Go! ‘Necks! Go!

Now that the playoffs are over and the champion has been crowned it might be time to revisit the playoff format. Last year and the year before (aka, the 2004 and 2005 seasons) there where only a total of three playoff games — one division title game for each division, East and West, and the Champions Cup game.

This year, the 2006 season, since there were more teams the playoff format differed. There were two division playoff games for each division and the Champions Cup game. The format was similar to a hockey style playoff where the top ranked team played the fourth place team and the second and third placed teams played each other. Winners from those games would meet for the division title game. The division champions would then be off to the Champions Cup.
(more…)

Yesterday the official Calgary Roughnecks website broke the news that Assistant Coach Jeff Dowling has left the Roughnecks organization. Dowling had been with the Calgary Roughnecks for the last three seasons serving as the Assistant Coach specializing in defense.

During his time with the Roughnecks, Dowling leaves with a record of 23 wins and 17 losses — with 3 playoff wins and 2 playoff losses.
(more…)

For anyone that thought all of the rough play and dirty tricks in lacrosse stayed on the playing field this may come as a bit of a shock. The Toronto Rock President, Brad Watters, is being investigated may be under investigation for tampering.

The tampering charge was would have been filed by the Philadelphia Wings claiming that Watters and the Rock organization approached Glen Clark about taking the head coach position in Toronto before his contract was finished with the Wings. This potentially damaging charge comes hot off the heels of the same day announcements of Glen Clark retiring — from the Wings — and Toronto announcing him as head coach.
(more…)

Recently, a little piece of information came across the desk here at GoNecksGo.com about Andy Ogilvie and his future with the Roughnecks. It seems that the defender is calling it quits now that the 2006 lacrosse season is over.

This past season has been rough on the 40 year old Ogilvie, more specifically it has been very rough on his knees. After missing most of last season because of his knee injury and, if I recall correctly, undergoing surgery to repair his knees, Ogilvie returned in a limited capacity to play for the Calgary Roughnecks in the 2006 season.
(more…)

Recently the NLL announced the winners of several awards for the regular season. Here’s a short breakdown of which player won which award.

• Bowflex Sportsmanship Award — Sean Greenhalgh, Philadelphia Wings
• Belmont.com Defensive Player of the Year — Brodie Merrill, Portland Lumberjax
• RBK Goaltender of the Year — Steve Dietrich, Buffalo Bandits
• Vonage GM of the Year — Derek Keenan, Portland Lumberjax
• Les Bartley Award (Coach of the year) — Derek Keenan, Portland Lumberjax
• Executive of the Year — Angela Batinovich, Portland Lumberjax
• Edge Active Care Rookie of the Year — Brodie Merrill, Portland Lumberjax

(more…)

Last week NLL commissioner Jim Jennings was interviewed on CAMFM by Toronto Rock announcer Barks. During the interview, Barks asked some good questions about where the league was going and what we could look forward to in the future.

Chicago lacrosse

The first good bit of info came in regards to the Chicago expansion team. While the owners have been given a franchise so far neither the players nor a name has been chosen. Over the last several weeks there was a list of 10 possible team names that were posted on the teams website. The management was asking everyone to vote for what names they liked.
(more…)

After much debate back and forth, I’ve decided to put up a couple videos from the West Division Semi Final game where the Calgary Roughnecks lost to the Colorado Mammoth.

The first video had some controversy surrounding it but in the end the officials made the right call — even though it hurt the Roughnecks. During the game and shortly after there was a lot of talk saying that this particular goal shouldn’t have counted or that it wasn’t even a goal. As you’ll see, the ball does cross the goal plane and as I mentioned before, the officials did rule it a goal.

(more…)

Yesterday the Colorado Mammoth took on the Arizona Sting for the West Division title. In the East Division, the Buffalo Bandits faced the Rochester Knighthawks to determine their champion. The winners of these games are going on to the 2006 NLL Champions Cup on May 13th, 2006.

In the case of the East Division, the Buffalo Bandits completely dominated the Knighthawks to win their title 15–10. The game, held in the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, saw John Tavares and Cory Bomberry lead the Bandits to their victory. Of course, some great goaltending by Dietrich helped fend off the Knighthawks fourth quarter push.

(more…)

For the last three years, the National Lacrosse League has had a television contract with The Score — a sports broadcasting network. For some reason The Score wanted out of the deal early and it seems they left the NLL in a bit of a bind. Then, Rogers Sportsnet picked up a very miniscule amount of the slack.

While Sportsnet did broadcast some of the Canadian NLL teams it was a hit or miss as to which games were shown. This most likely had to do with hockey being back. Some also speculate — and I agree with it — that the executives at Sportsnet chose not to show more games because there were no Canadian teams playing. Certainly a sound decision right?

(more…)

In what seems to be an extremely exciting game in Denver tonight, the Calgary Roughnecks fought valiantly but come out on the bottom in overtime. The Mammoth will be moving on to the West Division final against either the Portland Lumberjax or the Arizona Sting — current score is 12–10 for Arizona the Arizona Sting — who beat the Portland Lumberjax 14–11.

Interestingly enough, the Roughnecks managed to score the first two goals in each quarter of the game, until overtime. During the first quarter scoring was even with both teams at 4 ending the frame. The next quarter is where Calgary fell behind, by a lot. At one point falling behind by 5 goals. Due to some hard work by the Roughnecks they managed to close the gap to one.

(more…)