DENVER — In a four-day span, Ryan Conrad’s worst professional season was flipped right side up.
On Tuesday, the midfielder was shipped from the struggling Philadelphia Waterdogs to the playoff-bound Maryland Whipsnakes in exchange for a second-round pick. He’d had six points across the first seven games of the season and was shooting a career-low 14 percent.
Friday at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium in Denver, just one day after his first practice with his new team, Conrad notched a hat trick and finished with four points to spoil the first half of the Denver Outlaws’ homecoming with a 15-9 victory.
“It was a bit of a whirlwind week,” Conrad said. “But we got into it pretty quickly and when I found out on Tuesday, I signed and jumped on the Zoom with the players. It was nice having a group of players I already knew and TJ (Malone) being my roommate made things easy as well with a friendly face. This group was so lighthearted and welcoming that when I got there it really allowed me to get a breath of fresh air and, frankly, just be myself, which I don’t know that I was doing that at the beginning of the season.”
Conrad and Malone — who finished with four goals — drove the offense for the Whipsnakes, especially during a 4-0 run in the third quarter and a 3-0 rally during the fourth. After four lead changes and five ties in the first half, the duo drove steady success in the second half, exploiting what Conrad viewed as “weakness” in the Outlaws defense.
Much of the surge boiled down to isolation situations and Maryland attackers beating Denver’s short-stick midfielders one-on-one — something at which Conrad not-so-coincidentally excels.
“We’re a very well-rounded offensive team now,” Whipsnakes coach Jim Stagnitta said. “People can’t just focus on Zed (Williams) and Matty (Rambo).”
While the Whipsnakes are riding a four-game win streak into their bye week and are likely to secure a high postseason seed, the most excitement of the night — at least from fans — came on the game’s first goal, when Denver’s own Eric Law broke the scoreless tie at 11:38.
His sling near the right side of the cage wasn’t particularly highlight-reel worthy for the five-time MLL all-star and 2017 MLL Offensive Player of the Year. But that simple score drew the loudest cheers of the night from the Denver fans for their hometown hero.
It was the first time since 2019 that Law had played at the University of Denver, where he was a midfield staple on a team that twice made the national semifinals in 2011 and 2013. That 2019 appearance was with the New York Atlas, too, the team that released him in July. To return in an Outlaw’s jersey was a special moment for Law.
“To be honest, it’s incredibly emotional,” Law said of playing in front of the hometown fans. “I’d be lying if I said this weekend didn’t mean more to me. Seeing kids that I coach, my wife, my family, seeing my brothers who flew out for this game. It’s tough to wrap up this feeling and what it means. I said it a couple weeks ago that I just feel grateful to be on this team with coach (Tim Soudan) bringing me in. It’s just felt right being back with this Outlaws team.”
The Centennial, Colorado native and University of Denver alumnus is, in a lot of ways, the face of Denver lacrosse. He’s perhaps the most accomplished lacrosse player to have grown up in Colorado and almost certainly had the best professional lacrosse career of any Coloradoan. He was drafted by the Outlaws in the MLL days and was a key piece in their three titles. Even when he joined the Atlas, he remained engaged in the Denver community, serving as a color commentator for the Pioneers and as the Director of Lacrosse Development for Denver City Lax, a youth program dedicated to growing the game and increasing access to the sport across the metro area.
The Outlaws will look to bounce back and potentially secure a higher playoff seed when they take on the Carolina Chaos at 5 p.m. MDT. That game follows a matchup between the top team in each conference when the New York Atlas and Utah Archers square off at noon MDT.
