Rush take down Mammoth

The Edmonton Rush just narrowly escaped collapse, scraping out a 13-12 win over the Colorado Mammoth on Saturday to clinch the National Lacrosse League West Division title.

The Rush didn’t make it easy on themselves, allowing six consecutive Mammoth goals in the final quarter. The home victory makes their road to the NLL Champions cup that much easier, with the club earning a first-round bye.

“We took the foot off the gas a little bit and they kept pushing,” head coach Derek Keenan said. “We’ve got to learn from that. We have to play 60 minutes going forward when you’re in the playoffs.”

It was the usual suspects — leading scorers Mark Matthews, Ben McIntosh, Zach Greer and Robert Church — who led the way. The quartet accounted for all but one of the Rush’s goals.

“Those guys have been pretty consistent for most of the year,” Keenan said. “I think we’re hard to play against when we have everybody contributing.”

The Rush looked like they were going to run away with it in the third. Matthews, the Rush’s leading scorer scored the team’s first three goals of the quarter. The hat trick goal ended up being the 100th point in the NLL season, Matthews becoming the first member of the Rush to achieve that milestone.

“It’s kind of cool, but we have a lot of work left,” Matthews said. “Our offence played a little weak in that fourth quarter, but we’ll clean things up for next week.”

The Rush have just two games left on the NLL schedule. They kick off a pair of road affairs, first against the Minnesota Swarm next Saturday and then they head to Colorado for a rematch.