Photo Credits: Pretty Instant, Jerome Miron
Di Miller, Beat Writer Denver Outlaws
Lacrosse is Awesome
The 2017 MLL Champions have been crowned. The Ohio Machine who were in first place in the MLL faced the 2016 MLL Champions in a rematch of last year’s contest. This was the first time in 17 years of MLL history that a lacrosse game of any kind would be played indoors. The place was Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas and there were 7,453 lacrosse fans on hand to see one of the two teams walk away with the prestigious Steinfeld Cup. Both teams had come off amazing wins the weekend before to get them to the finale’, but unlike last year when the Outlaws would defeat the Machine, the tables turned and Ohio would be crowned the champs in 2017. Final Score: Machine 17—Outlaws 12.
The Outlaws would win the opening face-off but the Machine would capitalize with a cross field pass from Marcus Holman (1G, 1A) with a feed in front of the crease to Mark Cockerton (1G, 1A) who swept top side, shot and fired only 49 seconds in. Pat Harbeson (1G) one of Ohio’s short-stick middies would hit net low-high-low left corner unassisted at 2:31 putting the Machine up 2-0. The Outlaws made some sloppy turnovers which allowed Ohio to get their man open and weren’t keeping an eye on the shooters. After about four minutes, Zach Currier (1G, 3A) would send a cross field pass as Harbeson had to run off the field when he dropped his stick which left Wes Berg (3G, 1A) wide open and he ripped a shot left side at 6:04. Eric Law (2G, 2A) who had just been named the Offensive Player of the Year with a 47.9 shooting percentage got a shovel pass from Berg who cut from behind the net allowing Law to score at 8:40 tying the game at 2 apiece. Michael Bocklet (2G) would get the tic-tac-toe pass from Law and slipped loose from the screen hitting net at 9:32. But Michael Noone of Ohio would cause the turnover allowing the Machine to strike back with Connor Cannizzaro (4G) who headed down the field beating his defender and blasted high as he came around the cage shooting right to left across the shoulder of Pat Kelly (assist Peter Baum) at 11:28. Cannizzaro would strike again at the 13:44 mark unassisted to put Ohio up by one. With 18.6 seconds left on the clock, Denver would turn the ball over at midfield, but would regain possession with a pass to Bocklet then to Jeremy Sieverts, but with double coverage Sieverts couldn’t find his way to the net and the buzzer sounded. Score at the end of one: Machine 4—Outlaws 3.
The Machine would start out the second with Tom Schreiber (1G, 3A) heading down the left alley, stared down and stutter stepped Noah Molnar finding twine at 4:26. Matt Kavanagh (4G, 2A) who had six assists in the game against Rochester the week before scored back-to-back goals. The first started out with a rocker step move by Law to Kavanagh who was on the doorstep and scored left side at 5:26. It would be almost seven minutes of great defense and little offense before the ball would find its way in between the pipes. The Outlaws did a good job of getting the ball back to Kavanagh after the face-off, and with his speed he dodged and moved down the field, stutter stepped and dove across the crease hitting top shelf left side unassisted at 12:38 to tie the game at 5 apiece. But at 13:07, Matt Bocklet would get hit with a one minute unnecessary roughing call and Ohio would capitalize for the first power-play goal of the game. Holman (4G, 2A) would get his first of the night on the midfield turnover by Denver, the Machine would nab the ground ball, and on the 6 on 5 set Kyle Harrison would pass to Schreiber to Holman who was open in front of the net. With the perfect set up by Schreiber, Holman sent the quick release scoring on Kelly at 13:38. The Outlaws would hit back fast off the face-off win by Tommy Kelly who left the ball on the mat for Currier to streak in from the wing and head down the field blowing it past Kyle Bernlohr unassisted at 13:54 again tying the game at 6 apiece. The Outlaws would close out the second with another cross field pass from Currier to Michael Bocklet on the door step two fake left side pass going low to high top right corner just as the buzzer sounded. Score at the end of the first half: Outlaws 7—Machine 6.
Denver would continue their scoring streak with another three unanswered goals to start the third. Berg would elevate and scored when he charged on the right side of Jake Bernhardt and dunked it in near side corner over the shoulder of Bernlohr unassisted at 49 seconds in. At the 2:44 mark, Ohio’s Matt McMahon would be called for a non-releasable illegal cross-check to the head on Currier, but the Outlaws wasted the man-up opportunity with sloppy passes and bad clock management when they could have taken the opportunity to score. There would be almost six minutes coming off the clock before Denver would score again. The time, Kavanagh was on the door step, Law snuck around the back side of the cage and got the feed lefty side from Kavanagh and sent a bounce shot past Bernlohr in front of the crease at 6:12. Bernlohr would make the save of the game when Greg Downing sent a bullet toward the cage and would save the shot which at that time could have been a possible game changer. At the 7:17 mark, Brian Karalunas would head to the box for Ohio with a one minute slashing and Denver would capitalize. Berg would score on the man-up situation with a quick stick goal off the pass from Kavanagh giving Berg a hat-trick on the night at 9:35. Kavanagh would spin and dodge passing to Berg who was sitting in front of the crease, fooled the short stick defender and hit twine. But it would be Ohio who would close out the third with the final three goals. It had been almost 15 minutes since the Machine had scored and only 3:45 remaining in the third. But then, Peter Baum (2G, 3A) would get his first of the night off the pass from Holman. Bernhardt would draw the slide opening it up for Baum who blew it past Kelly with a righty crank. 
Kyle Harrison (1G, 1A) would follow it up as he was wide open near the two point area, off a pass from behind the net when Baum drew all the attention sending a skip shot to Harrison to score at 13:01. Baum would close out the third and the three goal run when Cockerton would get the ground ball and send a long range bomb cross field pass to Baum who yanked it left side top corner finding a tiny opening between Kelly and the pipe at 14:12. In the quarter, the Outlaws would start with three unanswered goals and the Machine would answer back with the same. Score at the end of the third: Outlaws 10—Machine 9.
But Denver would fall apart in the fourth and the Machine would rev their engines and totally dominate the Outlaws only allowing them to score twice in the last frame. The Outlaws would win the face-off on an illegal procedure against Greg Puskuldjian and Kavanagh would get his hat-trick unassisted off the bounce shot after a scuffle for the ground ball scooped up by Drew Snider sending the pass to Kavanagh who had a nice lefty shot at 1:22. At the 2:47 mark Cannizzaro would hit his hat-trick unassisted with a shovel shot as he dove around the crease beating the defender and sent it into the net over the left shoulder of Kelly. The Outlaws would score only once more in the contest with another from Kavanagh off a nice back handed shovel pass from Currier directly into the shooting window of Kavanagh who sent it past Bernlohr, putting the Outlaws up 12-10, and the last time the Outlaws would lead in the contest. From there on out, it was 100% Machine as they would dominate the remaining 10 minutes of the game. Bernhardt (2G, 3A) shot up top with a righty hammer just inside the two point mark under the left leg of Kelly (assist Baum) at 5:01. Puskuldjian (1G) would had not done well against Denver at the face-off circle would win the ensuing face off, head straight down the field on the breakaway untouched and scored over the top left corner of Kelly only seven seconds later. It would then become the Marcus Holman show as he would score back-to-back-to-back goals against Denver. Holman would shoot a long range rocket righty hammer over the top corner at 7:45. Then on an over and back call against the Outlaws, Bernhardt would get the ball to Holman scoring on Kelly who had come out of net hitting right side at 9:58. Holman’s final goal of the game at 11:04 would come off the assist from Schreiber with yet another long range righty shot hammer over the top right side on Kelly. All three goals came from the virtually the same area. Bernhardt would be involved with another assist, this time to Cannizzaro who shot low to high ripping it past Kelly giving him his seventh career playoff goal. With the ensuing face-off and a possible over and back, Ohio’s Head Coach Bear Davis would call a timeout to stop a possible change in possession, which was pointless given the six goal run that Ohio had and only 2:13 remaining in the game. After the timeout, Bernhardt would add icing to the cake (assist Schreiber) with 1:07 remaining when Kelly again stepped out of the net and sent a righty shot just inside the post. Ohio was able to control the ball for the remainder of the game defeating the Outlaws. Final Score: Machine 17—Outlaws 12.
Denver would see two of their most powerful shooters Drew Snider and Jeremy Sieverts have only one shot on goal apiece. Tommy Kelly who had been very successful against Ohio in their last meeting had dominated in the faceoff category for half of the game, but when it came time to seal the deal, Puskuldjian figured out what he needed to do and dominated at the X for the majority of the remaining second half.
The Outlaws had the game under control until the fourth quarter when their defense fell out of sync, the offense went silent and Kelly wasn’t seeing the ball well in between the pipes.
Ohio, although they started out slow, kept chipping away at the Denver defense and blew the doors wide open in the fourth and most deservedly earned the victory and to have their name engraved onto the Steinfeld Cup as the 2017 MLL Champions.
There is talk of expansion teams or possibly even a longer season. Some folks have even suggested moving up the MLL season but with the NLL and college lacrosse taking up the first five months of the year; it’s obvious that this wouldn’t be a feasible option. We shall see what happens during the off season, if the teams who did not make the playoffs can make the necessary changes to head to the post-season in 2018 and who we shall see in the 2018 MLL Championship game.
Di Miller, Beat Writer Denver Outlaws
Lacrosse is Awesome