Rush banking on back-to-back road wins
Team undefeated away from Rexall Place on current trip
As the Edmonton Rush’s nomadic journey winds down, the team is hoping to squeeze out a couple more drops of success.
Three games into their fivegame road trip that’s spread out over the last month, the Rush are undefeated. Edmonton has won five of its last six games overall in the National Lacrosse League and is now 6-5 in the NLL’s West Division.
The road-run wraps up this weekend, with the Rush playing the Buffalo Bandits on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. and then heading up across the border to play the Toronto Rock on Sunday at 1 p.m.
It’s a challenging way to end the trip. The Rush are a game better than the 5-6 Bandits, but will have a very quick turnaround between Saturday night and Sunday’s afternoon start against the 8-3 Rock.
“With these back-to-backs it’s always tough to talk about the second one,” Rush head coach and general manager Derek Keenan said. “But we know what we were in for there, especially after playing an afternoon game after a night game. We know what (Toronto) is about.
“They’re playing extremely well and have the best record in the league and they present a lot of problems for most teams. We’ll do our best to be prepared and focus on Saturday night in Buffalo, but at the same time we, as coaches, need to have a look at that as well. We have a quick turnaround and need to be ready to go on Sunday afternoon.”
There’s a pot of gold waiting for the Rush if they can manage to run the table on this road trip. Wins over Buffalo and Toronto, coupled with a Colorado Mammoth loss to the Calgary Roughnecks on Saturday night would clinch the surging Rush a playoff spot. Toronto has already clinched its spot in the East.
“I’m very excited about it, I’m looking forward to playing them,” Rock assistant coach and GM Terry Sanderson said of Sunday’s game against Edmonton.
“They’ve obviously been what we consider the hottest and best club in the West the last few weeks. Knowing Derek’s team I’m sure they’ll be well prepared and will give us everything we can handle.”
Through the Rush’s last five wins, the defence has been relatively airtight, allowing 9.6 goals against.
“The defensive unit has been playing very, very well and has been making my job very easy,” Rush goalie Aaron Bold said. “I’m able to step out and challenge those outside shots and I think if we keep on doing that it’s going to prevail on our side and in our favour. We have to stick to how we’re playing and just go from there.”
The Rush have won two of their three all-time meetings against the Bandits, but have never won in Toronto, against whom they have just three wins in 13 tries since 2006.