Di Miller, NLL Correspondent
Lacrosse is Awesome©
Featured Image Photo Credit: S. Rosenthal
In a rematch of last weekends contest, the Las Vegas Desert Dogs (1-4) would play host to the Vancouver Warriors (1-5) at Mandalay Bay Arena, in Vegas on Friday January 20, 2023. The crowd wasn’t what you’d expect given all the hype with the newest team to enter the league but the Dog House was still loud regardless. It was a historic night all around as Shawn Evans, Vancouver Forward passed Shawn Williams to move to 9th All-Time for games played. Jack Hannah, Desert Dogs Forward, now sits atop all rookies in the league in goals scored with 9. Jacob Ruest, Desert Dogs Forward would score his 100th career goal. And first and foremost, the Desert Dogs would get their first win in franchise history. If you stopped watching the game at the end of the first half when Vancouver was up by the score of 12-4 you would have wished you didn’t shut off the TV. The fight that ensued at the end of the first half gave the Dogs the spark they needed, they came out of the locker room on a mission and would out shut out the Warriors in the third and score eight unanswered goals making one heck of a comeback. The third quarter would start off with the Dogs being man down for seven minutes and they would be tagged with a total of 36 penalty minutes in the contest. But in the end, they’d prevail to overtake the Warriors. Final Score: Desert Dogs 15—Warriors 14.
Mitch Jones (1g, 8a) got things started for Vancouver at 1:46 sneaking one through the wickets as it trickled through 1-0 Warriors. Shawn Evans with the feed to Kyle Killen (4g) behind the net and Killen dove from behind the cage to sneak it in on the post at 4:31 and it was 2-0. Reid Bowering (1g) would score next driving to the net, he pushed it to the far side and with a nice dunk shot at 5:04 they were up 3-0. On the next goal, Joel Watson would make the save, but Shawn Evans (1g, 4a) would pick up the garbage in front of the net and dunked it in the wide open net to make it 4-0 at 5:38. That was when Vegas Bench Boss Shawn Williams made the change and brought in Landon Kells. The Dogs would finally get on the board when Charlie Bertrand (3g, 4a) off the pick from Greer got the quick stick shot to go in far side at 6:41 and it was 4-1. But it was short lived as Killen from straight on fired one high to low for the bounce shot five-hole with 6:56 in the frame and it was 5-1. Keegan Bal (5g, 5a) was next to fire a bounce shot through two defenders and skipped it off the turf five-hole and it was 6-1 with 5:34 in the frame. The Dogs got possession and Rob Hellyer sent the cross-field pass to Bertrand and he fired an over the shoulder shot with 1:45 to go and it was 6-2. The Warriors would go man-up on a cross-checking penalty with 1:32 on the ticker and Bal made them pay from up top with a fake to get Kells to drop to make the save and another one would trickle in with 48.7 on the clock. The Warriors would hold the lead at the end of one 7-2.
Killen would start it off for Vancouver at 5:13 into the quarter off the BTB feed from Bal, he was on the doorstep, got Fells to stretch out and he went low under his leg with the quick stick shot for his hat-trick on the night at 5:13 and it was 8-2. The Dogs would get that one back less than 45 seconds later off the break, Travis Cornwall (1g) made a left handed shot far side at 6:01 and it was 8-3. But once again, the Warriors erased that with another marker. Evans got the feed to Bal and he tip toed the crease left to right, jumped and put it five hole at 6:38 for his hat-trick and it was 9-3. Vegas would get their final tally of the half with 5:14 left. Jack Hannah who was sitting at five goals with rookies in the league, would spin around his defender and fired over the shoulder past Aden Walsh to put him at six giving him the league lead in goals scored by all rookies and it was 9-4. Unfortunately once again, Vancouver struck back when Bal faked, then used a quick dodge move and fired a quick stick over the shoulder increasing the lead to six 10-4 with 4:00 left in the half. So far in the game, Las Vegas had turned over the ball too many times, they weren’t getting the loose balls, they needed to push the ball up the floor in transition and stop Vancouver from controlling possession. With 2:03 left in the half, Killen would notch his fourth and come from the outside on the run and fire one to the back of the net and it was 11-4. They’d put up the final tally with Logan Schuss (1g) getting the cross field flip toss from Bal on the crease, he’d bring the stick across his body to put it over the shoulder with 1:38 left. The Dogs would get hit with more penalties and Vancouver was on a 5 on 3 but could not capitalize. But as the half was ending a huge fight ensued. Emerson Clark knocked down a referee, proceeded to punch a Warrior’s player when his helmet was off and fisticuffs began. When it was all said and done, Emerson Clark would get hit with a 2 minute “instigator” penalty, a 5 minute “fighting” penalty, and a 10 minute major penalty and be ejected from the game. Jackson Suboch would also be hit with a 5 minute “fighting” penalty and Owen Barker would be hit with a 5 minute “fighting” penalty. What this boiled down to is that the Warriors would start the third with a penalty shot as well as a 5 on 3 situation and seven total minutes of man-up. Vancouver would also be man-down for the first five minutes as well. Score at the end of two: Warriors 12—Desert Dogs 4.
Before the clock even started in the third, Vancouver got to take their penalty shot and they chose Keegan Bal to do the honors. He headed to the net from the left side, with a stutter step and a couple of fakes, tried to go low on Fells and he made an amazing save to block the shot. Between the fight and the save, this must have started some sort of energy surge on the part of the Desert Dogs as they would dominate the second half.
The Warriors started the third on a 3 on 5 and Fells stood on his head in between the pipes. The Dogs would completely dominate the third between their offense and defense the Warriors could not get anything to find twine. Bertrand on the man-down situation with a nice spin move, would back in, swim dodge, split the defenders and fool Walsh to dunk it into the net for a short-handed goal and his hat-trick 2:09 into the frame and it was 12-5. Another six went off the ticker and for the first seven minutes of the frame the Dogs were on a man-down situation not allowing the Warriors to score. With 6:44 to go, Hannah on the give and go, ripped one right down the middle high to low five-hole and it was 12-6. On the next goal, Walsh came out of his crease to fight for the rebound and dig for the ball, Jacob Ruest (1g, 2a) would win the battle and put it into the empty net with 3:43 to go and his 100th career goal. They’d close out the quarter shutting out Vancouver. Score at the end of three: Warriors 12—Desert Dogs 7.
Once again, the Dogs would dominate the frame outscoring the Warriors 8-2. Vancouver would once again go man-down early on at the 2:17 mark and the Dogs would make them pay. Jon Phillips (1g, 4a) on the give and go from Hellyer got Walsh to drop and he went top corner at 2:28 for a power-play tally and it was 12-8. Hannah who was pumped up, used the stutter step and fired a bullet far side top corner for his hat-trick at 3:42 and it was 12-9. He’d go back-to-back on the run and used the dip and dunk to get Walsh going the other way and ripped it into the back of the net at 4:55 and it was 12-10. Zach Greer (2g, 1a) who was unable to score all night, snuck in and took it to the net, dove in front of the crease to bury it down low at 6:39 and it was 12-11. It took only 18 seconds for Reid Reinholdt (1g) to bury the marker and tie the game at 12’s and the Dogs bench went wild. But with 7:26 to go Adam Charalambides (1g, 2a) would use the screen and go low to low for a power-play tally scoring the first Warriors goal in 24 minutes and 12 seconds to put them back up by one 13-12. But Vegas wasn’t going away not after their comeback. Greer did the shake and bake, took the shot which ricocheted off the glass, hit the back of Walsh and went back into the net with 5:49 to tie it back up at 13’s. Rob Hellyer (2g, 7a) would give the Dogs their first lead on the night with a sub-shot firing it down low and they were up 14-13 with 4:16 to go. He’d go back-to-back with 2:33 running at the net, stutter stepped, pulled a couple of fakes, jumped and dunked it past Walsh and it was 15-13. Vancouver would pull Walsh with 1:30 for the 6 on 5 which was unsuccessful. The Warriors would put one more on the board with 24.3 when Bal went low to low five-hole but that was it. Final Score: Desert Dogs 15—Warriors 14.
This was a tale of two halves where it definitely showed that no lead was safe. It was a game of runs and each team had theirs but the second half run by the Desert Dogs is what mattered.
STATS:
Vancouver Warriors—SOG 52; FO 20-33; PP 3-7; Saves 31; Sv% .674
Las Vegas Desert Dogs—SOG 46; FO 13-33; PP 2-2; Saves 38; Sv% .731
NEXT UP:
The Las Vegas Desert Dogs (1-4) will head to Saskatoon to face the Saskatchewan Rush (2-2) at Sasktel Centre on Saturday January 28, game time 8:30 EST. Fans in the USA can catch the game on ESPN+. Fans in Canada can see the action on TSN.ca or the TSN app.
The Vancouver Warriors (1-4) will play host to the Panther City Lacrosse Club (3-3) at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC on Saturday January 28, game time 10:00 p.m. EST. Fans in the USA can catch the game on ESPN+. Fans in Canada can see the action on TSN.ca or the TSN app.
Di Miller, NLL Correspondent
Lacrosse is Awesome©