NLL Divisional Semifinals Showcase Sportexe Synthetic Turf, Four Teams Advance

April 23rd, 2007

A look back at the opening round of the 2007 Champion’s Cup Playoffs

April 23, 2007 Courtesy NLL.com

NEW YORK—Seven of eight teams featuring Sportexe synthetic turf systems advanced to the opening round of the National Lacrosse League 2007 Champion’s Cup series last week. Sportexe, the exclusive turf provider for the NLL, was showcased in three of the four divisional semifinal games with Sportexe clients Rochester, Colorado and Calgary playing host.

The Rochester Knighthawks improved their league best record to 15-2 this season, adding a playoff victory on Friday, and improved their second longest winning streak in NLL history to 13 games with a hard fought 10-6 win over the Toronto Rock on Friday. Rochester scored two late empty-net goals to give the Knighthawks an extra cushion at the end of the game and making the game seem more lopsided than it really was.

“We knew we were in for a dogfight,” Rochester’s Mike Accursi told Sal Maiorana of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. Accursi scored three goals to lead the Knighthawks to a hard fought victory. Despite being heavily favored, Rochester wasn’t looking past the Rock.

“They have a lot of veterans who have played in a lot of big games. They were talking in the papers in Toronto that we should win by 10.

“We knew they were just playing it up for the press because they’re a good team. They were trying to make us overconfident, but we knew they’d bring their best,” Accursi told the Democrat & Chronicle.

Rochester defender Pat Cougevan agreed with Accursi. “They were definitely sandbagging us because we know they’re a great team. They played well tonight and we were kind of lucky to get by.”

“Credit to them, they had an opportunity to be in the playoffs and they played a great game,” Knighthawks coach Ed Comeau told Maiorana.

Toronto finished the season 6-11, including the playoff loss.

The San Jose Stealth will be making their first ever appearance in the Western Divisional Final after a 15-14 come from behind overtime victory over the Colorado Mammoth this weekend. In their first playoff appearance since 2004, the Stealth fed off of strong performances by goaltender Anthony Cosmo and forward Jeff Zywicki to defeat the Mammoth in overtime. It was the first playoff win for the Stealth since moving to San Jose.

Cosmo struggled in the first half being pulled three times from the goal, but he held the Mammoth scoreless in the third quarter and limited the team to three fourth-quarter goals.

“It was quite a crazy game,” Cosmo told Dylan Hernandez of the San Jose Mercury News. “It started a little rough with me in the first quarter, but the boys really believed and trusted in me and we came back.”

He was especially adept at preventing rebounds, reports Theresa Smith of the Denver Post.

“That’s what Cosmo does well,” Mammoth coach Gary Gait told Smith. “The ball hits him and it doesn’t bounce out.”

Stealth forward Jeff Zywicki was elated after his seven goal game, especially after scoring the game winning goal in overtime.

“We called a play that basically was a one-on-one play for me,” Zywicki told the Mercury News. “I got a good matchup. I kind of posted up like I was going top side and got away from (the defender).”

Zywicki then put a few moves on goaltender Chris Levis and fired a close-range shot that Levis initially saved. But the ball fell to the ground and trickled past him.

“It was the slowest rolling ball I’ve ever seen in my life,” Zywicki told Hernandez.

Zywicki, however also gave props to his buddy in goal.

“Cosmo was absolutely amazing in second half and our man-down is the best in the league. We have absolute faith in them,” said Zywicki.

Theresa Smith of the Denver Post reports that, in Mammoth Coach Gary Gait’s postgame team meeting, he said: “We gave a great effort. We played a great regular season. We left it on the floor, and that’s all we can do. Don’t forget the feeling.”

Mammoth captain Gavin Prout vented his frustrations. “We get a big lead, we let them crawl back into the game and panic sets in,” Prout told the Denver Post. “We let them back in when we should have stepped on their throats. Their goalie changed the momentum.

“I will blame the offense for this loss. It’s pretty obvious when you have a power play at the end of the game and a power play in overtime.

“We should have won. We didn’t get the job done.”

Mammoth defender Dave Stilley struggled to express his disappointment.

“It is an indescribable feeling, just a terrible feeling,” he told Theresa Smith. “It was a weird goal to end our season on, but we had opportunities and we didn’t step up.

“I’m proud of our guys, and I know this team will stick together.”

The Arizona Sting completed the Western Division lower-seed sweep of the weekend with a 13-9 road win over the Calgary Roughnecks on Saturday night.

The Sting jumped out to an early lead and held on, largely on the strong performance from goaltender Rob Blasdell and the Arizona defense.

“Rob was simply awesome tonight,” Dan Dawson told the East Valley Tribune. “Every time we needed a big save, he delivered. This was a huge win for us after a disappointing end to the regular season, and I can’t wait for another shot at the West Division title next weekend in the desert.”

Sting coach Bob Hamley was pleased with his club’s performance.

“We did all the things you want to do in a road game,” Hamley told Michael Petrie of the Calgary Herald. “We got a lead and took the crowd out of the game.

“Defense wins championships and our defense, the whole crew, was awesome. They kept everybody in check and didn’t let anyone get off on five or six goals.”

After the loss, Roughnecks captain Tracey Kelusky told Darren Friesen of the Calgary Sun, “We never really peaked this season. It’s frustrating because this is a championship team, absolutely.

“I can’t explain it, though. Whether it’s complacency because we had the same group of core guys here for a while, I don’t know why we weren’t able to find that groove all season.”

Roughnecks Head Coach Jeff Dowling, who doesn’t know yet if he’ll return next season, had this to say about his team’s performance.

“We played well in spurts,” Dowling told the Calgary Sun. “But every facet of our game was a major letdown at different points of the game.

“I thought our defense struggled at times, our goalies let in some weak goals and our offense couldn’t find the net.”

Lewis Ratcliff, who finished third in league scoring with 104 points and second in goals with 50, only scored once in the game.

“It just wasn’t going in the net,” Ratcliff told the Calgary Herald. “I do the same things every game. Sometimes it goes in and sometimes it doesn’t.

“Sometimes I look like a great shooter and sometimes I look like a piece of garbage, like tonight.

“It was one of those nights where I was a centimeter off, I was hitting his shoulder instead of hitting the corner.”

On Sunday the Buffalo Bandits stumped the Minnesota Swarm offense in the second half of a 14-8 victory to advance to the Eastern Divisional Finals for the second straight season. The will again face Rochester in finals.

After allowing the Swarm to jump out to an early 4-0 lead and only stopping one of the first five shots he faced, Bandits’ goaltender Mike Thompson settled in and stopped 37 of the next 41 shots against him, including blanking Minnesota in the second half.

“There wasn’t any problem with my confidence. A couple of [the first four scores] were squeakers that I got a piece of,” Thompson told Tom Borrelli of the Buffalo News. “I just tried to calm myself down a little bit, it being my first playoff game. In the second half, everybody settled down.”

Thompson got the start in place of an injured Steve Dietrich, who didn’t dress after suffering a knee injury last week.

“I know Mikey has streaks where sometimes he doesn’t see the ball real well,” Bandits coach Darris Kilgour told Borrelli. “But once he gets hot, he gets very hot. If I’d had the option I probably would have made a move [to Dietrich] at that point. But I didn’t have that option.”

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