NLL Insider

At the onset of this year’s playoffs I wrote a piece on what it takes to be successful for a Champion’s Cup run. It centered on focus and good decision-making, among other points. All four games on the weekend were decided in the last few minutes where concentration (or lack of it), acute situational analysis and players rising to the occasion lead to victory.

The Buffalo Bandits were sharp down the stretch against Philadelphia. This game was all even with 6:35 to go when Merrick Thomson scored a beauty after spinning away from a double-team. But a few seconds later, the Wings lost their D concentration when Mike Accursi was allowed to fly down the middle unattended while two Wings defenders were caught checking Cory Bomberry.

With 4:40 to go after a TV timeout, the Wings had the ball but promptly turned it over in the first 10 seconds of the possession. With 3:18 to go John Tavares was standing with the ball well outside the restraining line and looked harmless, but Kevin Dostie gave the slip to Kyle Sweeney. JT found him with a long pass and Dostie cashed to make it 13-11.  With 1:04 to go the Wings gained possession again and pulled their goalie but they didn’t handle the ball well in the 6 on 5, turned it over once more without a shot and Billy Dee Smith scored an empty netter. That was pretty much it except for a bit of a brain cramp by Bandits keeper Mike Thompson with 33 seconds to go as he attempted to score on the empty net at the other end, thereby giving Philly possession again which they promptly utilized to score the 14-12 goal. After Geoff Snider won the face-off, Athan Iannucci had a chance but Thompson made the save and the game was over.

How about those New York Titans? They really seem to be on a mission to create a Miracle on 7^th Avenue. If they can pull it off, they may have written their own Broadway script. This match was tied with 5:48 remaining. Up steps their leader Casey Powell, who scores two clutch goals followed by an insurance marker by my pick for most underrated player – Pat Maddelena. Although I didn’t have an opportunity to watch this game, there were a couple of things that jumped off the stat sheets. The first was a no-goal-night for the Swarm’s Ryan Ward and the second was the goalie save percentages – .822 for Matt Vinc and .750 for Nick Patterson.

Goaltending – it’s huge in the playoffs.

The Roughnecks/Mammoth tilt was tied with 7 minutes to go. Calgary’s offence simply took over the game, scoring 3 times in 1:24 to put this one away. Colorado, without Dan Carey and Josh Sims, was clearly not as strong as Calgary. The Mammoth were the consensus underdogs against the surging Roughnecks even though they were at home. Speaking of which, it’s certainly notable that only one home team won out of the four games played on the weekend.

Home advantage? Bah, humbug, except in Buffalo you say? Also of note in this game was the mediocre goaltending on both sides – .690 for Chugger in the Roughie’s net and .725 for Gee Nash at the other end. Still, that Calgary O is going to be tough to stop from here on in. They get a home playoff game now against a team with a worse record giving them a great shot at getting to the big dance.

The San Jose/Portland affair was tied with 3:04 to go after Colin Doyle scored. Doyle tried hard to lift his team to victory scoring twice in the final quarter to get the Stealth back to even.  But Portland had a big game player of their own by the name of Dangerous Dan Dawson , who also scored twice in the quarter and added an assist for an incredible 7 goal, 5 assist, 12 point afternoon. Unheralded Brad MacDonald also scored two key opportunistic goals for the Jax – one late in the third quarter and the eventual winner late in the fourth. Mini Mac (as he’s known to some) is no stranger to big games having been a key member of the Roughnecks in his rookie season in 2004 contributing significantly to Calgary’s Champions Cup win.

Also of note was San Jose squandering a second quarter 9-4 lead and third quarter 12-9 lead before bowing 18-16. And what’s with 10 goals in the 4^th? I would have thought this would have been tighter in the late stages but it turned out to be a shootout. Anthony Cosmo was uncharacteristically not strong in the final frame, giving up 6 tallies.

So, we saw four games that came down to the wire. Some good decisions were made by players in crunch time and some bad ones. Some players rose to the occasion and some make situational errors. Naturally, all these things are happening throughout the game, but at playoff time, they’re magnified tenfold in the last crucial minutes.

Rate This Story:

(+41 rating, 11 votes)

 Loading ...