Rush may not want home playoff game at this rate
In their sixth attempt to make it work, Edmonton’s oddest couple was unable to get on the same page.
The Edmonton Rush’s strained relationship with Rexall Place suffered another blow with Saturday’s 9-7 National Lacrosse League loss to the Colorado Mammoth.
The Rush fell to 1-5 at home and disappointed a season-best turnout of 7,172 fans.
The loss also snapped the Rush’s five-game winning streak, which came on a trial separation of sorts from their home arena. Edmonton won all five of its games on the road between Feb. 24-March 24.
Saturday’s loss dropped the Rush’s record to 8-6 and leaves Edmonton tied with the Calgary Roughnecks for first place in the NLL’s West Division.
Had Edmonton and Calgary both won on Saturday, the Rush would have clinched the first home playoff game in the team’s eight-year history.
Whether that’s a desirable thing for the Rush — beyond being a bonus home gate for a franchise that has lost money every year since joining the league in 2006 — is debatable at this point.
Rush head coach and general manager Derek Keenan saw his team outshoot Colorado 55-35 and was left wondering what else it could have done to get the win.
“I just thought their goalie (Tye Belanger) played very well, and when he wasn’t stopping it, we were hitting iron and we hit a crap-load of it,” he said.
Although the Rush struck several posts and crossbars throughout the game, none was more deflating than the one forward Ryan Ward hit in the game’s dying seconds.
After the Rush rallied from a 7-3 deficit to get to 8-7, Ward muscled his way to the front of the net with no more than 15 seconds left on the clock. His shot flew past Belanger and slammed off the crossbar and back into play. Seconds later, the Mammoth’s John Grant Jr. fired a shot into an empty net that Rush goalie Aaron Bold couldn’t fill fast enough.
It was a fitting finish in a game that was unfair to the Rush.
“That’s the game though,” Keenan said. “Sometimes you can play really, really well in this league and not win.
“I didn’t think we had our best game, but we only gave up 35 shots. I thought we ran hard and their goalie played a good game. We played a desperate team. They’re trying to get in the playoffs and they played well.”
Ward said he felt badly, having disappointed a home crowd that hadn’t seen its team in six weeks.
“We could feel the energy right from the start,” he said. “It’s exciting to play in front of a lot of people and I wish we would have had a better effort for our fans, but hopefully, they can come back and we can show them a better performance next week.”
To this point in the season, the schedule has been a strange one for the Rush, who used the five-game road trip to surge to elite status in the NLL. With a playoff berth clinched and two more home dates before the post-season begins, the Rush have a chance to exorcise their most ominous demon.
The Rochester Knighthawks are in town on Sunday and the Roughnecks are here Saturday, April 20, to close out the regular season.