup Final. Calgary, the No. 3 seed in the West, knocked off the No. 2 seed Colorado Mammoth Saturday night "Today was probably the greatest game this franchise has ever seen and it's quite fitting it ended with the franchise's first ever playoff win", said Head Coach/General Manager Derek Keenan. "It was just an all-around great lacrosse game." Keenan knew early on that Dawson was going to have a huge game as it took only 33-seconds for him to score his first goal of the game. Curling off a screen, Dawson beat Stealth goalie Anthony Cosmo for the early 1-0 lead. Forward Ryan Powell (4 goals, 4 assists) and transition player Scott Stapleford were credited with assists on the goal. After a San Jose goal, Dawson curled off another screen and beat Cosmo again, this time with 12:01 left in the first quarter to make it 2-1. Forward's Derek Malawsky (2 assists) and Peter Morgan (7 assists) tallied assists on Dawson's second goal of the game. "Dan was unbelievable today," added Keenan. "He really showed what he was capable of."
The lead would be short lived as San Jose went on a 3-0 run to turn a one goal deficit into a two goal lead. Down 4-2, the Jax finally responded with a Scott Stewart (1 goal, 1 assist) goal to cut the lead to 4-3 after one quarter of play. With 2:33 left in the first, defenseman Pat Jones hit a streaking Stewart, who scored his second ever playoff goal.
After being held scoreless the first quarter, Stealth forward Jeff Zywicki broke out in the second. After an early San Jose goal, Zywicki supplied three straight goals to give the Stealth an 8-3 advantage with 10:47 left in the half. The five-goal deficit left Portland hungry to get even and it would only be one run from doing so. In a game changing run, the Jax would score six of the final eight goals of the half to cut the San Jose lead to 10-9 at the break First, defenseman Brodie Merrill (2 goals, 1 assist) scored with 10:15 left in the second quarter. Then, after a San Jose goal, Dawson scored his third goal of the half with 6:50 left. Rookie forward Peter Jacobs scored with 4:53 left before Merrill scored again 44-seconds later. Still down by two, the Jax looked to their most dangerous offensive weapon, Dawson. With 3:41 left, Dawson scored before setting up defenseman Richard Morgan for the game tying goal with 1:27 left in the half. After receiving a pass from rookie forward Cory Conway (2 assists), Dawson worked the ball into the Stealth zone before hitting Morgan for his first goal of the game. The Stealth were able to score a late goal to take a 10-9 lead into the break. Opening up the second half, San Jose scored the first two goals to take a 12-9 lead before Portland responded with its own 3-0 run to tie the game heading into the fourth quarter. Powell scored with 8:25 left, defenseman Brad MacDonald (2 goals) scored with 1:26 to play before Dawson tied the game at 12 with 58-secods left in the third quarter. With 15-minutes left in regulation, Keenan's message was quite simple. "We need to keep attacking", said Keenan. "We need to take care of the ball in transition, but we have to keep pushing the ball and not allow their defense to settle in" The Jax clearly got the message as it took only 49-seconds for Dawson to score and give Portland its third lead of the game at 13-12. The defense for both clubs took over for the next seven minutes until San Jose tied the game for the fifth time at 13 with 7:08 to play. The teams continued to trade goals as Powell scored with 6:21 left before San Jose tied the game at 14 with 5:47 left. Then, San Jose scored with 5:26 before Powell tied the game at 15 with 5:12 left in regulation. The trading continued as Dawson scored with 4:04 to play before the Stealth tied the game at 16 with 3:04 left. Off the ensuing face-off, MacDonald scooped up the loose ball and went the distance, beating Cosmo for the game winning goal with 2:56 left. Powell would put the exclamation mark on the game with 1-second left as he buried the empty net goal to give the Jax an 18-16 win. In the net, goalie Matt Disher stopped 33 of the 48 shots he faced. Notes: Portland is now 5-1 all-time in San Jose against the Stealth...P. Morgan's seven assists tied the franchise-high, which Malawsky most recently matched on 3/20/08...Powell's eight points was a Jax career-high...With his 12 points, Dawson is now averaging 6.22 points-per-game in his nine career playoff games.
SATURDAY In a game that had seven ties and four lead changes, the Roughnecks rode the last swing of momentum to a 15-13 victory in front of a stunned crowd of 15,554 at Pepsi Center. The victory sends the Roughnecks to the West Division Final next weekend, while the loss ends the Mammoth's sixth National Lacrosse League season. Trailing 12-10, Calgary exploded for five goals by five different players late in the game to win the single-elimination playoff game. A Mammoth goal by Nenad Gajic with one second remaining did little to soothe the sting of losing a postseason game on its home floor for the second year in a row. "We battled hard and put ourselves in a position to win," said Mammoth coach Bob McMahon, who guided the team to a 9-7 regular-season record in his first year behind the bench. "We just couldn't close them out when we had the chance." Jamie Shewchuk led the Mammoth with seven points on two goals and five assists, stepping up offensively in place of Dan Carey, who missed his sixth consecutive game because of a concussion. Eight others scored goals for the Mammoth, including two each by Jason Wulder, Chris Gill and Gavin Prout. Jeff Shattler and Kaleb Toth each scored three goals for the Roughnecks while Tracey Kelusky added two goals and five assists. Gee Nash took the loss in goal for the Mammoth, stopping 37-of-51 shots. The Roughnecks last goal was scored on an empty net. Steve Dietrich earned the victory in goal for Calgary, making 29 saves on 42 shots. Shattler scored early in the third quarter to give Calgary a 7-5 lead, but the Mammoth responded to tie the game on two blistering outside shots by Prout. Jordan Cornfield then scored with a perfect shot over Dietrich's shoulder to give the Mammoth an 8-7 lead. After a three-goal run by the Roughnecks tied the score at 4-4, Shewchuk scored to end a 13-minute goalless drought for the Mammoth. The 5-4 lead lasted less than two minutes though, and the Roughnecks scored twice to take a 6-5 halftime lead.
The Mammoth scored four consecutive goals to take a 4-1 lead into the second quarter. The win also marks the first time the Titans have beaten Minnesota in the brief history of the franchise. The Titans advance to the East Division Finals, where they will meet the Buffalo Bandits next Saturday at HSBC Arena at 7:30 PM. The two teams were neck and neck the entire game, with the score tied 2-2 and 5-5 after the first and second quarters, respectively. The Titans led 7-6 heading into the fourth quarter, but Minnesota scored two of the next three to tie the game heading into the final five minutes. Powell scored the eventual game-winner on a bounce shot with 4:20 left, before burying the Swarm moments later with a second goal. Pat Maddalena put the nail in the coffin 21 seconds later, giving the Titans a three-goal lead with 2:22 left in regulation. Powell finished with fourgoals and three assists, while Jeff Ratcliffe scored a season-high three goals and Maddalena added two. Mike McLellan and Brendan Mundorf chipped in with singles, while Ryan Boyle quarterbacked five assists. Matt Vinc stopped 37 shots in the win, allowing just eight goals. Andy Secore led Minnesota offensive with three goals, while Sean Pollock added two. Nick Patterson made 33 saves in the loss. New York has won five straight games and 10 of their last 12 heading into next Saturday's East Division Final at Buffalo. The Titans and Bandits split their regular season series, 1-1. FRIDAY Buffalo 14, Philadelphia 12 The Buffalo Bandits defeated the Philadelphia Wings by a score of 14-12 in an East Division Semifinal Playoff Game on Friday night at HSBC Arena in Buffalo. The Bandits, the top overall seed in the 2008 Playoffs, will host the East Division Final on Saturday, May 10th at 7:30PM ET. Buffalo will host the winner of Saturday's East Division Semifinal game between Minnesota and New York. The loss ends the season of the Philadelphia Wings, who made their first return to the playoffs since the 2002 season. The Wings got off to a quick start taking a 4-2 lead after the first quarter. The Bandits stormed back in the second, scoring five straight goals at one point. Buffalo held an 8-6 lead going into halftime. A four goal run in the third quarter gave the Wings momentum and a 10-9 lead, but the fourth quarter belonged to the Bandits as they outscored the Wings 5-1 and went on to a 14-12 win. Leading the Bandits in scoring were Mike Accursi with seven points (4G, 3A), Kevin Dostie with five points (3G, 2A), Delby Powless and John Tavares each with three points (2G, 1A), Billy Dee Smith with two goals, and Cory Bomberry with two points (1G, 1A . Goaltender Mike Thompson made 46 saves. Leading the Wings in scoring were Athan Iannucci with five points (4G, 1A) followed by Jamie Rooney with four points (3G, 1A), Merrick Thomson with four points (1G, 3A), Jake Bergey with three goals, and Rob Van Beek with one goal. Goaltender Rob Blasdell had 19 saves in the first half while Brandon Miller made 16 in the second. "This was really the first time for this team going through this," said Head Coach Dave Huntley. "We were playing in Buffalo's building in front of a tough crowd. We stayed in it through the whole game and I was proud of our effort." | ||||||
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