NLL Insider

Garrett Billings has this year's first extra frame snipe in the Rock's win over the Blazers. (Photo: Larry Palumbo)

With some tight games during the National Lacrosse League’s Week 2, versus Week 1’s round of blowout season openers, The Money Ballers got a lot more interesting this week.

We also got our first over-time game of the season, Garrett Billings burying a SportsCenter worthy blast from a Colin Doyle feed that sent the Toronto Rock to a 2-0 start, something the franchise hasn’t seen since the ‘05 season, knocking off both Buffalo and Minnesota, before dropping their third game against the same team they host this weekend, the Rochester Knighthawks.

Last week Rochester’s Gary Gait led Week 1’s clutch rundown, his tying, go-ahead and later game winner easily the best out of most team’s season openers last week.

In Week 2 Gait sits at the top of the charts again, again scoring the game winner for the Hawks, this time in a close one against the Buffalo Bandits at the usually pretty unwinable HSBC Arena. And just like the first time around, the game winning feed came from the stick of John Grant, whose behind the back, on the crease, everyone-thinking-shot pass to his idol Gait, secured the win for Rochester. Just like last season, Gait might not be pouring in record breaking type numbers, but when he scores, it matters to Rochester’s bottom line. Gait and Grant currently sit 1-and-3 on the leaderboard.

Also impressive was of course the Rock’s trio of Billings, Doyle and rookie Stephen Leblanc, one of the three involved in every one of the Rock’s eight goals in their 8-7 nail-bitter win over the Dan Dawson-less Boston Blazers. Doyle and Leblanc had both assists on Billings OT clincher too.

And while those performances were all about as clutch as you could hope, this week’s Clutch Performer of the Week goes to another name. A name that virtually owned this countdown two seasons ago when The Money Ballers first tipped off. That player, the Edmonton Rush’s Ryan Ward, was automatic on money scoring this past weekend, currently just a half clutch point behind Gait on the leaderboard below.

While the Rush offense struggled for any offensive traction in their first game of the weekend against the Washington Stealth, Ward still had some important goals early before the game grew out of reach in the Stealth’s one-sided 15-7 win. Before the Stealth’s offense ripped things up partway through the second period, Ward had his hand on the Rush’s first three goals while things were still going back-and-forth.

A night later, with many wondering if this year’s Edmonton offense would find any early season chemistry or consistency, Ward really poured it on with a pair of go-ahead goals while the Rush and Colorado Mammoth went goal-for-goal, and then buried the fourth period game winner after the Mammoth were showing signs of making a comeback. There would be no passing Ward’s fourth strike of the night. Edmonton wins.

Check out the rest of the leaderboard below, and check back next week to see if anyone can jump over Gait’s two week long run at the head of the class.

Players regular season scoring ranking in brackets

Week 2
Leader- Gary Gait, Rochester Knighthawks
Performer – Ryan Ward, Edmonton Rush

Week 1
Leader- Gary Gait, Rochester Knighthawks
Performer- Gary Gait, Rochester Knighthawks

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