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It was a lot harder for the Georgia Swarm to finish atop the NLL East again this year, but in defeating the New England Black Wolves 16-11 in the last game of the regular season Sunday, the defending champs showed that it will take an enormous effort to rip the Champion’s Cup out of their hands.

Lyle Thompson scored four goals including one on a penalty shot in putting an exclamation mark on a remarkable second half that helped the Swarm close out their 18-game schedule with six consecutive wins for an 11-7 record. They took down Vancouver 11-10 at home Saturday before hurrying off to Connecticut to play the Black Wolves. Georgia will be at home for the division final Saturday, May 12.

“It feels really good to win it on the last weekend, the last night on a back-to-back with tough travel,” said Swarm coach Ed Comeau. “It really, really showed the desire and character of our group.”

The Swarm jumped to a 5-0 lead but it was 7-7 at halftime.

“We came back in the locker room at halftime, regrouped and said, ‘This is it. We have half an hour to play and punch our own ticket to where we want,’ said defenseman Jason Noble said. “We knew going into the game that it was going to be on us to decide where we finished. I think that motivated everyone on our team.”

New England lost a chance to finish first, dropped to third at 9-9 and now must go to Rochester to play the second-place Knighthawks in the division semifinal Friday.

No. 1 Overall

Saskatchewan’s 11-10 home win over Calgary on Saturday allowed the No. 1 overall Rush to finish at 14-4 and that included an unprecedented 10-0 domination of the NLL West. The Rush get a bye to the division final May 10 in Saskatoon.

The Rush have beaten the Roughnecks 11 times in the last 12 regular-season meetings.

The Rush finished the regular season ranked No. 1 on offense, No. 1 on defense and No. 1 on power plays, and they were one of the least penalized teams.

MVP Numbers

Mark Matthews scored a goal and assisted on six in the Rush win and won the scoring title with 116 points, including 32 goals and a record 84 assists, eclipsing the previous mark of 83 shared by Shawn Evans (2015), Josh Sanderson (2015) and Callum Crawford (2016).

“It’s pretty cool when you can set a record but it’s all to do with the guys on the team,” Matthews said. “There’s no assist if they don’t score and sometimes those guys can score at will. They make it happen and that makes my job easier.”

“The biggest thing for Mark is he is such an unselfish player,” said GM-coach Derek Keenan. “He could care less about goals, assists and points. He only cares about wins and winning championships. He’s been pretty dialed in all year after we didn’t win it all last year. He’s had a great year and he’s a special player.”

The seven-point night upped Matthews’ career total to 600 (234G, 366A) in 106 regular-season games.

Goals Galore

New England’s Kevin Crowley led all goal scorers with 51.

Saskatchewan’s Robert Church and Calgary’s Curtis Dickson each scored 47 and Saskatchewan’s Ben McIntosh and Georgia’s Lyle Thompson each scored 46.

Dickson took the most shots, 292, followed by Crowley, 289, Adam Jones of the Rock, 273, Buffalo’s Shawn Evans, 265, and Calgary’s Dane Dobbie, 250.

Knighthawks In

Rochester’s 15-13 win in Buffalo on Saturday earned it second place. Second-year pro Kyle Jackson scored four goals.

“The boys grinded it out,” coach Mike Hasen said. “They really earned it so it’s a good feeling in the locker room.”

A six-game losing streak during the depths of winter almost doomed the Knighthawks, but an 8-2 finish boosted their record to 10-8 and made them championship contenders, which puts the stamp of approval on the rebuilding job by GM Curt Styres. Rochester missed the playoffs in 2016 and in 2017 with 7-11 records.

Key components of the Rochester revival were the impressive 89-point comeback season by Cody Jamieson and the continuing goaltending excellence of five-time goalie of the year Matt Vinc.

Hasen’s 75th head coaching win tied him with Paul Day for most in franchise history. Hasen should be a leading candidate for coach of the year.

Rochester was 0-3 against New England this season, which is something to ponder going into the division semifinal Friday.

Joey Res

Joe Resetarits of the Knighthawks scored two goals and assisted on four, giving him 100 points this season. That’s a record for American players. The 28-year-old attacker from Hamburg, N.Y., topped the 94 by Tom Schreiber last season. Resetarits finished with the fourth-best points total in the league.

“I never dreamt I’d be where I am today, playing professional lacrosse,” he said after a six-point night earned him the record.

Rookie Stars

Rochester’s Austin Shanks finished with more goals, 27, than any other rookie. Buffalo’s Josh Byrne scored 26.

Calgary’s Zach Currier led all players with 200 loose ball pickups, which is exceptional given he doesn’t take faceoffs. Next were veterans Jeremy Thompson of Saskatchewan, 164, and Graeme Hossack of Rochester, 163.

Bandits Miss Again

Buffalo’s season ended with three consecutive losses.

“We let each other down,” coach Troy Cordingley said after his team’s loss to Rochester. “We have a good team in there. Our compete level was very good but we made some bad decisions and the ball was in the back of our net. Kudos to the guys. They never quit and battled right to the bitter end. But we made life hard on ourselves after a good start.”

In 2016, the Bandits won the NLL East with a 13-5 record and made it to the championship series. They missed the playoffs in 2017 after going 6-12, and they’re out again in 2018 after going 8-10. They were 6-4 when they traded Callum Crawford to New England for Shawn Evans on Feb. 28 and were 2-6 the rest of the way.

“We have to regroup here and figure things out,” Cordingley added. “It’s going to be an awfully long offseason again and that’s disappointing.’’

400 Goals

The first of three goals scored by Shawn Evans for Buffalo in its loss Saturday was the 400th for the 13-year veteran from Peterborough, Ontario. It wasn’t a happy ending though. When time expired, Evans was sitting in the penalty box on his 31st birthday.

Mammoth Win

Colorado had lost three in a row before facing the visiting Toronto on Saturday and did not want to go into the NLL West semifinal at home on May 5 against Calgary on a four-game downer. No sweat. The second-place Mammoth scored four short-handed goals and outscored the Rock 9-3 in the last 20 minutes to emerge with a 19-15 victory that improved their record to 11-7. That’s good for second place overall.

“We didn’t play our best lacrosse that first 30 but there’s a lot of belief in the room and we knew we had to keep the momentum,” said transition speedster Joey Cupido. “The offense came alive and we really put it to them in the second half.”

Head coach Pat Coyle should join Hasen as a Coach of the Year finalist.

Fast Breaks

Cupido showed why he’s again a frontrunner for the award that will go to the transition player of the year by pulling down long passes from goalie Dillon Ward to score on breakaways for the Mammoth. Two of his three goals were scored with teammates in the penalty box. He finished the regular season with 16 goals to lead all NLL defensemen.

Rock Out

Toronto was unable to duplicate the progress it made last season and missed the playoffs because it won only one of its last four games.

The Rock didn’t make the playoffs in 2016 when they were an abysmal 5-13. They were a much-improved 9-9 in 2017 and made it to the NLL East finals. Their late-season losses in 2018 left them out of the post-season at 8-10.

“It’s not what anyone pictured at the start of the season,” said coach Matt Sawyer. “It was a disappointing end to a disappointing season to tell you the truth. There’s no way to sugarcoat that. That [loss in Denver] was a picture of our season. At times, we were real good but, overall, just not good enough in all areas consistently for 60 minutes or 18 games.”

Having the worst home record in the division, 3-6, was a downfall. The offense was fine. Only Saskatchewan scored more goals. But the defense sagged to No. 6, and allowing 19 in Denver in a game they had to win was fatal.

On the positive side, Challen Rogers scored 15 goals out of the back end and Dan Lintner, a healthy scratch early in the season, scored another four goals in Denver to drive home the point he should be one of the forwards protected in the expansion draft in July.

Back to MLL

Tom Schreiber played two games in two leagues in 20 hours.

Schreiber flew from Denver to Columbus after the Rock loss Saturday night and was in the Ohio Machine MLL lineup for their season opener at home against New York on Sunday afternoon.

Toronto was 6-5 with Schreiber in its NLL lineup and 2-5 while he was out midseason with a knee injury. The 2017 Rookie of the Year had 25 goals and 39 assists in 11 games.

Oh, the Machine drubbed the Lizards 25-13. Schreiber was at his playmaking best in earning six assists.

Goalie Leaders

The four goaltenders who will be starters for the division semifinals finished the regular season with some of the best save percentages:

Player
Team
Save Percentage
Christian Del Bianco Calgary .793
Matt Vinc Rochester .782
Dillon Ward Colorado .781
Evan Kirk Saskatchewan .777
Aaron Bold New England .775
Mike Poulin Georgia .773
Alex Buque Buffalo .771
Nick Rose Toronto .767
Zach Higgins Buffalo .758
Eric Penney Vancouver .751

Quick Draw Jake

Player
Team
Faceoff Win Percentage (Per 250 Attempts)
Jake Withers Rochester .669
Tyler Burton Calgary .564
Jeremy Thompson Saskatchewan .539
Brad Kri Toronto .534
Jay Thorimbert New England .519
Tim Edwards Colorado .514
Vaughn Harris Buffalo .479
Jordan MacIntosh Georgia .468
Brandon Clelland Vancouver .382

Attendance

The closing weekend featured a capacity crowd of 19,070 in Buffalo’s KeyBank Center. Attendance was up slightly in six markets compared to last season and down in the three that sell the most tickets:

Team
2016
2017
2018
Saskatchewan 11,326 14,921 14,639
Buffalo 15,166 15,148 14,181
Colorado 13,866 14,458 14,077
Calgary 10,908 11,622 11,847
Toronto 9,149 9,623 9,700
Rochester 7,941 6,755 6,760
New England 3,824 5,402 5,557
Georgia 4,815 3,950 4,437
Vancouver 3,751 3,206 3,507

Time Travel

May 6, 2000: Kaleb Toth’s goal with 1.1 seconds remaining gave Toronto a 14-13 victory over Rochester and a second straight championship. Dan Stroup was MVP. It was the last sporting event in Maple Leaf Gardens, which today houses a supermarket and upper level ice rink.

May 3, 2003: Toronto won its fourth title with a 8-6 win in Rochester. Goalie Bob Watson was MVP.