Clutch Kings: Andrew Kew is so consistently clutch
Andrew Kew, Georgia Swarm (Photo: Victoria Adkins)
The Lax Mag’s Clutch Kings tracks an individual player’s game-tying, go-ahead and game-winning goals, then weighs them based on when they’re scored (first, second, third or fourth quarter, plus OT), but also in what on-floor situation they’re finished (even-strength, power-play or short-handed goals). The Clutch Kings countdown calculates the league’s most money goal scorer all season long, crowning the king at the conclusion of the current NLL campaign. Click here for a more detailed breakdown of Clutch Kings scoring.
Kew, Swarm (Photo: Victoria Adkins)
He’s tied for just 51st in league goal scoring this season, but as has been the case since joining the Georgia Swarm, Andrew Kew is sitting seriously high on The Lax Mag’s Clutch Kings leaderboard.
Especially after what he pulled off this past Sunday.
A Week 18 loss to the Halifax Thunderbirds certainly wouldn’t have eliminated Georgia from playoff contention, but another L would definitely have made their post-season push significantly harder and extremely difficult to overcome.
Of Georgia’s seven losses this year, four were by just a single snipe, another by a paltry pair. After winning similar tight games by an almost identical razor-thin margin to start their season, an inability to close those contests out was quickly costing the Swarm their season. Heck, we felt that trend would keep them out of this year’s playoffs altogether. After Sunday, it’s looking like we’ll be wrong. Very wrong.
Up by two with under 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter against Halifax, anything outside of a complete and utter on-floor collapse would prevent Georgia from flipping their recent fortunes, right?
Well, first Cody Jamieson scored to pull the Thunderbirds within one, and then Dawson Theede (who had his third 4-goal performance in just 9 GPs this year) did this…
The Swarm were clearly not meant to win this one. Another loss seemed likely. They were quickly pissing their playoff changes away, in epic fading fashion even.
Cue, Kew.
After both sides opened OT with multiple strong defensive stands, Kew cruised into Halifax’s own end, accepted a straight forward pass from Toron Eccleston, impressively baited Jake Withers into a somewhat unexpected slow-moving pick, gave himself just enough room to rip from range, and…
Kew is now tied for the lead league with four game winners, nearly 50% of his goals registering in our Clutch Kings calculations this year. He also jumped from tied for twelfth on our CK leaderboard last week to fourth this week, trailing just Zach Manns, Wes Berg and Dane Dobbie.
Last year, Kew led the Swarm with an identical four GWGs, a year earlier topping the team with three winners.
Kew, who finished third in our year-end CK countdown last season, has been a regular in our money-scoring analysis since joining the Swarm after the 2022 season. Over those past two seasons, Kew has 10 GTGs, 5 GAGs and of course 8 GWGs - a high percentage of those happening in the fourth quarter and beyond. For those wondering, that is well above average not only in comparison to any forward in the league, but significantly higher than the NLL’s top-performing offensive players. This is elite-level data.
Seeing a significant decline in most of his stats this year, the fact that Kew continues to score timely goals like he did this past Sunday, confirms just how truly consistently clutch he is. While many confirm a player as clutch because of a memorable moment or two, Kew has a recent resume loaded with goals that have made a massive difference to a multitude of finals. Few are at his clutch level today, and our annual goal-scoring analysis backs that up.
Kew and the Swarm see the ice-cold Philadelphia Wings over their next two games. The Wings have lost eight straight and are riding one of the worst L streaks in league history. With that said, the Wings have been a problem for the Swarm in recent seasons.
Over the two teams last seven games, the Wings have won six times, most of those results being one-goal affairs. In fact, of the eleven all-time matches between the Swarm & Wings (2.0), seven have been decided by just a single goal.
While the Wings may be a team most would want to tangle with in their current slumping state, the history books tell us there may not be a more problematic opponent for Georgia than Philly.
In other CK-related news…
Wes Berg was held to under a hat-trick last week by the Rochester Knighthawks, who like the Swarm allowed the San Diego Seals back into the game late, only to win in dramatic fashion (Ryan Smith scored with eleven seconds left to give Rochester a 14-13 W).
Wes Berg, San Diego Seals (Photo: Jonathan Tenca)
In our analysis last week, where we focussed primarily on Berg, we concluded that if Berg hits a hat-trick, the Seals almost always win. Under a hatty, and they lose. That trend continued last week. San Diego has not won a game sans Berg hat-trick in three months.
Jeff Teat, who had five game winners during his first two seasons in the league, had seen a significant decline in CK point production last year and during a lot of this year too. Like his increased goal totals since mid-February, Teat has been accumulating a ton of game-tying goals for Ottawa (his 9 GTG are only topped by Dobbie’s 10) and continues to climb our leaderboard as a result.
Earlier this year it was Jacob Dunbar who was scoring almost all of the team’s score-swinging goals, but has not appeared in any action for the Black Bears since March 15. Dunbar still easily leads Ottawa with 6 GAGs. Taggart Clark, who only ranks fifth on the Ottawa roster in goals and 71st across the NLL, leads the Black Bears with three game winners, netting his third in the team’s win over Philadelphia last weekend.
Taggart Clark and Jeff Teat, Ottawa Black Bears (Photo: Greg Mason)
The Colorado Mammoth, whose players have previously won our Clutch Kings countdown twice (Eli MacLaughlin in 2022 and Connor Robinson in 2023), are struggling to secure wins with so many of their clutch scorers sidelined.
McLaughlin is out for an undisclosed stretch (the rest of the season potentially) while pursuing a firefighting career, Connor Kelly has been on the IR since March 15, and Zed Williams is lost for the remainder of the season due to injury. Five game-winning goals this year (out of eight victories) have come a combined courtesy of those three MIA players, both Kelly and Williams still on our leaderboard due to their early season impact. Robinson, who ranked reasonably high here earlier this year, has slipped in the second half of the year and has scored just twice over the Mammoth’s last four games.
Ryan Lee, Colorado Mammoth (Photo: Jack Dempsey)
More of a facilitator than finisher for Colorado, Ryan Lee is trying to pick up the clutch-scoring slack, but obviously needs a bit more help, especially if the Mammoth continue to find themselves in higher scoring affairs. Lee is on pace to set a new personal best for goals this year, this past weekend hitting 30 for the second time in his career. The Mammoth’s leading point producer sits just outside of our below leaderboard, currently ranked 22nd overall, but rising quickly due to the team’s heavier reliance on him of late.
Colorado’s final three games are against first place Buffalo (Apr. 5), second place Saskatchewan (Apr. 13) and a Calgary club (Apr. 19) who is playing desperate lacrosse as they try and get back into a playoff position.
Zach Manns, Saskatchewan Rush (Photo: Steve Hiscock)
NLL Clutch Kings: Week 19
CKs Rank. Player (NLL Gs Rank) Team, CKs Points (GTG/GAG/GWG)
1. Zach Manns (T11) Saskatchewan, 31.50 (8/7/2)
2. Wes Berg (3) San Diego, 30.00 (7/5/4)
3. Dane Dobbie (T8) Calgary, 25.50 (10/2/2)
4. Andrew Kew (51) Georgia, 24.50 (5/0/4)
5. Kyle Buchanan (T22) Buffalo, 22.50 (6/3/3)
6. Clarke Petterson (T29) Halifax, 22.00 (2/5/3)
7. Mitch Jones (T17) Philadelphia, 21.75 (5/5/2)
T8. Lyle Thompson (7) Georgia, 21.50 (8/6/1)
T8. Keegan Bal (T8) Vancouver, 21.50 (5/4/4)
10. Curtis Dickson (5) Calgary, 21.00 (6/5/1)
11. Connor Fields (4) Rochester, 20.25 (7/4/2)
12. Dhane Smith (T22) Buffalo, 19.75 (3/6/2)
13. Connor Kelly (T22) Colorado, 19.50 (6/3/1)
14. Ryan Smith (T1) Rochester, 19.25 (5/4/3)
15. Alex Simmons (T11) Albany, 19.00 (9/3/1)
T16. Chris Boushy (T17) Toronto, 18.50 (5/7/0)
T16. Randy Staats (T42) Halifax, 18.50 (4/2/4)
18. Dyson Williams (T42) Albany, 17.75 (2/4/2)
19. Jeff Teat (T1) Ottawa, 17.00 (9/3/1)
20. Zed Williams (T66) Colorado, 16.50 (2/1/3)
Scoring System
First 3 Quarters (GTG/GAG/GWG)
Even-Strength Goal: 1.00/1.50/2.00
Power-Play Goal: 0.50/0.75/1.00
Short-Handed Goal: 2.00/3.00/4.00
Fourth Quarter (GTG/GAG/GWG)
Even-Strength Goal: 2.00/3.00/4.00
Power-Play Goal: 1.00/1.50/2.00
Short-Handed Goal: 4.00/6.00/8.00
Overtime (GWG)
Even-Strength Goal: 6.00
Power-Play Goal: 3.00
Short-Handed Goal: 12.00