The Rush won the Champion’s Cup in 2015 and again in 2016 without a playoff loss but now find themselves in quite a different situation: they must win or they’re out of the best-of-three final.

So, how does that make you feel, Saskatchewan captain Chris Corbeil? Jittery after that 18-14 Game 1 road loss to the Georgia Swarm last Sunday? Downright depressed?

None of that.

“It’s interesting,” Corbeil said. “I thought it would be more stressful but it almost feels that the stress has been taken off a bit. We’ve dropped one and our backs are against the wall but it feels as if the pressure has been put on Georgia now. They need a win to take out the two-time defending champs and we’re going to make sure that’s not an easy task for them.”

Game 2 is at 9:30 p.m. ET Saturday at Saskatoon’s Sasktel Centre. Corbeil has good reason to be confident.

“It’s based on the group of guys we have,” he said. “I know how good each and every guy in the room is at playing lacrosse, and they’re all really good people with a lot of character. We’re champions and we won’t be going down without a fight. I’m not worried. I’m very confident heading into it.”

That’s to be expected considering the team’s 9-1 home record this year. The lone loss was on April 15 when the New England Black Wolves won in overtime after pulling a rabbit out of a hat by scoring three goals in the last 1:24 of the fourth quarter.

“That was a fluky ending,” Corbeil said. “You take away those three goals by New England and we’re basically undefeated at home. It’s an amazing place to play with the fan support we get. We’ll benefit from the energy our fans are going to bring. We’ll be fired up, playing for our lives. I like our odds at home against anybody. We’re very happy to be heading back home to Sasktel.”

The 18 goals against in Game 1 was not typical of the way head coach Derek Keenan’s teams play.

“There’s a lot to chew on,” Corbeil said. “As a defender, there’s no secret the fault lies on our back end. If our offense gets us 14 goals, that’s got to be enough to win us the game. That game serves as a wake-up call. It teaches us we’re not going to get away with playing 20 or 30 minutes and win. The second you take your foot off the pedal with those guys they’re going to make you pay.

“First and foremost, we have to get more physical with them," Corbeil said. "If you look back at the game tape, we weren’t hard enough on them. We were sort of making things too easy for them. We have to get on them, hit them harder. We have to take charge in our back end. That’s going to be the biggest difference Saturday: dictating the flow of play back there as opposed to letting them do that.”

Back to School

Corbeil spoke to USLaxmagazine.com from his residence in Toronto where he works in the financial industry. He’ll be moving two hours west to London to immerse himself in studies through next April towards a University of Western Ontario MBA.

Swarm Reminded to 'Rinse and Complete'

Swarm captain Jordan MacIntosh was Corbeil’s teammate on the Canadian team that won the 2015 world indoor championship. Among the losing Iroquois players in the game for gold were MacIntosh’s Swarm teammates Randy Staats, Miles Thompson, Lyle Thompson, Jerome Thompson and Johnny Powless. MacIntosh remembers the looks of deep disappointment on their faces when the medals were presented in Syracuse.

“That game was special for them because they were the hosts for that tournament,” MacIntosh said. “Those guys were key components of that team. I know it was tough for them. At the same time, they’re all winners at various levels and I’d love to be on the team that helps them get a pro championship.”

Head coach Ed Comeau gave his players his standard reminder after the Game 1 win.

“Eddie likes to call it rinse and compete,” MacIntosh said. “Rinse off the last game and learn from our mistakes.

“We don’t want to start thinking we’re the greatest team on the planet. We know there are areas we need to improve on if we want to win the series. They did some things really well to score 14 on us and they could have had a few more so, from a defensive standpoint, there’s a lot of things we need to look at and adjust for Game 2.”

The last time Georgia played in Saskatoon, on March 12, 2016, the Rush led 4-1 after one quarter and 8-2 at halftime on cruising to a 14-8 victory. Saskatchewan outshot Georgia 58-40. MacIntosh hasn’t forgotten that night.

“I remember it being one of the most challenging games from a defensive standpoint because it was so loud that it was hard to communicate," he said. "A breakdown in communicating killed us in that game. The crowd is definitely a huge component there.”

The Swarm had gone four years without a playoff win before knocking off Toronto in their division final, which makes the team’s veterans thankful for what is being accomplished this year. It’s the first league final for the franchise.

“It’s been pretty amazing,” MacIntosh said of his sixth season with the club. “Mitch Belisle is the only other guy who has been on the team this long. We were talking about how it used to take a couple of seasons for us to get 13 wins and this season alone we got 13. It’s been a long ride and we’re happy where we are right now.”

But they won’t be content until hoisting the Champion’s Cup. They are a determined crew. Saskatchewan led 9-7 at halftime last Sunday. Calm prevailed during the break. Coaches Comeau, Sean Ferris and Dan Ladouceur “never get overwhelmed or frazzled and that translates to the players.”

Saskatchewan scored two goals early in the third quarter to go up 11-7. Georgia then went on a seven-goal run to seize control.

“Mike Poulin made a cross-crease move to make a save early in the third quarter that was really big for us,” MacIntosh said. “After we saw that, any sort of doubt we had about getting back into the game was gone. The crowd really helped our momentum swing.”

Georgia maintained the lead despite a major penalty assessed to MacIntosh in the fourth quarter.

“That was one of the toughest things I’ve had to go through in my lacrosse career,” the 27-year-old Swarm captain said about fretting in the penalty box. “The play was completely unintentional. I told the guys afterwards that I owed them all one for bailing me out of that. Jordan Hall told me I’d be getting a $5 fine for apologizing. We’ve got a great group of guys. The way they handled it post-game was pretty amazing.”

Macintosh to Join Rattlers

MacIntosh spoke to USLaxmagazine.com from Lincoln, Nebraska, which is headquarters of Hudl, a leading software company revolutionizing the way coaches and athletes prepare for and stay ahead of the competition. He is Hudl’s lacrosse director. When the Swarm season ends, MacIntosh will begin his seventh season with the MLL’s Rochester Rattlers.

Most Goals in 12 Years

The 32 goals scored in Game 1 were the most in a game in the championship round since 2005 when Toronto defeated the visiting Arizona Sting 19-13.
Only twice were more than 32 goals scored in a game in the championship round: Philadelphia defeated Buffalo 26-15 in 1994 and New Jersey edged Washington 17-16 in 1988.

Time Travel

June 9, 2005: An expansion team in the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta announced the team’s name: Edmonton Rush. The team won the championship in 2015 before owner Bruce Urban moved it to Saskatoon’s Sasktel Centre after negotiating an improved arena deal in the neighboring province of Saskatchewan.

June 14, 1989: The league announced a new expansion team, the Pittsburgh Bulls, bumping the number of franchises to six. Each team played eight regular-season games. The Bulls lasted four years, winning 10 games and losing 24. They never played a playoff game. The league returned to the city in 2000 with the Pittsburgh Crossefire. After one year, the franchise shifted to Washington. It shifted in 2003 to Denver to become the Colorado Mammoth.