2003 NLL PLAYOFF PREVIEW (Semi-Finals)


By Ted Montour / NLL Editor

2003 Semi-final Playoff Preview

Buffalo @ Rochester, Saturday, April 26 [WB-16 TV, WROC 950 AM radio, live in Rochester]

Last week-end, the Buffalo Bandits wasted no time in exacting their revenge on the Calgary Roughnecks for knocking them out of the top play-off seed in the final week of the season. They ran away and hid with an 11 - 3 first half over their Alberta guests, and the final 16 - 9 score was anti-climactic. John Tavares lead the way with 4 goals and 5 assists, Jonas Derks and Mike Accursi added 3 each, and Jason Crosbie 2. In the Roughnecks net, neither starter Curtis Palidwor nor back-up Matt King could withstand the Bandits' onslaught, while their offence failed to put a double-digit score for the fourth time this season, against Buffalo back-up 'tender Corey Quinn, who got the start and the win with Steve "Chugger" Dietrich in civvies after a Grade 3 concussion courtesy of the 'necks' Tyson Leies in Calgary.

    


Buffalo split their season series with Rochester, with the head-to-head scoring advantage 28 - 21 to Rochester, while they were both on their way to League-leading 12 - 4 records atop the Central Division. The Bandits scored 17 more goals than the Knighthawks, while John Tavares won the regular-season scoring race (apologies for my earlier misreading of the stats on the NLL web site) with 49 goals and 58 assists to runner-up John Grant's 46 and 53.

The Bandits lead everyone in penalties and minutes, but scored 19 short-handed goals. Rochester's power play and penalty kill were more efficient and effective than Buffalo's special teams. Buffalo had four goal-scorers with 25 or more, and eight in double digits; Rochester also had eight double-digit scorers, but only John Grant had more than 27. Pat O'Toole's .783 save percentage lead all net-minders, while Dietrich was ranked 10th.

So, with little to choose between the two offences, a super-star apiece, the NLL's top goaltender in the Rochester net while Buffalo's starter may not even dress in the post-season, why do I like Buffalo? If there is a team of destiny in the NLL this year, it's still the Bandits, but this one will be close, quite possibly into overtime.


Colorado @ Toronto, Saturday, April 26 [CTV Sportsnet live in Canada, FAN 590 AM radio in Toronto, 4:30 p.m. Eastern]

The old saying is "third time's the charm", and Gary Gait and the rest of the Colorado Mammoth players are planning on charming their way to the 2003 Champion's Cup final, maybe even at the Pepsi Center.

      


After handling the Vancouver Ravens last week-end, 15 - 12, this gypsy franchise has to try to get past the Toronto Rock yet again, to advance to their first NLL championship game since 1998, when the then-Baltimore Thunder lost to the Philadelphia Wings in two straight games.

This will be the third meeting between these two teams this season, with Colorado winning both, and the third semi-final in a row as well, with Toronto taking the last two. The Mammoth are hoping to change all of that this Saturday at the Air Canada Centre.

Colorado book-ended their season with Toronto, winning their first home game in Denver, 13 - 12 in double overtime, on a goal by Brian Langtry. After giving up the first quarter 2 - 0, the Mammoth won the 2nd, 3rd and 4th periods, with Erik Miller making 47 saves. Toronto got 5 goals from defender/transition man extraordinaire Steve Toll and 2 more from Captain Jim Veltman, but offensive stalwarts Colin Doyle and Blaine Manning were shut out. Ted Dowling scored 4 goals and Gary Gait 3, along with Langtry's deuce, as the two teams played through to the final horn without one shot clock violation.

In Week 16, the Mammoth came to the Air Canada Centre with three consecutive wins under their belt, and an Eastern Division title on the line. They dominated the face-off circle with 20 of 28 possessions off the draw, Gary Gait scored 3 and everyone else (well, Langtry, Dowling, Ben Prepchuk and Josh Sims, anyway) got 2. The Rock potted a measly 3 goals in the second half, and heard the 30-second buzzer go off an embarrassing seven times, as they again failed to solve Erik Miller (43 saves on 53 shots) when it counted.

The "conventional" comparison, between Colorado's offence and Toronto's defence, can be stood on its head here, for a couple of big reasons.

Erik Miller's performance this year, after being handed the starting job with the release of Devin Dalep, has been nothing short of MVP consideration. He has made key stops against top teams' big shooters, and exhibited a consistency few would have expected, given his limited workload the past several seasons. His regular-season numbers - 3rd in saves, 9th in save percentage, second in the League in loose balls behind Jim Veltman - are solid if not spectacular, but his team's confidence in front of him is supreme.


Standout Keeper Eric Miller

The second big defensive factor is assistant coach Tony Resch. This is the man who has beaten Rock coach Les Bartley at his own game, notably in the 2001 Champion's Cup final behind the bench of his Philadelphia Wings, and even more shockingly at the helm of Team USA in the 2002 Heritage Cup. Both wins were against Bart and his hand-picked team, in Toronto.

On the other side of the equation, the Rock offence must show up with all hands, if they are to advance to their fifth championship game in the six years of the NLL. Lead by their two former League Rookies of the Year (Doyle in '98, Manning in '02), with Veltman a pleasantly surprising third in team scoring (16 goals, 43 assists), Steve Toll putting up 27 goals, and Kevin Finneran adding a respectable 25, the Rock may not have quite as many 'big guns' as the Mammoth, but their power play was the best in the NLL, while Colorado was a close second to Buffalo in the penalty categories.

Doyle was shut out in their Week 2 contest, and Finneran was not a factor in either regular-season tilt, while 30-goal man Del Halladay was kept off the score sheet for the Mammoth. While both teams had five shooters with 20+ goals, only Doyle's 39 goals come close to Gait, from either squad.

A Champion's Cup game in Denver's Pepsi Center would almost guarantee a sell-out crowd, whether the opposition were the Bandits or the Knighthawks. The elements are here in this game, and it would not even really qualify as an upset, for the Mammoth to prevail over the Rock. There are no underdogs in this match-up.



2003 NLL PLAYOFF PREVIEW (1st round)


By Ted Montour / NLL Editor

The Rochester Knighthawks are the top seed going into the 2003 play-offs, the Buffalo Bandits drop to the 4th seed and have to go the long way around to get to the final, the (Great White) Northern Division sends three teams to the post-season, Ginny Capicchioni plays in a regular-season game for the N.J. Storm, and Gary Gait cracks the 60-goal barrier, breaking his own record (57 in the 14-game 1998 season) in the process.




The Knighthawks closed their season with five straight wins, splitting their season series against the Bandits and the Rock with home victories, beating the Mammoth in Denver (backing that up with a win in Columbus two nights later), and finishing their schedule with a 12 - 10 flourish, over the Wings in the Blue Cross Arena. They averaged a third-best 13.38 goals a game, were tops in assists (18.81 per-game average), and their power play (.515 average) was second only to Toronto in efficiency. John Grant finished second among NLL scorers with 46 goals and 99 points, and Pat O'Toole lead all NLL net-minders with a sparkling .783 save percentage. With this week-end off, and home floor all the way, Rochester is poised to take on the winner of the Calgary / Buffalo wild-card game.




The #2-seeded Toronto Rock gave up their second home loss of 2003 to the Colorado Mammoth last week-end, 13 - 10, as Gary Gait scored his record-setting 61st goal of the season. Nevertheless, the defending NLL champions earned the only other bye of the opening round, although they would have to cede home floor to the K'hawks if both reach the final. They had the best power play in the NLL, with 66 goals and a .615 scoring percentage, while goalie Bob "Whipper" Watson finished just a few ticks behind O'Toole with a .777 save percentage. Colin Doyle was the offensive leader for Toronto from the opening game of this season, finishing 4th in League scoring with 94 points. Blaine Manning followed up his Rookie of the Year season by scoring a team-high 40 goals, including a league-leading 17 on the power play. Captain Jim Veltman added to his all-time leading total with a league-best 207 loose balls, and also chipped in 16 goals, and Kim Squire has returned to the line-up in time for the post-season. The Rock will host the winner of the Vancouver / Colorado contest.



Vancouver @ Colorado, April 19, 8:00 p.m. Mountain Time [CTV Sportsnet Pacific, 11:00 p.m. Pacific, tape delay]

The Vancouver Ravens (9 - 7, 5 - 3 on the road) finished third in the Northern Division behind Toronto and Calgary, taking the 6th seed into their second post-season in two NLL campaigns. Their 13.00 goals per game put them a respectable 5th in the League, compared to a 6th-best 12.28 goals-against average. Their 41 power-play goals put them in a four-way tie for 7th in the NLL (with, among others, the Mammoth), but translated into a 3rd-best .512 scoring percentage. The Ravens averaged a respectable 8,337 fans a game at GM Place, down from last year's 10,211, however, principal owner Paul Reinhart made a late-season exit, and Executive of the Year Tom Mayenknecht returned (on an interim basis) to the Ravens' front office.




Dan Stroup paced the Ravens with 34 goals and 70 points, while Chris Gill lead the way to the net with 40 goals, including 10 on the power play. "Sophomores" Cam Sedgwick, Peter Morgan and Mike Law teamed up for another 45. While goaltender Dwight Maetche's .727 save percentage was not among the NLL's top ten, he combined with back-up Scott Wylie for a 6th-ranked 12.26 goals-against average. As far as Head Coach Paul Dal Monte is concerned, Maetche is the Ravens' "most important player on the floor", and has elevated his game since an early season contest with New Jersey in which Wylie started.

The 3rd-seeded Colorado Mammoth (9 - 7, 3 - 5 on the road) finished a close second to Toronto in average attendance at the Pepsi Center. Gary Gait broke his own regular-season record (57) with 61 goals, and lead his team to the Eastern Division championship.




The Mammoth closed out their schedule with a 13 - 10 victory in Toronto, a game marked by, in addition to Gait's record, the TV highlight of the year. With the score tied at 10 midway through the fourth quarter, Mammoth 'tender Erik Miller robbed Colin Doyle of a sure goal and sustained his team's momentum. Doyle found himself on the doorstep with the ball, and Miller on his knees on the opposite side of the crease, but Miller extended his stick into the middle of the open net - a move that box lacrosse goalies in Canada are taught to make if they find themselves hopelessly out of position, except that Miller is the only U.S.-born starting keeper in the NLL - and Doyle obligingly threw the ball into it.

The scene ended with Doyle crouched at the side of the crease with his hands to his head in frustration and disbelief, and Miller clearing the ball up the floor. Rock play-by-play man Joe Bowen, a veteran broadcaster of countless NHL games for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and color commentator Brian "Shanny" Shanahan, a former Raider / Rock player and multiple Mann Cup winner who has surely "seen it all" on the floor, were speechless, except for their duet of extended "Ohhh"'s, followed by uncontrolled laughter. It was priceless; I dropped my Cheeto's and nearly fell out of the La-Z-Boy myself. The Mammoth closed out the game with 3 unanswered markers, and Miller was their undisputed game MVP, with 43 saves.

The Mammoth scored 226 goals, just 5 less than the League-leading Buffalo Bandits, for an average of 14.12 per game. They lead the NLL in shots, averaging 73.19, in short-handed goals, with 20, and in face-off percentage, at .596. They were also the second-most penalized team in the NLL, just slightly behind Buffalo, averaging 10.69 penalties and 27.0 minutes a game. In addition to Gary Gait's 61, Colorado got 30 goals from Del Halladay, 28 each from Ted Dowling and Brian Langtry, and 21 from Ben Prepchuk. Erik Miller, who became the starting goalie after the release of Devin Dalep, posted a .749 save percentage, 8th among the NLL's top ten keepers.

Jamie Batley was promoted from offensive co-ordinator to head coach, after Rod Jensen's dismissal following consecutive losses to Calgary and Albany. The Mammoth also coaxed former Wings skipper Tony Resch out of NLL retirement to join the staff. The defensive intensity, in particular, has picked up markedly, and Colorado finished 5 - 2, winning their last three in a row. Batley, a Peterborough, Ontario native and former Bandit draft choice, was an All American at the University of Maryland, and a bronze- and silver-medal winner with Team Canada at the World Championships of 1990 and 1994, respectively. In five seasons with the Peterborough Jr. A Lakers of the Ontario Lacrosse Association, Batley put up more than 750 points, and won two league scoring championships and an MVP award. After an OLA Sr. Major career that included a 1996 Mann Cup with the Six Nations Chiefs, Batley became the head coach of his former Junior team in 2000, and OLA Junior Coach of the Year in 2001, then moved behind the Sr. Lakers bench last summer.

While there is little to choose between these two clubs' special teams, Colorado, with their 'Bandit-like' penalty record, must be more aware of taking bad penalties, facing a Vancouver power play that operated at better than .500 efficiency. By the same token, the Ravens will be at a major disadvantage inside the circle, where the Mammoth dominated the League and Jamie Hanford was the top NLL draw-man. With the more productive offence overall, the Mammoth outscored the Ravens in splitting their season series, with Gary Gait scoring 11 goals and Ted Dowling 6, while Dan Stroup and Chris Gill had 5 each for the Ravens.

The Mammoth have been re-invigorated, with Batley's command and experience on offence and Resch's defensive accumen. Batley said of Resch that "he's such an experienced coach in the NLL, … and the players respond to him", citing in particular the play of veterans John Rosa, Tom Phair and Dave Stilley, another 'formerly retired' Wing. With due respect to Paul Dal Monte and his staff for a second straight post-season appearance by the Ravens, Colorado's mid-season changes behind the bench will make the difference in this rubber match between West Coast rivals.



Calgary @ Buffalo, April 19, 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time [CTV Sportsnet West, 12:00 midnight Mountain Time, tape delay]


The Bandits and the Roughnecks split their season series with home wins, in a couple of shoot-outs in which a total of 70 goals were scored. The chief difference between the two games was that Calgary's triumph got them into the play-offs and knocked the Bandits out of the top seed, while Buffalo's victory was just one of their string on the way the top of the NLL overall standings. Heading into a game they could not have expected to have to play, the Bandits have to be smarting, and at the same time glad to have an immediate opportunity for some pay-back.




Buffalo stayed atop the standings right up until Week 16, leading the League in goals and penalties, re-establishing themselves and their game as consistently the most entertaining in the NLL. John Tavares may have lead the way for the offence, finishing with __ goals and __ points, good for 3rd place in the scoring race, but goalie Steve "Chugger" Dietrich had a truly outstanding season. While he was statistically behind some of his peers, he was an inspirational presence for his team on the floor, and had one of his personal best years as a pro, steadying the defence and making key stops. He also was able to recover from sub-par outings with strong follow-up games.

Calgary, meanwhile, had set out to substantially improve upon a disappointing debut season, capitalizing on the leadership and heady play of Captain Tracey Kelusky, and hoping that Curtis Palidwor, acquired in trade with Columbus after last summer's dispersal draft, would solve their problems in goal. They lost Kelusky to injury for the middle segment of their schedule, and were inconsistent throughout his absence; Palidwor, on the other hand, did indeed prove to be 'the Answer', backstopping the Roughnecks' defence and regularly frustrating top opposition shooters.




Stats comparisons aside, I will revert here to the assessment of Buffalo that I offered at mid-season. Like John McEnroe, the Bandits have the capability to turn their anger into inspired, rather than frustrated, play. Coach Darris Kilgour spoke this week of playing smart, and shooting smart, and he went out of his way to refute any suggestions that getting even, whether for the loss last week or the Tyson Leies hit on Chugger, would precipitate a spate of bad penalties, and power play opportunities for the Roughnecks. I expect the Bandits to be at their snarling best right from the opening draw. There will be no rout, but I don't think that the Roughnecks have the wherewithal to withstand the return of Bandit ball to the NLL post-season.



DID YOU SEE THOSE JERSEYS?
Carc's sporting the new REBEL Uniforms!


April 18, 2003