NLL Insider

Cam Sedgwick buried a fourth period game winner against the Colorado Mammoth. (Photo: Stealth)

A bit of a slow week as far as Money Baller points go. Outside of some good back-and-forth in West rivalries via Edmonton’s win in The Battle of Alberta and Washington’s fifth straight W in their scrap with Colorado, the rest of the weekend’s National Lacrosse League’s Week 4 tilts didn’t see a lot of clutch scoring, a teams paid dearly.

In fact, the first eleven ball players on the leaderboard this week are all from the West, Ryan Ward taking the top spot for the first time in 2010, the Mammoth’s Jamie Shewchuk (currently third) at the top of the rundown last week. Although there wasn’t a whole lot to go off of, who takes this week’s Clutch Performer of the Week? Find out, after the jump.

Even though Jeff Zywicki took game MVP mention vs. Colorado, and sits tied for fourth on the leaderboard, we’re actually giving the Clutch Performer of the Week nod to the guy he’s knotted up with in the countdown (found below). Zywicki’s teammate and the ball player tied with him in The Money Ballers, Stealth forward and assistant captain, Cam Sedgwick.

Sedgwick had just three points in the Colorado win, but all three mattered, large. First, he got the Stealth on the board in the first period after an almost nine minute team scoring draught that Washington hadn’t really experienced over their first four wins this winter (Stealth had averaged just 2:36 to score their first previous to Week 4). Then he helped setup the tying goal under a minute before halftime, obviously huge going into the break after trailing for almost the entire opening two quarters. And then, the cherry on top, Sedgwick buried the fourth period winner with only 90 seconds left on the game clock, a hole too big for the Mammoth to climb out of (although that 2 minute “roughing” minor to Bruce Murray also didn’t help Colorado’s cause).

Not a whole lot else in the clutch department to talk about this past week, outside of Ward claiming that top spot, his go-ahead goal against Calgary enough to push him past Shewchuk and Cory Conway.

One email we got last week was “Why are there no Toronto Rock players in The Money Ballers?”. Outside of Toronto’s OT win over Boston, they’ve been involved in some blowout type scores, this past weekend on the wrong side of a 16-8 thumping against the same team they dominated a week before, the Rochester Knighthawks, who themselves have had issues digging out of deep trailing periods (see games vs. Toronto & Orlando).

On the other hand, a team like the 5-0 Stealth, who’ve been involved in blowouts and close-ones in 2010, have had their forward cast respond through the likes of Zywicki, Sedgwick, Lewis Ratcliff, Luke Wiles and Rhys Duch, all found on the leaderboard below. Although the Rock deservedly sit at the top of the East standings, they’ve yet to get that responsive scoring punch teams like Washington or even Edmonton have got this winter. With a doubleheader this weekend in two always difficult division battles against Philadelphia and Buffalo, the Rock’s ability to battle back on the scoresheet will likely be tested. Will they respond after Week 4’s first loss?

The leaderboard a month into the NLL season…

Players regular season scoring ranking in brackets

Week 4
Leader – Ryan Ward, Edmonton Rush
Performer – Cam Sedgwick, Washington Stealth

Week 3
Leader – Jamie Shewchuk, Colorado Mammoth
Performer – Jamie Shewchuk, Colorado Mammoth

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

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

Rate This Story:

(+1 rating, 9 votes)

 Loading ...