NLL Insider

The Beat

Stealth top Mammoth 11-6 to win title, Calgary downs Edmonton 12-8

It was just over five minutes into the third quarter when Colorado’s Brian Langtry drilled in a powerplay marker to tie the game at 6 apiece and set the stage for a bitter battle to the end for the Western crown. Except that Anthony Cosmo had other plans.

Posting nearly 20 shutout minutes to end the game, Cosmo secured his end of the floor while the San Jose Stealth scored five to end the game 11-6 with the first division title in franchise history.

Colin Doyle had two goals and seven assists, Cam Sedgwick chipped in two and three, Jeff Zywicki three and one and Gary Rosyski two and two. Cosmo made 48 saves. For the Mammoth, Langtry and Jamie Shewchuk had two goals and two assists each.

• Stealth strikes early: Denver Post
• Stealth wins division title: Mercury News

The Calgary Roughnecks will take a three-game winning streak into the postseason after dropping the Edmonton Rush 12-8 at Rexall last night.

Curt Malawsky had four goals and one assist while Josh Sanderson contributed one and three. Chris Seller, Kaleb Toth and Scott Ranger added three points apiece. Steve Dietrich and Pat Campbell split time in net, with Dietrich allowing five goals and Campbell three. Mike Hominuck had three goals and two assists for the Rush.

• Another rough finish: Edmonton Sun
• Committed doesn’t mean contented: Edmonton Sun
• Roughnecks focus on Mammoth task: Calgary Herald
• Riggers streak into playoffs: Calgary Sun

The Beat

Playoff Game Tonight

Win and Rochester is in the playoffs; lose and they are out. New York also needs to win on Saturday in order to make the playoffs, or if they lose, the Titans will have to wait and hope Philadelphia loses the following day. Rochester, NY and Philly all control their playoff lives.

Obviously the Rochester – New York game means a lot to both teams, and we’ve already heard the clichés, so let’s take a quick look at the stats heading into this weekend’s game.

The game kicks off tonight at 8:00 p.m. at Madison Square Garden. It will be broadcast live on wysl1040.com and B2 Networks.

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The Beat

Your Saturday Headlines

• They’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of this headline this year: season’s on the line tonight for Knighthawks D&C
• Roughnecks using tonight’s match-up to prepare for playoffs: Calgary Sun
• Similar headline, different story: Calgary Herald
• Mammoth and LaxFest steal Denver spotlight this weekend: Denver Post
• A win of their own and a little extra help would land the Bandits home-floor advantage throughout the playoffs: Buffalo News
• St. Catharines Athletics get a new pair of coaches: St. Catharines Standard
• Have a lengthy lacrosse career and you might end up with a bobblehead, that’s just a risk you have to take: yorkregion.com

B.C. Junior A

Jr. A Nanaimo Timbermen get fancy

It seems like only yesterday I told you that the Portland Lumberjax plaid third was unofficially and unscientifically voted the fan favourite special edition jersey. It’s more impressive if you skip over the unofficially and unscientifically part, but nevertheless the BC Junior A Nanaimo Timbermen are following in the Jax’s big, tree-chopping footsteps and have unveiled their own plaid third. I’d kind of hoped I could stop complimenting plaid so much after moving away from Northern Ontario, but this time I’m not standing in a bowling alley on prom night so I say with no shame whatsoever: nice going guys. Check out that collar!

The T-men are heading into just their fourth season in BCJALL and in addition to wanting to build on last year’s success on the floor–which included five regular season wins and a trip to the playoffs–they’re looking to build on their success in the stands and increase fan interest. Will a wacky third jersey help with that? Only time will tell, but I do know there is at least one person looking to order one with a CAPTAIN SUPER CHAMP name plate on the back. It’s for a friend.

It might be worth noting that while the T-men’s plaids came out later than Portland’s, the idea was actually conceived during a road trip last season. It’s definitely worth noting that Junior T-men graduate Ryan Clark is going to be playing a big role on the senior team.

The Beat

Chicago Shamrox top Minnesota Swarm 12-10

It was too little too late in terms of playoffs, but the Chicago Shamrox’s midseason moves have been paying big dividends for the team and tonight was no exception as Brad Self and Matt Roik dominated opposite ends of the floor to lead Chicago to a 12-10 win over the Minnesota Swarm.

Self thumped in four goals and one assist to lead the offense while Jason Clark and Cody Jacobs contributed two goals each. Roik stopped 53 of 63 and shut down the Swarm for over 20 minutes in the first and second quarters while the Shamrox stormed back from a 4-0 deficit to take a 7-4 lead at the half.

The Minnesota Swarm received offensive output from nine different scorers with Keith Cromwell, Dan Marohl, Ryan Ward and Andy Secore contributing three points apiece. The Swarm will get another crack at securing a home playoff game tonight at the Sears Center in Chicago.

NLL Insider

NLL: Shanny’s Picks for Week 18

 Ok we can finally say it. This is the most important weekend of the NLL regular season. In the West the San Jose Stealth and Mammoth have leapfrogged each other back and forth all year but tomorrow’s game in San Jose will finally determine who takes first place for the season. Of course in the East we have a possibility of all the contenders finishing in a five way tie. Minnesota and Buffalo each have a playoff spot locked up but home floor is on the line. New York, Philly and Rochester are all fighting for their playoff lives – even though first place is still a possibility for all of them.

I’m on a flight to San Jose while I’m writing this so it will get published after the Minnesota game but I promise – no cheating. (I’m also missing my beloved New York Rangers as they open against the Penguins)

Let’s get to the predictions. READ MORE »

Uncategorized

Scoop one of a kind

Sports writers hate cliches.
Loathe them, in fact.
You know the ones I’m talking about: We have to play a full 60 minutes; the bounces just didn’t go our way; we have to give it 110% (which never made sense to me because if you’re going to do the impossible and provide more than 100%, why not say something sexier like 6,000%).
However, when it comes to Jim Veltman perhaps nothing rings truer than the mother of all sports cliches: He does all the little things right.
He does everything right, for that matter.

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NLL Insider

Casey Powell In, Ryan Benesch Out… Again

Couple rumours making the rounds today just a few hours before week 18 officially kicks off in Minnesota.

One true, the other bogus.

The first has New York Titans forward Casey Powell sitting out this weekend’s beyond important clash against the Rochester Knighthawks on Saturday night.

Powell, who missed the third and fourth periods against Philadelphia last week due to being extremely dehydrated, is supposed to be 100% for this weekend’s tilt as per New York Head Coach Adam Mueller earlier this week.

New York’s leading scorer and MVP hopeful had a massive showing in the Titans’ previous game against Rochester this season, scoring a hat trick and collecting six assists in his team’s 14-11 win against the Knighthawks. READ MORE »

NLL Insider

NLL is on your tube

It seems a couple of our National Lacrosse League games this weekend got the shift because of scheduling conflicts, the king of all bummers being that the Rock-Wings game was moved to Sunday afternoon. That means that tilt won’t be on TV and that’s a real shame, since Jim Veltman’s final National Lacrosse League game as a player won’t be on the tube.

You can still catch it on the B2 network, like all the other games, and we still have one game that’s gonna be on the air and it should be a pretty good run. Saturday’s Mammoth-Stealth game in San Jose is set to air live at 3 p.m. Eastern time. CSN West is gonna carry the game live on DirecTV (Ch. 656) and Dish Network (Ch. 409). In Denver, the game will be on a tape-delay at 8:30 Eastern time. And that’ll be on Altitude, which is Ch. 644 on DirecTV and Ch. 410 on the Dish Network.

• Nikki or Crystal? Get your vote in today: NLLInsider.com
• Take the NLL Offensive Challenge: WingsZone.com

NLL Insider

NLL Insider Picks: Week 18

Chavez’s furious charge was the most impressive thing I’ve seen in a long time, but now it more or less just highlights how far behind he was.

This weekend’s lines:
Friday
CHI @ MIN (-3.5)
COL (-1.5) @ SJ
Saturday
POR @ BUF (-3.5)
ROC (-1.5) @ NY
MIN (-2.5) @ CHI
CAL (-3.5) @ EDM
Sunday
PHI (-2.5) @ TOR

Picks after the jump.
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