The National Lacrosse League’s divisional finals will span the continent when the Toronto Rock play the Orlando Titans in Florida and the Edmonton Rush face the Washington Stealth in Seattle on Saturday night.
The Titans and the Stealth are each 12-5 so far this year, and both are especially good at home.
The Titans are 6-3 in Orlando, which gives them a distinct edge in the divisional final given that the Rock are only 3-5 on the road in 2010. But head coach Ed Comeau is wary of the Rock.
“Toronto’s got a real good team and is going to come in well prepared, and they want to get to the championship game as much as we do,” says Comeau.
Orlando won both regular-season meetings — barely — and GM-assistant coach Terry Sanderson says his players won’t be intimidated heading south.
“We thought we played pretty well both times we played Orlando,” says Sanderson. “We were real happy with our game down there and if we could get a duplicate of that and a bounce here and there ... we plan on giving them a game again on Saturday.
“We believe we match up well with them. But, let’s not kid ourselves, they were first for a reason.”
Washington, which is playing this one in a larger arena in Seattle instead of at its usual Everett venue, are 7-2 at home but that won’t mean an awful lot against a gritty Edmonton club that is an impressive 6-3 on the road.
“Edmonton is a formidable opponent that just defeated the defending champions, it has a great player in Brodie Merrill and a goaltender (Matt Disher) who’s as hot as a firecracker,” Washington head coach Chris Hall said Wednesday. “It’s all going to come down to who performs best Saturday.”
Merrill was named overall player of the month for April by the NLL on Wednesday.
“I’m biased but I think he’s the MVP of the league,” GM-coach Derek Keenan said of his transition ace.
The Rush are soaring after knocking off the Calgary Roughnecks.
“The guys are pretty confident right now,” says Keenan. “They have been for probably the last month and a half but, just like last week, it won’t be easy.
“We’re playing the No. 1 seed with the best record in the league so it’s going to be a big challenge for us.”
Ditto from Merrill.
“The Stealth have been the class of the league all season,” he says. “They have great depth offensively. Every one of their offensive players is a threat, which often presents matchup problems, and their defence is fast, aggressive and athletic. They also have two of the top goalies in the league.”
The best is yet to come, he hopes.
“Although we are happy to have advanced over a great team in Calgary, we still feel like we can play better,” says Merrill.
“Hopefully, it comes together for us on Saturday night.”