Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look back at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list ...
At just 24 years old, Brock Haley has become a fearsome weapon for the Saskatchewan Rush in his second season on a National Lacrosse League (NLL) floor.
On Saturday night, he delivered the biggest goal of the season for the Rush with a distance shot, which secured a 10-9 overtime win against the Toronto Rock.
“Honestly, I just caught it and shot it,” Haley said after the game.
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“I had a lot of opportunities earlier on in the game that I didn’t really capitalize on. (Rush co-head coach, Derek Keenan) was just telling me to shoot it right away, and it’s exactly what I did.”
Haley’s goal 94 seconds into overtime against the Rock on Saturday night at SaskTel Centre capped off the NLL regular season in style for the Rush, snapping a three-game losing streak.
According to forward Zach Manns — who led the team with two goals and five points — it’s the best the team has felt in weeks, with one win in their last six contests entering Saturday’s regular season finale.
“We haven’t had this feeling in quite some time,” Manns said. “It feels good that we just stuck to it and didn’t really let the score falter our effort. I thought it was a great team win.”
Saskatchewan will now host a quarter-final game next weekend at SaskTel Centre, having secured home-floor advantage in the first round of playoffs with Saturday’s come-from-behind win.
“You never want to go into the playoffs feeling sorry for yourself or feeling down,” Manns said. “We said in the locker room all week that this was a must-win game and we got it done.”
The Rush opened the scoring just 24 seconds into the game with a snipe by alternate captain Robert Church, before Toronto countered with back-to-back goals from Josh Dawick and Sam English.
Manns registered his 35th goal of the season with a long-range shot to tie the game at 2-2 midway through the first quarter, but it was the Rock closing out the opening frame with a big play.
Rookie phenom CJ Kirst answered back with 3:19 left in the quarter with a shorthanded tally, spinning off two Saskatchewan defenders for his 34th goal of the season to take the 3-2 lead.
The second quarter belonged to the Rock, as the visitors netted goals from Isaiah Moran-Weekes and captain Challen Rogers while Toronto goaltender Nick Rose was superb with 28 saves in the first half.
After the Rush and Rock each exchanged a pair of goals in the third quarter to make it a 7-4 lead for Toronto, it was Saskatchewan face-off man Jake Naso netting a crucial goal for the home side.
Moments after Toronto’s Brad Kri found the back of the net, Naso won the face-off and took the ball up the floor himself to net his third goal of the season just 13 seconds later.
“I’ve said in the past that face-off guys just take face-offs, but not Naso,” Haley said. “He can do it all, he can play defence if he needs to and he sure as hell can shoot the ball.”
Naso wasn’t done there. He replicated that same play, just six seconds after a Chris Boushy goal for Toronto in the fourth quarter to make it four goals in four quarters for the Duke graduate.
In Manns’ eyes, Naso was one of the most instrumental players on the floor all night for Saskatchewan with his pair of goals and 14 face-off wins.
“We probably don’t win that game if he doesn’t score those two goals,” Manns said.
“What he’s done for our team is unbelievable. It’s crazy that he’s still new to this box (lacrosse) game, man he’s one heck of a player and I’m glad he’s on our side.”
Trailing Toronto by a 9-7 score late, Saskatchewan pulled goaltender Frank Scigliano for the extra attacker which saw forward Levi Anderson cut the deficit to just one with 1:20 left on the clock.
On their next possession, the Rush completed the comeback to force overtime with a Church snipe with exactly 60 seconds remaining to force overtime.
The Rush lifted the lid off SaskTel Centre 1:34 into overtime with Haley’s winner from distance, securing the 10-9 comeback victory.
Saskatchewan co-head coach Jimmy Quinlan said the team has needed a moment like this for weeks, adding a change of mindset may have helped in the final result.
“I think we’ve been quite critical and hard on ourselves the last little bit and it hadn’t been working,” Quinlan said.
“(We decided) to take a different approach and I think we did that tonight. Kudos to them, they stuck with it and we made plays when we needed to.”
While the Rush are mostly the same team which finished one win shy of an NLL championship last season, confidence has been hard to come by for the group watching their 10-1 record fall in recent weeks.
Scigliano, who finished the night with 30 saves, is hopeful that confidence is returning ahead of playoffs.
“I think that’s something we were probably lacking in the last couple of weeks, right?” Scigliano said.
“When things aren’t going your way, you’re probably holding your stick a little tighter or you’re overthinking things. We’ve all played this game since we were little kids.”
Despite having their playoff spot locked up for weeks, Quinlan believed it was important for his group to feel some pressure in time for their biggest test of the season next weekend, as the Rush begin their journey towards trying to win their first NLL title since 2018.
“We treated tonight as a one-game elimination and that’s what we’re going to be facing next week,” Quinlan said.
“I think it gives us some confidence, but this is a funny league. You look around and see Colorado lose and you see Buffalo lose, it can kind of go anyone’s way any night.”
Concluding the regular season with a 12-6 record, the Rush will host either the Rock or Buffalo Bandits next weekend in a single-game elimination quarter-final, with the winner advancing to NLL semi-finals.
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