New England Black Wolves repel Saskatchewan Rush to spoil home opener

An early deficit was too much for the Saskatchewan Rush to overcome in a 12-8 loss to the New England Black Wolves Saturday at SaskTel Centre in the team’s home opener.

Entering the team’s fifth season in Saskatchewan since moving from Edmonton, the Rush were unable to handle a relentless Black Wolves attack early as the offence sputtered.

Head coach Derek Keenan felt the opportunities were there, just not the finishing touches.

“A lot of fundamental errors in the first half. I thought we got outworked in the first half, and in the second half we took it to them, but (we) shot the ball very poorly,” Keenan said following the loss.

Black Wolves goalie Doug Jamieson made 48 saves in the win, but Keenan feels Rush players made many of the saves far too easy.

“We had multiple, multiple, really good, solid 15 to 20 foot shots and hit him a lot. He made some saves, but we really hit him a lot. That’s two games now. Eight and nine goals just isn’t going to do it,” Keenan said.

New England built a 4-1 lead by the end of the first quarter and a 6-1 lead with 12:32 remaining in the first half to chase Rush goalie Evan Kirk from the net.

The Black Wolves continued to make the Rush pay and widened the lead to 9-4 by the end of the half. Saskatchewan was able to get the game as close as 9-6 before the teams would trade goals to end the game.

The poor offensive output was evident on the score sheet as defender Kyle Rubisch finished the game as the team’s second-leading scorer, trailing only Mark Matthews for the team lead in goals by scoring two in transition.

“I don’t think ever, to be honest,” Rubisch said. “I don’t usually score too many goals, but tonight I did.”

If memory serves him correctly, Saturday could have been a career night.

“We were just talking about that in the room, I might have had one (two-goal game) in Edmonton, but I can’t confirm that,” Rubisch said.

The last time the Rush lost a home opener was the team’s very first game in Saskatchewan – a 13-11 loss to Vancouver in 2016.

After scoring eight points in Saskatchewan’s opening game to lead the NLL in scoring after two weeks, Robert Church was left off the score sheet Saturday.

Callum Crawford led the way for the Black Wolves with three goals and three assists.

Mark Matthews was the leading Rush scorer with four goals and an assist.