The goaltending matchups alone make the NLL division finals worth watching.
It will be Matt Vinc of the Rochester Knighthawks versus Mike Poulin of the Georgia Swarm in the East Division final Saturday. The bigger the game, the bigger the performance from these two veterans.
“Both have had lots of success and long careers in the league,” Swarm coach Ed Comeau said. “They put a lot of pressure on themselves to be at their best and that’s what great goalies do. It’s not always the quantity of saves they make, but the timing of saves that’s so important and both have done that in their careers.”
“They’ve both got a great amount of experience,” Knighthawks coach Mike Hasen said. “Mikey is coming off that dynamite championship year, and he’s playing well. As for V, I’m biased, but I like our chances with V in the net.”
It will be rising star Christian Del Bianco of the Calgary Roughnecks versus veteran Evan Kirk of the Saskatchewan Rush in the West Division final Sunday.
“Christian has exceptional mental fortitude,” Roughnecks coach Curt Malawsky said. “He does a great job of playing the shots in front of him and not worrying about the past. He’s a young guy we expect to just go out there and have a good time.”
“They’re both very good,” Rush coach Derek Keenan said. “One’s got a little more experience than the other but the young kid closed the door in the second half on Colorado [in the semifinal]. At the same time, we really like what Kirk has brought to our team this year.”
The division finals and the championship series will be shown on NLLTV and on Twitter.
A glance at this weekend’s matchups:
EAST
(3) ROCHESTER (11-8) at (1) GEORGIA (11-7)
Saturday 7:05 p.m. ET
Last game: Rochester led all the way in defeating New England 15-11 in the semifinal; Georgia had a bye after finishing first in the regular season.
Season series:
Rochester had a 2-1 edge.
On Dec. 30, Georgia won 14-11. Georgia had a 54-48 shots edge. Jesse King scored four goals and Lyle Thompson got three for the Swarm. Joe Resetarits and Cory Vitarelli each scored three goals for the Knighthawks.
On Feb. 11, Rochester won 17-10. Rochester outshot Georgia 60-48. Cody Jamieson and Kyle Jackson each scored four goals and Vitarelli, Eric Fannell and Quinn Powless had two each for the Knighthawks. Lyle Thompson and Jerome Thompson had two each for the Swarm, who were in a mid-season slumber.
On March 10, Rochester edged Georgia 11-10. Kyle Jackson’s goal 1:30 into overtime won it for the ‘Hawks. Fannell, Jamieson and Josh Courier scored two goals each. Mike Poulin’s 46-save effort kept the Swarm in this one.
Power plays: Georgia was 1-for-8 in the first game, 0-for-0 in the second and 2-for-3 in the third for a 3-for-11 total; Rochester was 2-2 in the first game, 4-4 in the second and 1-for-2 in the third for a 7-for-8 total.
Faceoffs: Rochester’s Jake Withers won 15 of 30 draws in the semifinal after a league-best success rate of 67 per cent during the regular season; Georgia’s Jordan MacIntosh had a win rate of 46.5 per cent.
Offense: Rochester was No. 3 (13.11 for/game) and Georgia was No. 6 (12.56 for/game) during the regular season. Rochester scored 15 in its semifinal.
We asked Comeau what worries him most about Rochester.
“Rochester has been probably the most consistent team in the league in the second half,” he replied. “They’ve been strong in all facets, offense and defense, and they’ve got a good transition game. For us, it’s really important, since they’ve been scoring in transition, that we do a good job of keeping their transition in check. And, if it’s going to be a 5-on-5 game, we’ll have to play much better defensively than we did the three times we played them this year.”
We asked Hasen what concerns him most about Georgia.
“Their speed is something we’re going to have to manage,” he replied. “We’ve got to stick to our principles and do what we do best and, hopefully, combat some of that speed.”
Shooters to watch: Lyle Thompson scored eight goals against Rochester in the three meetings and the Swarm can prevail if he can keeping putting balls behind Matt Vinc. For Rochester, Cody Jamieson scored seven goals in games against Georgia this season so his continued success against Poulin will be a prerequisite for a Knighthawks win.
Defense: Rochester was No. 3 (11.67 against/game) and Georgia was No. 5 (11.94 against/game) during the regular season. Rochester allowed 11 in its semifinal.
Goaltending: Rochester’s Matt Vinc, 35, had the second-best save percentage in the league, .782, during the regular season and he was .817 good in the semifinal win over New England. Georgia’s Mike Poulin, 30, had the sixth-best save percentage, .773.
Recent Knighthawks playoff history: This is the first postseason meeting between these franchises since 2013, when Rochester defeated Minnesota in the division final. Rochester won the championship in 2012, 2013 and 2014, lost the division final to Toronto in 2015 and missed the playoffs in 2016 and 2017.
Recent Swarm playoff history: Missed the playoffs in 2014 and 2015. In their first season in Georgia, 2016, they lost the division semifinal to New England in overtime. They won the championship with two straight wins over Saskatchewan in 2017. Advantage: Georgia.
Venue: Georgia is 6-3 at home. Rochester is 5-4 on the road.
Momentum: Rochester, with nine wins in its last 11 games, and Georgia, with six straight wins, are the hottest of the four remaining teams.
Coaches’ Corner
Comeau: “We’re playing with confidence. Our offense, which struggled earlier, has come alive and our defense has continued to improve. Even the couple of games we lost, before we went on this six-game run were on, we played well. We’ve been playing good lacrosse . . . and this is the time of year we want to be at our best.”
Hasen: “We’ve been playing good lacrosse since Week 9. We’ve been in that need-to-win mode since we were 2-6. The guys have gone through the ups and downs of playing under pressure.”
WEST
(4) CALGARY (9-10) at (1) SASKATCHEWAN (14-4)
Sunday 7 p.m. ET
Last game: Saskatchewan had a bye after finishing first; Calgary was down 6-1 before rallying to beat Colorado 15-12 in the semifinal.
Season series: Saskatchewan swept 3-0.
On Jan. 27, Saskatchewan won 13-12. The Rush jumped ahead 4-0 and led 10-5 at halftime. Calgary outscored Saskatchewan 8-2 the rest of the way but lost when Ben McIntosh scored 46 seconds into overtime. Calgary had a 61-51 shots advantage. McIntosh, Curtis Knight, Mark Matthews, Adrian Sorichetti and Jeff Shattler scored two goals each. Curtis Dickson scored five for the Roughnecks.
On Feb. 24, Saskatchewan won 10-6. Saskatchewan led 4-1 after one quarter and it was a sawoff the rest of the way. Matthews, with three, and Shattler and Matthew Dinsdale, with two each, led the Rush up front. Wes Berg got four and Dickson two for the ‘Necks, who were outshot 52-43.
On April 28, Saskatchewan won 11-10. Saskatchewan led 2-0 after one quarter and held on. Calgary came on strong, just as it had in the earlier two meetings, and scored four of the last five goals. McIntosh scored four goals, Shattler got two and Matthews had a goal and six assists. Holden Cattoni scored four and Dickson three for the ‘Necks, who had a 46-43 shots edge.
Power plays: Saskatchewan was 1-for-1, 5-for-5 and 1-for-4 in the three meetings for a 7-for-10 total. Calgary was 1-for-3, 3-for-3 and 2-for-7 for a 6-for-13 total.
Faceoffs: Calgary’s Tyler Burton won 12 of 31 draws (38.7 percent) in the semifinal after winning 57 per cent during the regular season; Saskatchewan’s Jeremy Thompson had a success rate of 54 per cent. Jeremy Thompson had a success rate of 54 per cent this season.
Offense: Saskatchewan is No. 1 (14.11 goals for/game). Calgary was No. 5 (12.61 goals for/game) during the season before pumping in 15 in its semifinal.
We asked Keenan what concerns him most about Calgary.
“The way their offense has been going the last third of the season and into the playoffs,” he replied. “They’re scoring at a very high percentage and dictating the tempo. And they’ve been very good defensively along with getting good goaltending. But their offense has really been strong.”
We asked Malawsky what worries him most about the Rush.
“They don’t have a lot of holes,” he replied. “They are strong in net, defense and offense, they are well coached, they have exceptional special teams and a top faceoff guy. They are a complete team. That said, we’ll have to play a complete game — limit their runs, limit our mistakes.”
Shooters to watch: Only two of Robert Church’s 47 goals during the season were against Calgary so the Rush will have the upper hand if he breaks loose Sunday. For Calgary, Dane Dobbie only scored three times against the Rush this season but the ‘Necks might pull off an upset if he can be as good as he was in his six-goal semifinal in Denver.
Defense: Saskatchewan is No. 1 (10.89 goals against/game). Calgary was No. 4 (11.72 goals against/game) during the season and allowed 12 in its semifinal.
Goaltending: Evan Kirk, 30, had the fourth-best save percentage, .777, during the season. Calgary’s Christian Del Bianco, only 20 and in his first year as a first-string NLL netminder, had a league-best .793 save percentage. His .760 in the semifinal win over Colorado masks some second-half heroics.
Recent Rush playoff history: Won the championship in 2015 when they called Edmonton home and repeated in 2016 after moving to Saskatoon. They were swept 2-0 by Georgia in the 2017 championship round.
Recent Roughnecks playoff history: Made it to Champions Cup final in 2014 and lost a minigame in Rochester after splitting two games. In 2015, they lost a division final minigame to Edmonton after splitting two games. In 2016, they lost 16-10 and 12-9 to Saskatchewan in a two-game division final. They missed the 2017 playoffs.
Venue: Saskatchewan is 6-3 at home. Calgary is 4-7 on the road.
Momentum: The Rush and the Roughnecks are each 3-2 in their last five games.
Coaches’ Corner
Keenan: “We’ve had a heck of a season. It hasn’t been easy. Our schedule was absolutely brutal . . . and we ended up 14-4. We’ve battled through a lot of adversity with a difficult schedule. Playoffs are always different. It’s sudden death. Anything can happen but we’re a confident group. We’ve played well against Calgary. They’ve been tight games but we’ve had a good record against them the last three years. That said, Calgary is playing really well right now with a lot of confidence so we’ll have to bring our very best.”
Malawsky: “You try to get better week to week and we’ve done that. We’re better now than when we faced them (April 28). You go through an 8-10 season and there’s a lot of ups and downs. That bodes well for something, the adversity we’ve gone through is experience in the bank. The lessons we learned throughout the season have prepared us for this opportunity.”
CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Best of 3
Possible scenarios:
Georgia vs. Saskatchewan: Saturday, May 26, in Saskatoon; Sunday, June 3, in Duluth, Ga.; Saturday, June 9, in Saskatoon, if necessary.
Rochester vs. Saskatchewan: 1 Saturday, May 26, in Saskatoon; Saturday, June 2, at Rochester; Saturday, June 9, in Saskatoon.
Calgary vs. Georgia: Saturday, May 19, Duluth, Ga.; Saturday, May 26, in Calgary; Sunday, June 3, at Duluth, Ga., if necessary.
Calgary vs. Rochester: Sunday, May 20, at Rochester; Saturday May 26 in Calgary; Saturday, June 2, at Rochester, if necessary.