The Links: Dillon Ward denies Calgary comeback to set up NLL Cup Final rematch with Buffalo
Dillon Ward, Colorado Mammoth (Photo: Jenn Pierce)
We spent Sunday morning collecting all the media mentions from last night’s series-deciding Game 3 of the West Conference Finals between the Calgary Roughnecks & Colorado Mammoth.
In yet another super-close finish out West, the defending NLL Cup champion Mammoth escaped the Scotiabank Saddledome with a 9-7 win over the Roughnecks, Colorado now onto the Finals for a second straight season against the Buffalo Bandits.
Click here for The Lax Mag’s NLL Playoffs schedule, scores and more, plus keep reading for last night’s links from Calgary.
Colorado Mammoth, Game 3 NLL West Conference Finals (Photo: Jenn Pierce)
Clearly the conversation coming out of last night’s thrilling West Final is the clutch crease play of last year’s NLL Cup MVP, Dillon Ward, who has been giving a repeat performance for the motivated Mammoth a season later.
For a game that featured single digits on either side of the scoreline, neither netminder - Calgary’s equally brilliant Christian Del Bianco being the other - had the sky-high save totals you’d often expect in a game like this: Ward with only 33 and Del Bianco with 28. Both defensive units gave up little real estate in front of the goal, isolating key offensive contributors, and making the opposition work for any decent chance they were able to manufacture.
With that said, Ward & Del Bianco made saves like these when optimal offensive chance were created, Ward in particular providing the Mammoth with monumental stops late in the game:
There were just five goals scored over the last two quarters, one of which was an empty netter. After the first two rounds of playoff lacrosse, Ward is holding down a 9.75GAA and 80% save percentage, Del Bianco ending with at 9.25 and 79%. With that said, Buffalo’s Matt Vinc, whose Bandits beat up both Rochester & Toronto during this year’s postseason, leads the league in both categories with an absurd 7.07 and 87%.
“It’s amazing what he does. We’re very fortunate to be able to have him back there. He’s one of the best in the whole entire world.” - Colorado captain Robert Hope on Ward
“Number 45 (Ward) was the difference,” Calgary Head Coach Curt Malawsky said (Calgary Sun). “We had some great chances on him. It all starts and ends with the goalie. It was a great series. The difference was by millimetres.”
Of the 16 goals that were scored on Saturday at the Saddledome, 15 different players between the two teams registered one. Colorado power-forward Zed Williams was the lone player that popped in a pair. Calgary’s Tyler Pace, who had been a massive difference maker for the team during this year’s playoffs, was held scoreless and contained to just three shots on goal. Roughenecks’ forward Jesse King (11) and Tanner Cook (11) took more than half of the team’s 39 total shots on target. Hard-nosed Mammoth defender Warren Jeffrey, who had just one goal during the 2023 regular season, netted the game winner last night a week after scoring a pretty important game-tying goal for the team in Game 2.
In Malawsky’s post-game comments in the video above, he also said, “I don’t know where this goes for me. We’ll see down the road, but I love being with the Roughnecks, I love the fans. We got a great ovation walking off the floor. You wave to the fans and give ‘em the thumbs up, and they’re just screaming at ya.”
Curt Malawsky, Calgary Roughnecks (Photo: Jenn Pierce)
Last week Malawsky was named a finalist for the NLL’s Les Bartley Award, a year-end honour given to the regular season’s Coach of the Year. Malawsky, who just completed his tenth season with the Roughnecks as their head coach, has incredibly never won the Bartley Award. This year’s nomination is just his third ever. As a player, Malawsky spent his final two season in Calgary, winning an NLL Cup in 2009 with the team, his last year playing in the NLL.
Pat Coyle, Colorado Mammoth (Photo: Jack Dempsey)
Similarly, head coaches for the league’s final two in 2023 (and 2022) were shut out of this year’s awards, have rarely been nominated, and this year certainly had regular season resumes that would justify end-of-season recognition.
Colorado HC Pat Coyle led an injury-riddled roster to playoff qualification yet again. The only time the Mammoth didn’t play in the playoffs with Coyle coaching was when, well, there were no playoffs during the pandemic-cancelled season in 2019. That’s eight consecutive seasons in the playoffs for Colorado while Coyle was either the head or co-coach leading the bench.
John Tavares, Buffalo Bandits (Photo: Christian Bender)
Buffalo’s John Tavares, whose Bandits dealt with their own significant injury issues in 2023, guided his group to a division- and league-leading 14-4 record. Tavares was a co-Bartley winner with Rich Kilgour in 2019, and Coyle has only ever been nominated once (2018). NLL Hall of Fame inductees as players, Coyle & Tavares will meet in the NLL Cup Finals for a second straight year - so it certainly seems like the rarely recognized bench bosses know what they’re doing, right?
Colorado has now entered five rounds of playoff action over the past two season as the lower ranked team, getting past their opposition in each of those battles. When the Mammoth meet the Bandits next week, it will be six straight time they would at least on paper be the perceived underdogs. Buffalo owns the #1 seed across the entire league, while Colorado was seeded eighth (of eight teams) this year.
The Lax Mag shared an Instagram Story poll soon after Colorado came away with last night’s series win, asking our 34K+ followers who they thought would win this year’s NLL Cup Finals. About 14 hours later, the Bandits were leading with 61% support.
Colorado’s incredible 2022 Cup-clinching performance was picked as The Lax Mag’s top story of 2022.
The Denver Nuggets, who are just a win away from reaching the 2023 NBA Finals, hogged not only the top headlines but most of the sports section in today’s Denver Post. When plugging “Colorado Mammoth” into the paper’s search bar, the most recent result that pops up is a preposterously short post about the team winning the 2022 title. In the NBA since the mid-70s, the Nuggets have never won an NBA championship or even Conference title.
With the NHL playoffs also nearing their final series, the NHL on TNT crew still made time to drop some lax mentions during Saturday night’s broadcast. Florida Panthers’ defensemen Brandon Montour, a Six Nations Arrows & Rebels alumni (and Minto Cup winner), talked to fellow former laxers Wayne Gretzky (also current NLL club owner) and Jon Cooper (Tampa Bay Lightning Head Coach, former Richmond Roadrunner 86-88, plus Hofstra lacrosse) about his love for the sport last night.
The schedule for this year’s NLL Cup Finals was announced right after last night’s game. The best-of-two series will see a rare Monday afternoon game in Denver, specifically a Monday during Memorial Day weekend. As Eddy Tabone points out, it was surely done strategically…