Rush, Swarm pay tribute to crash victims
Saskatchewan loses 16-10, focuses on final regular season game against ’Necks
Traditionally, the crowd at Saskatchewan Rush games greets the visiting team with jeers. On Saturday night, the Georgia Swarm were met with cheers.
Paying tribute to the Humboldt Broncos, Saskatchewan and Georgia both wore special edition jerseys for their National Lacrosse League tilt.
The Rush, wearing green, replaced the name bars on the back of their jerseys with the word “Humboldt,” while on the yellow Swarm jerseys the names were replaced with “Broncos.” The Broncos’ logo was also added to the front shoulder of the jerseys, which will be on auction until April 21 with the proceeds going to Humboldt.
The support from the visitors for a local team and community prompted the 14,745 fans at SaskTel Centre to replace their typical boos with a standing ovation as the Swarm players walked on to the floor.
“It was awesome,” Rush forward Mark Matthews said of the response by the crowd. “It’s all for one cause. It doesn’t matter what’s going on out here when stuff like that is going on in a province like this.”
The warm feelings for the Swarm may have faded by the end of the game, though, as they defeated the Rush 16-10.
Saskatchewan, which sealed up first place in the league last week, dropped to a 13-4 record with the loss — they added a 20-10 road win on Friday night against the Vancouver Stealth — while the Swarm, who are still in search of a spot in the post season, improved to 9-7.
Matthews led the Rush with a pair of goals and assists, while Randy Staats had four and four for the Swarm.
Despite the loss, Rush head coach and general manager Derek Keenan was pleased overall with the performance of his team.
“I’m really happy with our effort,” he said. “I thought we generated a lot of really good scoring opportunities; we just didn’t finish.”
Their spot in the western final on May 10 is assured, but the Rush can’t get too far ahead of themselves as they still have one regular season game on April 28 when they host the Calgary Roughnecks, who have clinched a spot in the western division playoffs.
The Rush and the Swarm may have been the teams everyone came to see Saturday night, but it was the Broncos who were on everyone’s minds.
While there were no names on the lacrosse teams’ jerseys, the names of the 29 people on board the Broncos bus when it crashed adorned the rink boards, with “Sask Strong” displayed on one end board and “Prayers for Humboldt” on the other.
Those directly involved in the crash weren’t the only people recognized at the game. Before the first ball was dropped, five of the first responders who attended the crash were announced as the Rush’s Heroes of the Game — an honour bestowed every home game to outstanding members of the community.
The fans did their part to pay tribute as well. Unprompted, just like at the Rush game on April 7, the “Let’s go, Broncos” chant erupted in the intermission between the first and second quarters, echoing throughout the building and continuing for a few moments after play had resumed.
Fans also pitched in to the 50/50, which reached a total of $169,960 — one of the largest totals in Rush history. The winner took home $84,980 and the other half is being donated to the Broncos.
“Unbelievable,” Keenan said about the support. “I thought the response tonight was great from our fans and the entire community and the province. It was a great, great night.”
Unbelievable. I thought the response tonight was great from our fans and the entire community and the province.