Lumberjax lose. Again. Sunday, March 25, 2007

San Jose's Steve Holmes celebrates after scoring the winning goal on Dallas Eliuk. The Stealth defeated Portland 9-7 Saturday night at the Rose Garden. It was the 10th consecutive loss for the Lumberjax.

As an expansion team last season, the Lumberjax surprised the lacrosse world by winning the West Division title. Though they bowed out of the playoffs in the first round, the Jax started the 2007 season where they left off, with a pair of wins. However, they haven't won since.

Tonight, in their first home game since Feb. 15, they played hard against the Stealth from San Jose. In fact, they led the game as late as 14:56 of the third quarter. But they couldn't score at all in the final frame, and suffered their 10th consecutive loss.

It's not like the Jax are giving up a lot of goals. Portland's average of 12.1 goals allowed per game is slightly below the league average of 12.2.

But their offence can't find the back of the net. After tonight's loss, they are averaging less than 9 goals for per game. And they've only scored more than 9 once since Jan. 25.

In tonight's game, it was the power play that specifically failed for Portland. They only scored once in 10 opportunities with the man advantage, and failed to score on a two-man advantage they had for two full minutes in the first quarter. Worse, they gave up two short-handed goals—one in the aforementioned two-man advantage.

Before tonight's game, analysts were saying the Lumberjax needed to win the rest of their games—and have some help—to make the playoffs. With the loss to the Stealth, that looks almost impossible. Frankly, they don't deserve to.

Portland's Ray Guze (right) and San Jose's Gary Rosyski duke it out late in the Lumberjax game at the Rose Garden Mar. 24, 2007. Guze won the fight, but Rosyski had the last laugh. He had 2 goals and 2 assists to lead the Stealth to a 9-7 win.