Recap of Week 14 and Weekday Game Preview of Week 15

Week 14 in the NLL as I said before was very kind to the Buffalo Bandits. We will look at the standings a little later. But first, here are the recaps from the games last week.

Saturday

Minnesota vs. Chicago
In a weekend of shockers, this game started it off. The Shamrox beat the Swarm 15-10 in front of their home crowd to start a small two-game winning streak. The Shamrox were down early ending the first quarter down 5-1 but came back and scored 9 unanswered goals to take the lead 9-5 heading into the fourth and hanging on for the 15-10 win. Matt Roik played the whole game for the Shamrox allowing his 10 goals on 55 shots. For the Swarm, Patterson played most of the game and was pulled after allowing 11 goals. Kevin Croswell took the loss in allowing 3 goals. The Swarm have lost 4 of their last 5 after starting the season 6-0 while the Shamrox are currently at 3-7.

Top Performer: Cody Jacobs wins this title with his 6 goal performance, 5 of those coming during the 9 goal streak in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Jacobs now has 11 goals on the season.


Philadelphia vs Rochester
With the Knighthawks season on life support, they salvage their playoff chances with a big win against the Eastern Conference leading Philadelphia Wings 20-12. Rochester started with their foot on the gas pedal, rushing out to a 13-7 lead by halftime and never looked back. The Knighthawks garnered most of their success by limiting the chances that Iannucci could get on them. While he scored 3 times, he only got 11 shots off. Pat O'Toole played most of the game before it got chippy and he got run by Geoff Snider. The video of this sequence is here.



Top Performer: According to the Boxscore, this honor goes to Ken Millen with 3 goals and 4 assists. This may go to other things that you cant see from a box score, but from the box score perspective, I will give it to John Grant with 4 goals and 4 assists.


San Jose vs. Edmonton
The final shocker of the weekend was the egg laid by the San Jose Stealth, losing on the road to the Rush 12-5. The Stealth never really got their scoring going, only scoring 1 goal in each of the first three quarters. The Rush have looked good since Bob Hartley took over as coach/GM winning 3 of their last 4, giving them a shot in the last spot in the Western Conference playoffs. Curtis Palidwor takes the win here only facing 40 shots. This loss puts the Stealth into the second spot in the Western Conference, only a half game back from the Mammoth.

Top Performer: Chris McKay gets this with 1 goal and 3 assists and 12 loose balls.

There is only one game during the week in Week 15 and that is Rochester vs. Colorado. Colorado can secure a playoff spot with a win against either Rochester or Buffalo this week. The Mammoth have fallen as of late winning only 1 of their last 5. But because of the smaller Western Conference and the lack of good teams there, Colorado still holds the top spot there. The Knighthawks on the other hand are playing for their playoff lives. They are 5-6 which puts them at 6th spot in the Eastern Conference, a game and a half back from the 4th place Bandits. The schedule does not look all that good for the Knighthawks either because in their 5 games left they face the top team in the West and in the East it is Toronto, Buffalo, New York, and Minnesota, all teams trying to jockey for position in the playoff race as well. The Knighthawks do have a chance and now is a good time to start because they are .500 on the road.

Here are the Standings for the Eastern and Western Conferences. The Mammoth and Stealth can clinch playoff spots with wins this week.

Eastern Conference
1. Philadelphia (7-3)
2. Minnesota (7-4, .5 game back)
3. Toronto (7-4, .5 game back)
4. Buffalo (7-5, 1 games back)
5. New York (6-5, 1.5 games back)
6. Rochester (5-6, 2.5 games back)
7. Chicago (3-7, 4 games back)

Western Conference
1. Colorado (6-4)
2. San Jose (6-5, .5 game back)
3. Portland (4-7, 2.5 games back)
4. Calgary (4-8, 3 games back)
5. Edmonton (3-7, 4 games back)