West Division Semi Final lacrosse - Calgary Roughnecks at Colorado Mammoth

  • Written by Mike on April 18th, 2006 |
  • Filed under Games

The teams have been set for a few days now, all we were waiting for was the schedule and now we’ve got it. Almost all of the division semi final games will be played on Saturday, April 22nd, 2006. The only dark horse is the Minnesota Swarm at Buffalo Bandits due to NHL playoffs — the Buffalo Sabers first playoff game is the same weekend which means the lacrosse match could be on either Saturday or Sunday.

Our Roughnecks will be playing in the Pepsi Center and the ball drops at 9:00pm EST — which, of course, is 7:00pm local time for both Calgary and Colorado. Other start times include a 10:30pm EST/7:30pm MST start for Arizona Sting at Portland Lumberjax and a 7:35pm EST/5:35pm MST start for the Toronto Rock at Rochester Knighthawks.

If the last few games against the Colorado Mammoth have been battles, this is surely going to be the war. Since all lacrosse playoff games are a round-robin format this is the last chance for each team playing this weekend.

In their last meeting, the Roughnecks totaled up 25 minutes of penalty time and the Mammoth a close 22 minutes. One difference this time around is the possible suspension of Gavin Prout from the Colorado Mammoth. Last Saturday, Prout was called for leaving the bench during an altercation and given a Game Misconduct. According to league rules, a penalty for leaving the bench during an altercation is includes a minimum one game suspension. This has the potential to be very damaging to the Mammoth.

Obviously Prout and coach Gary Gait will be appealing the decision since he’s one of their star players. If the appeal is not heard before game time, Prout will be allowed to dress and play on Saturday night.

Keys to winning

Aside from the obvious tactics of getting their heads back in the game and getting the Mammoth out of their heads, here are some thoughts on what the Roughnecks need to focus on:

  • Let cooler heads prevail, Colorado did last game and they took the game
  • Stay out of the box — kind of goes along with the previous point but definitely worth mentioning
  • Strong defense and shortman play
  • Better — and more — passing on the offense — taking time on the offense also gives the defense time to rest
  • They have to get inside and mess with Nash, the outside shot doesn’t work well on him — at least it hasn’t in the past

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