NLL Insider

Can the Stealth ring off another upset in the post-season? (Photo: Matt J. Wiater)

Former National Lacrosse league head coach, and current NLL Insider contributor, Jeff Dowling, takes a closer look at this weekend’s Division Finals, breaking down what teams did right this past weekend to get to the Cup semis, what to expect on the floor this weekend and why he has some vested interest with every final four team this year.

THE EAST

(1) New York Titans vs. (2) Buffalo Bandits

Two close games last weekend in the East.  Expect another one this weekend.

New York was down and pretty well out against Rochester in the fourth quarter.  Rochester was up by two when Casey Powell was called for goalie interference.  Marginal is the term that comes to mind.  I thought NY caught a break though as Pat Merrill deserved at least two and possibly a ten for his arguing of the call.  Pat is a vet that needs to keep his emotions in check.  While he didn’t get called for verbal abuse of officials, he put his team down two men for an unnecessary punch to the head of Jason Henhawk.  Matt Vinc played hero long enough for Powell to change into his Superman costume, scoring the next three goals to win the game.  Oh, and he also was the player that was tackled to set up the power-play at the end of regulation.  A move that left the referees no choice, but to make the call.

Buffalo once again got stellar goaltending from the Monster and clutch goals from who else, JT and Steenhuis.  Kudos to Boston and Tom Ryan for a great season from an expansion team.  They got it back to 7’s at the end of the third, but just didn’t have enough to get the lead back.  First glance at the stat line is that Dawson had seven assists on eight goals.  You look at that and you think, wow, Buffalo must have been doubling all day, trying to keep him from shooting but allowing Dawson to hit the open man.  The other key stat, Dan had 12 shots.  That’s good goaltending and good defense, forcing him into some bad shots.

I hate when I hear the NFL analysts talk about playoff games between teams that played twice during the regular season.  They always talk about how difficult it is to win three games versus one opponent.  Why?  If you were good enough to win the first two, why shouldn’t you be bale to win the third?  These are two teams coming in with a chip on their shoulder.  Buffalo ended NY’s season last year with a dominating win in the Eastern Final.  Buffalo’s last playoff loss was in 2007 to a team coached by Ed Comeau!  Expect to see the best players be the best in this game as Monster, Vino, JT, CP, Brendan Mundorf and Steenhuis will all do what they do best.  The key will be the play of guys that need to step up.  Kevin Dostie and Roger Vyse didn’t score last game.  One or both needs to find the back of the net to take some pressure off of JT.  Same goes for Pat Maddalena and Jordan Hall.  No goals from them despite 19 shots. 

Looking at matchup’s again, Billy Dee will likely become very close with Casey this weekend. Maybe they can discuss Casey’s summer plans and convince him to play more in Six Nations this year!  On the other side, Dave Stilley did a great job on Gary Gait, but I doubt he gets matched up on either of Buffalo’s studs.  That would go to John Orsen and Greg Peyser if they were healthy.  I think we’ll see an athletic player like Bigas or Ammann on JT and look for Rory Smith to wait in the weeds for a big hit on Steenhuis.  Another key will be face-offs.  Buffalo will treat Stephen Peyser like Geoff Snider and will not let NY get any good opportunities from the dot.

THE WEST

(1) Calgary Roughnecks vs. (3) San Jose Stealth 

The games last week in the West were not nearly as close as the Eastern games, but entertaining nonetheless. 

Calgary continued to get good goaltending behind their pressure defense.  They are really playing the system well and are keeping teams to low percentage shots.  Colorado wasn’t much competition in this game and while Steve Govett and Bob McMahon won’t be using them as an excuse, the injuries must be noted.  I know they didn’t lose two big name scorers like Rochester did, but they lost most of the backend heart and soul.  While Andrew Leyshon had a good year, Calgary picked him apart early and he wasn’t able to recover.  Curtis Palidwor came in and played great but the offense was never able to get things going.  Calgary’s offense was led again by Dane Dobbie.  I know going into this season, people looked at the lack of size of the lefties and thought that could be an issue.  It’s not!  Dobbie and Sanderson look like they have been playing together for years.

Portland started an obviously ailing Matt Disher and while he made a couple of good saves in the first quarter, he was not moving the way he needs to to be effective.  Matt Flindell came in and was at the mercy of San Jose’s offense and the refs for one goal.  As being discussed on the MB, with SJ leading 7-5 Cam Sedgwick was by himself in front of Flindell.  As he shot, his momentum carried him through the crease.  Flindell made the save, but the ball ended up behind his net.  Sedgy grabbed the loose ball from behind and reached around to score.  No Goal!  Somehow both referees missed the fact that Sedgy went through the crease and then grabbed the ball.  Keenan threw the flag even though this missed call was not challengeable.  Bottom line, SJ got scoring from all over the place, with hat tricks from the three right handers on offense.  Colin Doyle had seven assists and two goals on the weekend.  He only shot the ball four times.  San Jose’s offense runs through Doyle and he is smart enough to take what is given to him.  If teams dare him to shoot, he can.  If they take that away, he hits the open man.

See what I wrote above about beating a team three times in one season.  Calgary is firing on all cylinders and so is San Jose.  Goaltending will likely become the difference in this one.  Tyler Richards played amazing to get the Stealth to the post-season, but has struggled since they clinched.  I’d expect that T Rich gets the start again with Matt King in the pipes for Calgary.  Both goalies will be tested a lot and both defenses will have their hands full.  Martin and Holmes will be expected to slow down the Toth/Kelusky combo and I’d expect a guy like Sorensen will be matched up with Shooter.  Calgary on the other hand will try to stick to their pressure defense and not worry about match-ups.  If that defense breaks down, they will have trouble with big players like Doyle and Rail.

This will be an interesting weekend for me.  While I have not been on as many NLL teams as my brother, I do have a closet full of NLL gear.  All four logos competing this weekend are among them!

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