NO KEEPING UP WITH JONES
Scores OT game-winner for Rush
When Owen Sound teacher Adam Jones stands in front of his high school students this week, he probably won’t tell them much about his weekend.
Not unless he’s asked — which, he concedes, might happen, given that he won a professional lacrosse game with an overtime goal Saturday night in front of 15,000 jackedup prairie folk.
“To be honest, I try not to talk about it too much. Some kids know, some kids don’t,” Jones — a teacher at St. Mary’s High School in Ontario — said after Saturday’s 12-11 Saskatchewan Rush overtime win over the visiting Calgary Roughnecks.
It was, in some respects, a tough night for Jones. He briefly left the game, disappearing under the stands after taking a shot to the groin in the third quarter.
And as he talked to media at game’s end, teammate Chris Corbeil nailed him in the face with a shaving cream pie while Rush forward Robert Church recorded it on his phone for posterity.
Jones gamely stood in for the rest of the media queries, even as his eyes turned red from the shaving cream.
“That’s the motto on this team — don’t trust anyone,” Jones said good-naturedly as he tried in vain to clear the substance from his face. “They’re always trying to mess with someone.”
That pie, Church said, was wellearned.
“He got his first big goal in Saskatoon. We’re happy for him,” he said of Jones, who was traded from Colorado to Saskatchewan during the off-season in the deal that sent Zack Greer south of the border.
Jones’ OT goal, off a feed from Jeff Cornwall 1:16 into the extra session, capped off an up-anddown game that saw Calgary leading 9-6 late in the third quarter before Saskatchewan started chipping away.
The victory was Saskatchewan’s sixth in a row — they’re now 6-2 on the season — while Calgary lost its fourth straight.
It’s the 10th straight time, including playoffs, the Rush have beat the Roughnecks. But Saskatchewan coach Derek Keenan didn’t look overly pleased at game’s end.
“I thought we were pretty flat coming into the weekend, based on our practice and our shootaround,” he said. “We weren’t very sharp, and I knew (Calgary was) going to come in desperate.
“I didn’t think we came in with a business attitude this weekend. We talked about it a lot during the week — we’re going to face a desperate team that always plays hard against us, with a ton of talent and skill. We weren’t mentally prepared, I didn’t think, especially early.”
Saskatchewan led 11-10 heading into the final two minutes of regulation time, but Wesley Berg ’s goal with 1:51 to play sent the contest into overtime.
The animated crowd, announced at 15,045, went home happy after Jones’ endgame heroics.
“We grinded that game,” Church said. “That’s what our team does. We grind teams down.”
Church and Ben McIntosh finished with three goals apiece, Mark Matthews collected a goal and six assists, and Jones chipped in two goals and two assists.
Berg finished with four goals and two assists for the Roughnecks, who also got three markers from Tyler Digby.
Saskatchewan is back in action this coming Saturday with a road game against the Vancouver Stealth, before returning home for games March 11 and March 24 against Colorado and Calgary respectively.