Jax get memo: put ball in net Saturday, March 31, 2007

Portland's Bruce Alexander scores a behind-the-back shorthanded goal on Calgary's Andrew Leyshon in the first quarter of Friday night's game at the Rose Garden. Portland won 13-12 to end their 10-game losing streak.

The Lumberjax finally found a way to get the ball in the net, and the result was a win.

Thirteen goals hardly qualifies as a flood in the NLL, but it is the second highest total for the Lumberjax in 2007. The last time they scored that many was a 14-12 win over Philadelphia Jan. 13. Until tonight, they hadn't won since.

It was not all good news. Though the Jax jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the first quarter, Calgary won each of the remaining periods. Portland was horrible on faceoffs (9-29), was outshot 51-34, and on the short end of an 85-57 loose ball count. They collected 42 penalty minutes to Calgary's 25.

Really, the only things that saved Portland were Dallas Eliuk's superb goaltending (39 saves) and Calgary's pathetic powerplay.

The Roughnecks were only 2-10 with the man advantage and worse, gave up 4 short-handed goals—including three in a span of 49 seconds in the first period.

Dallas Eliuk turns away a shot against the Calgary Roughnecks Friday night at the Rose Garden. He made 39 saves.

The other bright light for Portland was the play of rookie Jed Prossner (0G, 2A). Though he didn't score, the Easton, Md., native impressed by finding a way to the net through crowds of traffic.

Portland (3-10) plays their last away game of the season tomorrow night in Calgary (6-6). They have two more home games left. If they win all of their remaining games, and the right teams lose, they could still make the playoffs.

Jed Prossner