A pair of National Lacrosse League squads stayed undefeated this weekend, and both in impressive fashion.

The Halifax Thunderbirds earned a strong road divisional win, marching into Buffalo and walking away 15-10 victors on Saturday. The T-Birds went on a 9-0 run after Buffalo’s Nick Weiss tied the game at 4 with less than two minutes remaining in the first quarter. The Bandits wouldn’t find the net again until Chris Cloutier scored with 5:46 remaining in the third.

Mike Burke had eight points on two goals and six assists, and Ryan Benesch had six points and Stephen Keogh, Cody Jamieson and Kyle Jackson each had five. The Halifax offense chased Buffalo’s star goalie Matt Vinc twice, while Warren Hill stood tall between the pipes for the Thunderbirds.

“At times our offense looked a little bit rough,” Bandits forward Dhane Smith told NLL.com. “We need to do things outside the floor time we have together to get better. At the end of the day, we just need to be better as a team and luckily it’s only the second game of the season.”

The competition might slightly diminish New England’s dominant 21-11 Friday over the expansion New York Riptide, but there’s no taking away Callum Crawford’s performance. The veteran accounted for five goals and nine assists to move into first place on the league scoring chart and push his career point total to exactly 1,000. New England had trailed 2-0 before ripping off 11 unanswered goals, an offensive outburst that put more than enough distance between itself and New York.

“It’s an unselfish group,” Crawford said postgame on Bleacher Report Live. “We buy into each other and that’s the only way I think anyone’s going to be successful.”

Of course, he wasn’t the only Black Wolves player to find offensive success in the blowout win. Reilly O’Connor notched a career-high six goals with two assists. Andrew Kew had eight points, and Stephan Leblanc and Joe Resetarits had seven and six points, respectively.

Both Halifax and New England are now 3-0.

Late game heroes

Matt Rambo drew last blood.

The American star, fresh off his MVP season in the Premier Lacrosse League, reminded everyone how his talents translate indoors by scoring a game-winning goal in the waning seconds of regulation against Calgary. He beat Christian del Bianco on a bounce-shot with less than two seconds remaining to clinch an 8-7 Philadelphia victory.

RAAAMMMBOOOOOO

At the buzzer to win it! @nllwings | @rattmambo pic.twitter.com/x0iMVphoaW

— NLL (@NLL) December 29, 2019

Rambo tallied three points, and the Wings were led by a three-goal, four-assist performance from Kevin Crowley in their first victory of the season.

“It’s nice to get a 'W' here and keep rolling,” Crowley said after the game on Bleacher Report Live.

Brodie Merrill helped the Seals close out the weekend in style by launching a transition opportunity by himself off a Frank Scigliano save in overtime. He snagged the ball following a bounce off the boards and ran down the floor to beat Eric Penney and lift San Diego to a 11-10 win against Vancouver in the final game of the weekend on Sunday.

.@BrodieMerrill_ called game in OT

The future hall-of-famer delivers the @sealslax' first win of the season! pic.twitter.com/GWKKQOJtuN

— NLL (@NLL) December 29, 2019

Like Philadelphia, it was San Diego’s first victory of the season. Connor Fields had four goals in the game, while Wesley Berg notched five assists.

Calgary and San Diego both went 1-1 on the weekend, as the Roughnecks won the meeting between the two teams on Friday. Jesse King had nine points in a 16-11 Calgary win.

Best of the rest

Rounding out a busy weekend in the NLL were wins by Colorado, Toronto and Saskatchewan.

The Mammoth victory was the most impressive of the bunch, as Colorado notched the final two goals in a 13-11 triumph against the Georgia Swarm. Jacob Ruest scored five times as Colorado won a second straight road game against a tough opponent.

“Any time you win two road games in a row, it’s a big thing — but to do it against these two teams in Calgary and Georgia, where we historically haven’t had great results, we’re happy to have earned these two,” Mammoth head coach Pat Coyle told ColoradoMammoth.com. “It’s a big confidence boost and a great way to start your season when you get wins against these recent league champions. We’re being tested by fire, and that makes us a stronger, better team.”

The Colorado defense was able to hold Lyle Thompson, Randy Staats and Shayne Jackson to four goals combined.

Toronto and Saskatchewan both bested expansion foes, with the Rock beating Rochester 14-11 and the Rush breezing by New York in its first-ever home game, 11-4.

The Knighthawks put up a good fight in the end, but a 4-2 run in the final quarter wasn’t enough to dig the K-Hawks out of a five-goal hole. Rob Hellyer led the Rock with six points on four goals and two assists. Saskatchewan scored the first six goals of the game and eight of the first nine in its meeting with the Riptide. Mark Matthews and Jeff Shattler each had six points, while Evan Kirk made 44 saves on 48 shots.

Noteworthy

A reported 6,089 fans attended the first-ever New York Riptide home game … Curtis Dickson of the Roughnecks became the 14th player in NLL history to record 400 goals in a career … Calgary’s Jesse King left the Wings game with an injury after a hit on the boards. He was seen with a sling after the game … The Roughnecks were handed a delay of game penalty to start their game against the Wings due to a delay in the game’s start time … Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen wore a Buffalo Bandits hat in addition to his Buffalo Braves jersey before and after the Bills’ game against the New York Jets Sunday … The league’s two expansion franchises are now a combined 0-7 … Road teams went 7-1 on the weekend, including 5-0 on Saturday.

Bringing the heat for Week 17. @JoshAllenQB | @LAClippers pic.twitter.com/pFlfSGYqxv

— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) December 29, 2019

Up Next

The first weekend of 2020 is a quiet one, featuring a pair of games on Saturday. New York and Philadelphia launch what could be a longstanding rivalry at 7:30 p.m. ET, while Vancouver and Colorado kick off action out West two hours later.