The Money Ballers: Week 15
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Although this year’s Money Ballers looks like it’ll come down to Mark Steenhuis and Dan Dawson (maybe Dan Teat, Brian Langtry or John Tavares), it wasn’t the chart toppers that made noise in a ridiculously important Week 15 in the National Lacrosse League this past weekend.
Two words (well, actually two names, but the phrase is ‘two words’, so…), Colin Doyle.
The San Jose captain, who previously, almost two months into the ‘09 season, had just a single goal in the fourth period, has spent the last couple weeks scoring some huge goals for the Ninjas as they clawed their way into a post-season not many thought they had much of a chance at.
Over the Stealth’s last five games, which they’ve gone 4-1 in, Doyle has seven fourth period points, including a host that have registered large on The Money Ballers.
This is the first time Doyle has been on the leaderboard this season, scoring two tying goals late against Colorado on Saturday night, allowing the Stealth to push things to OT, where Rhys Duch put the nail in the coffin.
With Doyle heating up to epic proportions (also tying Shooter’s single season helper number on Saturday), Duch doing the same in the rookie column, and Tyler Richards on fire too, this is not a team I’d be lining up to face in the post-season.
In other TMBers news…
Although not much of a news flash for anyone that saw Philly’s latest power forward, Drew Westervelt, on Saturday night, Westervelt carved up the charts and posted 6.5 clutch points against the Rock (for those that don’t follow, 6.5 is a good thing and one of the highest single game point totals we’ve seen this year). Westervelt has been unexpectedly hanging around the leaderboard all season, but cracked the Top 10 for the first time all year after his phenomenal performance against Toronto. Like we said last week when talking about Brendan Mundorf, there is no way you woulda had this guy as one of this year’s top clutch ball players.
Interesting to see Ryan Powell bounce his way back onto the leaderboard so late into the season. Last year Powell pushed his way onto the (extended) leaderboard late, but kept that momentum going and was one of the playoffs big money guys, a big reason (besides Dawson) why the Jax screamed their way into the final against the Bandits. Is Ryan hittin’ his stride at just the right time again?
That breakaway clincher that Jeff Shattler ran down the court against Edmonton in the fourth period on Saturday was the two-way stud’s third final period game winning goal this season. That goal puts Shattler in pretty prestigious company this year. Only Steenhuis, Westervelt and now Shattler have scored as many as three game winning goals in the last frame of the game in 2009.
Although Steenhuis still leads the league in game winning points with seven, Shattler’s O teammates, Kaleb Toth and Scott Ranger, are knotted at second with five GWing points this year.
Big time ball players that killed the charts last year, but with just a game left in ‘09, have yet to to post even a GWing helper? Luke Wiles, Andy Secore, Ryan Boyle, Ryan Benesch, and Ryan Ward (who even led the charts throughout 2008) have yet to post any game winning points this year. Outside of Boyle, the others listed, not surprisingly, will or could find themselves on the wrong side of the post-season this spring.
Anyways, like we mentioned before the jump, it looks like The Money Ballers crown will either go to Steenhuis or Dawson, who face-0ff against on another this coming weekend. Dawson is a fourth period winner away from taking the lead, which is definitely easily doable. It’ll be tough to catch the Bandits’ MVP candidate, who even this past weekend, while only scoring three goals in two games, still managed to get his stick on on a go-ahead goal and the game winner against the Knighthawks. Surprised? You shouldn’t be.
Sitting at third and fourth in the rundown, Teat and Langtry, who have an outside shot at catching Steenhuis, also square off against one another in a likely loser leaves town game that will need both clutch ballers shooting the lights out for a shot at the playoffs.
The rest of the leaderboard…
| NLL WEEK 15 | FIRST THREE PERIODS |
FOURTH PERIOD |
OT | ||||||||||||
| TIE | AHEAD | GWG | TIE | AHEAD | GWG | GWG | |||||||||
| PLAYER | G | A | G | A | G | A | G | A | G | A | G | A | G | A | PTS |
| Steenhuis (T2) | 3 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 41.0 |
| D Dawson (T2) | 1 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 37.5 |
| Teat (21) | 4 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 34.5 |
| Langtry (T10) | 6 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 34.0 |
| Tavares (5) | 5 | 2 | 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 33.5 |
| C Powell (9) | 3 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 33.0 |
| J Sanderson (4) | 3 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 31.0 |
| Evans (T12) | 2 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 30.5 |
| Westervelt (T33) | 4 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30.0 |
| Thomson (19) | 3 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 28.5 |
| Mundorf (T29) | 1 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 28.0 |
| Prout (T17) | 3 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 27.0 |
| Toth (T10) | 1 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 26.0 |
| R Powell (T25) | 2 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 25.5 |
| Hall (T12) | 4 | 9 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 25.0 |
| Williams (T6) | 4 | 6 | 2 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 25.0 |
| Conway (T31) | 0 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24.5 |
| Doyle (1) | 4 | 7 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23.5 |
| Lyons (37) | 3 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 23.5 |
Player’s regular season point total ranking in brackets.
Weekly Leaders
Week 15: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
Week 14: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
Week 13: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
Week 12: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
Week 11: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
Week 10: N/A
Week 9: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
Week 8: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
Week 7: Casey Powell, New York Titans
Week 6: Casey Powell, New York Titans
Week 5: Dan Teat, Edmonton Rush
Week 4: Dan Teat, Edmonton Rush
Week 3: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
Week 2: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
Week 1: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
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