The Links: McLaughlin & Mammoth sink Seals to secure spot in NLL Finals
Eli McLaughlin, Colorado Mammoth (Photo: Mike McGinnis)
We spent Sunday morning collecting all the media mentions of last night’s series-deciding Game 3 of the NLL West Conference Finals, the Colorado Mammoth beating the San Diego Seals 15-13.
The Mammoth will now battle the Buffalo Bandits starting Saturday in Game 1 of the NLL Cup Finals at KeyBank Center. As confirmed by the league, the schedule for the best-of-three series will be:
NLL Finals
East #1 Buffalo Bandits vs. West #3 Colorado Mammoth
Best-of-three series
Game 1: Saturday June 4, 2022, 7:30pm ET
Colorado at Buffalo, KeyBank Center
Game 2: Saturday, June 11, 2022, 9pm ET
Buffalo at Colorado, Ball Arena
*Game 3: Saturday, June 18, 2022, 7:30pm ET
Colorado at Buffalo, KeyBank Center
*If necessary
Outside of the league, two teams and one major lacrosse media source that buried the thrilling game behind college coverage from Connecticut, as of 1pm ET on Sunday, no one outside of our box-lacrosse bubble seemingly gave the game any post-game coverage. That was not always the case.
Eli McLaughlin continues to possibly be the playoffs’ most valuable player (although Bandits fans would likely insist on including Matt Vinc, Dhane Smith or Josh Byrne in that convo too) after yet another courageously clutch performance against the Seals. McLaughlin, who we calculated to be the regular season’s most-money sniper, has been even more deadly in the playoffs, scoring the game winner and comeback silencer in the fourth quarter. McLaughlin also had an obscene 5 goals and 7 assists in total last night at Pechanga Arena. Here are all five of them…
That last one leaving a young Seals supporter significantly salty.
The hands down most ridiculous marker was courtesy of Joey Cupido, his fourth quarter finish giving the Mammoth their first lead since 2-1 and one they would not relinquish the rest of the way.
Prior to the start of the game, the Seals confirmed that Brett Hickey would be unavailable but Tyson Bomberry available, NLL.com’s transaction page later confirming that Hickey was moved to the IR and Bomberry off the PUP list. Although he hadn’t played a post-season game with them this year, Mark Glicini was moved to San Diego’s hold out list while attending PLL training camp with the Chaos.
With the Seals now eliminated, the following players can now barely take a breath, pack their bags, and get to their PLL camp presumably: Wes Berg, Eli Gobrecht, Tre Leclaire, Brodie Merrill, Mac O’Keefe and Austin Staats. Gobrecht, arguably this past season’s top American defenseman, was also planning on playing for the WLA’s New Westminster Salmonbellies (New Westminster Record), but due to new PLL contracts, that’s highly unlikely now.
In what was his strongest statistical showing of this year’s playoffs, the Seals were powered by Berg’s 4 goals in their season-ending loss.
Last night was Merrill’s 281st game in the league (regular season + playoffs). As has been mentioned many times, the future HOFer has yet to win an NLL Cup. Merrill will turn 41 before the start of the 2023 NLL season.
As reviewed in The Lax Mag’s Week 21 NLL Power Rankings, while long-serving Mammoth players like Dillon Ward, Robert Hope and McLaughlin have yet to win a Cup, it’s actually Cupido that’s been trying the longest.
In their lone meeting this year, the Mammoth upset the Bandits 15-14 during the regular season, one of the few teams to beat Buffalo in 2022. Again, Game 1 of the NLL Finals goes this Saturday in Banditland (7:30pm ET).
Week 18: Colorado Mammoth vs. Buffalo Bandits, Ball Arena (Photo: Isaiah J. Downing)