Week 16 of the National Lacrosse League featured five games with the playoff race in full swing as the 18-week regular season schedule nears completion. Which players held it down to help their teams down the stretch? Preview the Three Stars by Stephen Stamp on IL Indoor and find the full story on Inside Lacrosse.
“Thank you, Adam Jones. Thank you for having both the standout individual performance of Week 16 in the National Lacrosse League and the superior production of the weekend,” Stamp writes. “You made it awfully easy to select the IL Indoor First Star this week. Jones was in consideration after his 7-point game Friday night helped the Colorado Mammoth to a critical win over Rochester. Given some of the performances Saturday, though, that wouldn’t have carried the day, so it was his prodigious Saturday goal-scoring that sealed the deal. The only thing more Jones could have asked for was for the Mammoth’s furious comeback attempt against Edmonton to have been just a little more successful.”
First Star
Adam Jones, Colorado Mammoth
11 goals, 4 assists
What a shooting clinic Jones put on Saturday in Edmonton, and he did it all night long. Jones scored twice in the first quarter, once in the second, twice in the third and twice in the fourth. The 11-goal weekend vaulted him past his old career high of 39, set last year, and puts him atop the NLL with 49. The 15 points he put up also allowed him to set a new career high in that category with 89, surpassing the 76 of his rookie season in 2012.
Third Star
Frankie Scigliano, Calgary Roughnecks
43 saves on 49 shots, .878 save percentage
Frankie’s time is now. Scigliano didn’t play a whole lot his first three years in the league and he was okay but not really good when called upon to take over the starting role for a struggling Mike Poulin four games into this season. Since he got a second chance, however, Scigliano has been excellent for the Roughnecks. His terrific performance Saturday moved him into fifth place in the league in both goals against average (10.70) and save percentage (.778).
Honorable Mentions
Brett Hickey (Toronto): 3g, 5a. Continues to be remarkably efficient: his 3 goals this week came on just 6 attempted shots. His shooting percentage for the season is .256…Shawn Evans (Calgary): 4g, 2a. No post-record drought for Evans. He bumps his season total to 123 points…Joel McCready (Vancouver): 5g, 1a. Has more than doubled his previous career high by reaching the 30-goal plateau…Cory Vitarelli(Rochester): 5g, 3a. His 4-goal night led the Knighthawks to a win in their second game of the weekend, which they needed to keep alive their hopes of first in the East…Ben McIntosh (Edmonton): 3g, 5a. Moved into the top 10 all time for rookie scoring with his big night Saturday…Jeremy Noble (Colorado): 3g, 7a. It’s a sign of how high a bar he’s already set for himself that it just felt like he could do a little more than his 10 points on the weekend. What a great start to his career. Consider this: Noble is third in the league in rookie scoring after playing just 8 games…Brandon Miller (Toronto): 58/70, .829 save percentage. One of the best 12-goals-allowed performances you’ll see from a goalie. Miller was sharp against a ton of rubber fired by the Black Wolves…Cody Jamieson (Rochester): 4g, 7a. Rochester almost pulled off a spectacular comeback against Colorado Friday, scoring the last 5 goals to get within one. Jamieson had 3 goals and…
Click here for Second Star and honorable mentions from Three Stars of NLL Week 16 by Stephen Stamp on IL Indoor.
