Week 1Results: 11-5 win over Toronto Rock Week 2 Opponent: Bye Week Previous Ranking: Unranked
There are three teams that could very reasonably claim the final spot in the top eight—Ottawa, Colorado and Vancouver. The Black Bears made the loudest statement of Faceoff Weekend, dominating a banged up Toronto team on Friday night, despite MVP favorite Jeff Teat contributing only one goal. Two newcomers—Jacob Dunbar and Zach Higgins—were sublime in their debuts. Dunbar, finally carving out a significant role, logged a hat trick and six points. Higgins held the Rock scoreless for more than 35 minutes and immediately validated the front office’s offseason pursuit of his services. If Ottawa can replicate the formula from the club’s opening weekend win, the Black Bears will be very real contenders to make the playoffs.
Toronto Rock at Ottawa Black Bears 11.29.24 (Photo: Greg Mason/NLL)
7) Saskatchewan Rush (1-0)
Week 1Results: 10-9 OT win at Albany Week 2 Opponent: Bye Week Previous Ranking: 8th
The Rush authored one of the two major statement wins of Faceoff Weekend. One of the primary question marks surrounding Saskatchewan before the season pertained to their hot-and-cold goaltender Frank Scigliano. Scigliano opened his second season in green with arguably his best performance since he was acquired from San Diego. His 49 saves out-paced and out-dueled Albany’s Doug Jamieson to help the Rush steal a road win in overtime over last year’s league runners-up. While the offense wasn’t particularly explosive, Robert Church and Zach Manns did enough to steer that group to a win. There are still plenty of unknowns surrounding the Rush, but if they continue to answer them week-by-week, this is a team that very well could make the playoffs.
6) Rochester Knighthawks (1-0)
Week 1Results: 14-12 win vs. Las Vegas Week 2 Opponent: vs. Buffalo Bandits (0-0) Previous Ranking: 7th
The dynamic duo of Ryan Smith and Connor Fields was precisely as good as expected in Rochester’s opening weekend win over Las Vegas. The pair combined for eight goals and 18 points, while Ryan Lanchbury chipped in six assists. Riley Hutchcraft made 50 saves, but his progress in finding a degree of consistency that was absent between the pipes last year will dictate how far the Knighthawks can take things this season. The Knighthawks have an opportunity to make quite the statement in Week 2, as they host Buffalo in the Bandits’ first game of the season.
5) Albany FireWolves (0-1)
Week 1Results: 10-9 OT loss vs. Saskatchewan Week 2 Opponent: at Toronto Rock (0-1) Previous Ranking: 3rd
The FireWolves fall two spots this week, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there is anything to worry about in the Capital Region. The drop from third to fifth is a product of San Diego shooting up the board and Georgia receiving the benefit of the doubt, having been idle on opening weekend. Doug Jamieson was excellent in net, but the high-flying offense fans came to expect from Albany last season failed to get off the ground. An underwhelming three-goal first half was followed by a much more encouraging six-goal second half. Alex Simmons ultimately looked like his Rookie of the Year self in leading the FireWolves with three goals, four assists, and seven points. Dyson Williams, with a goal in his debut, will continue to develop his role as the season progresses, meaning that Albany will only get more dangerous week to week. A win over Toronto on Saturday would likely send the FireWolves back into the top three.
4) Georgia Swarm (0-0)
Week 1Results: Bye Week Week 2 Opponent: vs. San Diego (1-0) Previous Ranking: 4th
Georgia receives the benefit of the doubt, having enjoyed a bye through opening weekend. We’ll find out very quickly what to make of the Swarm when they take their home floor against San Diego on Saturday. As was noted last week, the Swarm have all of the pieces in place to make a deep run, provided that they manage a degree of consistency that has been elusive in recent years. The offense has explosive potential and the defense in front of Brett Dobson has all of the ingredients to be improved. The big question is how much Dobson has developed, entering his third year in the league.
3) Toronto Rock (0-1)
Week 1Results: 11-5 loss at Ottawa Week 2 Opponent: vs. Albany FireWolves (0-1) Previous Ranking: 2nd
There is a solid case to be made in which the Rock retain their spot behind Buffalo in the preseason rankings. Injuries have already complicated the equation for Matt Sawyer’s group, having lost TD Ierlan, Challen Rogers and Brad Kri—yet Toronto’s poor performance on offense raised a series of red flags that have nothing to do with bad injury luck. The Rock needed more than 35 minutes of game time to net their first goal of the game and only three of their five goals were scored by forwards. Mark Matthews, Corey Small, Tom Schreiber and Chris Boushy combined to score one goal, and the Rock failed to convert any of their three power play opportunities. While it is true that Zach Higgins was excellent in net for Ottawa, this startling lack of production out the front door justifies dropping the Rock one spot in the rankings.
2) San Diego Seals (1-0)
Week 1Results: 18-15 win vs. Philadelphia Wings Week 2 Opponent: vs. Georgia (0-0) Previous Ranking: 5th
There is no clear number-two team in the power rankings this week after opening weekend authored a series of upsets. The second-ranked Rock and third-ranked FireWolves each lost, while fourth-ranked Georgia did not play. San Diego’s offensive outpouring against the Wings was among the loudest statements of Faceoff Weekend. After falling into a five-goal deficit, the Seals scored nine of the first half’s final 11 goals to take a lead into the break. Free agent acquisitions Ryan Benesch, Ben McIntosh and Rob Hellyer combined for 12 of the team’s 18 goals and the group’s power play was a perfect 5/5. In a notable change from the last three seasons, the Seals featured a right-hand dominant attack, even electing to keep Zach Currier on the floor for a number of shifts at forward, rather than subbing on either of their rookie lefties to join Benesch. Chris Origlieri was shaky in net during Philadelphia’s eight-goal first quarter, but settled in to make a number of clutch saves down the stretch to ice the ballgame. The Seals are the week’s biggest riser in the rankings, but the defense needs to get healthy and has quite a few questions to answer. San Diego’s hold on the number two spot is not particularly tight.
The Bandits landed atop the preseason power rankings and stay there after an idle first week. Lacrosse fans will have the pleasure of watching Dhane Smith, Josh Byrne, Matt Vinc, Steve Priolo and company take the floor for the first time on Saturday night in Rochester. The Bandits enter their opener against the Knighthawks healthy and ready to begin their bid for a three-peat. Vinc struggled early last season before surging down the stretch. Interested viewers should be keeping a close eye on Vinc’s performance—he’s the lynchpin of the team.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
3rd Party Cookies
This website uses Google Analytics and Facebook to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.
Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.
Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!
