Rush face Roughnecks with playoff spot on line

The Saskatchewan Rush are playing for their playoff lives.

And so are the Calgary Roughnecks.

Those teams — the National Lacrosse League's bitter Prairie rivals — close out a home-and-home series Saturday (7 p.m.) at Sasktel Centre.

The Rush and Roughnecks were in Calgary on Friday for the first game. (Results were not available at press time.)

Saskatchewan and Calgary entered the weekend series with 6-8 records and tied for ninth place along with the Rochester Knighthawks.

The top eight teams advance to the NLL playoffs.

It'll be an interesting goaltending battle this weekend between Rush netminder Frank Scigliano and Christian Del Bianco from the Roughnecks.

Statistically, both goalies have been very close this season. Scigliano entered the weekend series with a 6-7 record, 11.35 goalsagainst average and .773 save percentage, while Del Bainco was 6-8 with a 10.41 GAA and .799 save percentage.

After Friday's game in Calgary, Saskatchewan has three games left on the regular-season schedule, all on home turf at Sasktel Centre.

The Rush will host the San Diego Seals on April 13 and the Toronto Rock on April 20.

Game time is 7 p.m. all three nights.

One of the bright spots this season for the Rush has been veteran defender Mike Messenger, who entered play on Friday second in the league with 33 caused turnovers.

Messenger, who takes faceoffs for the Rush, is the only player in the NLL this season to record more than 100 loose ball recoveries, 30 caused turnovers, 15 points and 10 blocked shots.