Lacrosse Links: Disher has career night; Edmonton, Washington, Orlando and Toronto advance to finals

Boston Blazers, Buffalo Bandits, Calgary Roughnecks, Edmonton Rush, Minnesota Swarm, Orlando Titans, Toronto Rock, Washington Stealth

Lacrosse Links: Disher has career night; Edmonton, Washington, Orlando and Toronto advance to finals

May 2nd, 2010 by Sean Burns

The opening night of the 2010 NLL playoffs was a big one, as Edmonton caught its first postseason win in franchise history, knocking off the defending champion Calgary Rush 11-7. Toronto toppled Buffalo 13-11 and both top seeds advanced, with Orlando edging Boston 12-11 and Washington taking a 14-10 victory over Minnesota.

Conference finals will be next Saturday, with Edmonton traveling to Seattle for a 10:30 face-off against the Stealth and Toronto heading to Orlando for a 7:30 tilt.

Edmonton 11, Calgary 9

Goalkeeper Matt Disher had a career night to lead the Rush to their first-ever playoff win, stopping 60 shots to help end the defending champion’s season in their own barn on Saturday night. Calgary held a 67-37 advantage in shots, but Disher and the defense were able to hold them to under ten goals.

Ryan Ward was the offensive catalyst for the win for Edmonton, scoring a goal and adding eight helpers, with Dean Hill (three goals), Gavin Prout (2G) and Andy Secore (2) doing most of the damage in the goals department. Brodie Merrill led Edmonton with nine loose balls.

Calgary got a hat trick and an assist from Dane Dobbie, three assists from Josh Sanderson and a goal and two assists out of Tracey Kelusky, but could never get closer than one goal short of the tie.

Game Links

Washington 14, Minnesota 10

Rhys Duch was a one-man wrecking crew for Washington, scoring six goals and adding five assists as Washington jumped out to a 6-1 lead and never looked back in a home playoff win Saturday night.

Jeff Zywicki scored five goals for Washington and Cam Sedgwick had two goals and four assists, helping keep the Swarm at bay after the first-period explosion. Tyler Richards made 49 saves in net for the Stealth.

Zack Greer, Callum Crawford and Sean Pollock all had two goals for the Swarm, with Aaron Wilson adding two goals and an assist and Ryan Benesch tallying a goal and three assists in the losing effort.

Game Links

Toronto 13, Buffalo 11

Trailing by three at the half, the Rock scratched and clawed their way back into things, narrowing the gap to two entering the fourth quarter, then exploding for a 5-1 advantage in the final frame to come away with the victory at home.

Garrett Billings scored his only goal of the game six minutes into the fourth to knot the score at nine and Stephen Leblanc scored his fifth in the contest three minutes later in what would prove to be the game-winner, with Colin Doyle adding an insurance goal a minute later – his fourth of the contest.

Leblanc had three assists to go with his goals, while Billings added five helpers and Doyle was good for two in the contest. Blaine Manning also had a big game with two goals and three assists.

Mike Accursi had six goals and three assists for Buffalo, with Mark Steenhuis (2G, 4A), Kevin Dostle (4A) and Roger Vyse (1, 3) all putting solid games in as well.

Game Links

Orlando 12, Boston 11

Casey Powell scored five goals to help the Titans hold off the Blazers in a see-saw battle Saturday night at Amway Arena.

Boston led 7-4 at halftime, but Orlando rallied to tie it late in the third before Boston went up 9-8 going into the final period. Powell scored two straight to give the Titans the lead and Jarrett Park made it an 11-9 game two minutes later, but the Blazers battled back to knot the score at 11 each off goals by Jamie Rooney and Gary Bining before Jordan Hall scored the game-winner at 10:58.

Powell finished with five goals and two assists in the contest, with Pat Maddalena (1, 4) also adding a big night. Matt Vinc made 35 saves for the win. Eight players had goals for Orlando, with 11 winding up with at least one assist.

Dan Dawson had a goal and seven assists for Boston in the loss, with Daryl Veltman adding three goals and three assists and Mat Giles scoring one and assisting four others. Ryan Hotaling went 17-for-25 at the X for the Blazers.