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