Around the National Lacrosse League for the games of Week Fourteen, 30 March-1 April 2007. (Summaries are based on best-available information and may be amended as necessary.)

Philadelphia Wings at Toronto Rock
Friday, 7:30 PM - Air Canada Centre
Info: Game Stats

Ryan Benesch scored four goals as the Rock crushed the Wings, 15-6.

Toronto (6-7) grabbed the lead just eleven seconds in, Kevin Fines unassisted, and extended it to 3-0 by the ten-minute mark (Benesch and Josh Sanderson).

Sanderson scored again four minutes into the second quarter, with Benesch following a half-minute later. By intermission, the score was 8-0 in favor of the Rock.

Philadelphia (5-7) finally got on the board 28 seconds into the third quarter, when Rob Van Beek hit Jeff Ratcliffe with a pass and "Rat" put his shot past Rock netminder Bob Watson. Van Beek then scored a goal of his own, but the Rock dominated the rest of the period, scoring three goals for an 11-3 lead.

Aaron Wilson and Blaine Manning struck early in the fourth quarter, killing whatever infinitely small chance of a comeback the Wings had. Philadelphia did rattle off three goals in the final seven minutes to make the score more respectable.

Benesch led all scorers with seven points, on four goals and three assists. Van Beek paced the Wings, tallying three points (1 goal, 2 assists).

Arizona Sting at Colorado Mammoth
Friday, 9:00 PM - Pepsi Center
Info: Game Stats

Lindsay Plunkett recorded a hat trick and Dan Dawson dished out seven assists, leading the Sting to a 14-8 win over the Mammoth.

Arizona (8-4) took a quick 2-0 lead on goals by Craig Conn and Plunkett, eventually moving that lead to 4-2 by the end of the first quarter. The Sting then put another four-spot on the board in the second quarter, countered by two Mike Law goals for Colorado (10-3), for an 8-4 halftime advantage.

Arizona then thoroughly controlled the third quarter, with Chris Seller, Dawson and Plunkett combining to make it an 11-4 lead late in the third quarter, an advantage which became 12-5 by the beginning of the fourth quarter.

After playing half of the final period scoreless, the Sting extended its lead to six goals, courtesy of Peter Veltman, before allowing the Mammoth to close with three of the final four goals.

Dawson's nine points (on two goals and seven assists) easily lead all scorers. Law and Josh Sims had matching two-goal, one-assist performances for the Mammoth, which has now lost two straight.

Calgary Roughnecks at Portland LumberJax
Friday, 10:00 PM - Rose Garden
Info: Game Stats

The LumberJax snapped a ten-game losing streak, edging the Roughnecks, 13-12.

After allowing the game's first goal to Jeff Moleski, Portland (3-10) ran off seven consecutive goals, four by Ryan Powell, establishing a lead it would not relinquish.

That, of course, didn't stop Calgary (6-6) from making a game of it, rallying to within 8-4 at halftime, on two goals by Lewis Ratcliff and one from Tracey Kelusky.

The LumberJax extended the lead to five goals several times in the third quarter, only to allow Calgary to move it back to four. The tipping point came in the final four minutes of the period, when Ratcliff and Kelusky scored consecutive goals to make the score 11-8.

Matt Holman opened the fourth-quarter scoring, three minutes in, then Calgary -- with a Kaleb Toth goal preceding the aforementioned duo of Kelusky and Ratcliff -- pulled to within 12-11 with five minutes to play.

Tyler Heavenor scored a crucial insurance goal two minutes later, as brother and foe-for-a-night Nolan struck for one of his own moments later. That, however, was the last goal either side would score.

Ratcliff (5 goals, 3 assists) and Kelusky (3 goals, 5 assists) each had eight points for the Roughnecks. Powell led the LumberJax in scoring, tallying seven points on four goals and three assists.

Edmonton Rush at New York Titans
Saturday, 12:30 PM - Nassau Coliseum
Info: Game Stats

Mike McLellan and Jeff Spano scored in the final 22 seconds as the Titans rallied past the Rush, 11-10.

Edmonton (4-7) dominated play early, jumping out to a 5-0 lead with 2:45 left in the first quarter, on goals by (among others) Dan Stroup, Chris Gill and A.J. Shannon, making his first appearance of the season.

Late-period goals by Ryan Boyle and Brendan Mundorf cut the lead to 5-2, and New York (3-11) pulled to within 6-5 by intermission on two goals by Pat Maddalena and another from Boyle.

Edmonton expanded its lead to 8-5 late in the third quarter on goals by Jamie Roy and Stroup, but Jarett Park quickly followed for the Titans, who rallied to within one goal again when McLellan scored early in the fourth quarter.

The Titans finally got their tie on a Mundorf goal with six and a half minutes left, knotting the game at 10-10. Gill, though, scored what sure seemed like the game-winner, grabbing an 11-10 lead for the Rush with just 42 seconds left.

Enter the new heroes of New York Lacrosse -- McLellan deposited a goal 20 seconds later, and Joe Ghedina hit Spano with a pass off the ensuing faceoff, snatching victory from defeat.

Boyle's seven points (2 goals, 5 assists) led all scorers, while Jamey Bowen and Jim Quinlan logged identical one-goal, three-assist showing for the Rush.

Chicago Shamrox at Buffalo Bandits
Saturday, 7:30 PM - HSBC Arena
Info: Game Stats

Cory Bomberry scored four goals, leading the Bandits to a postseason-clinching 15-10 victory over the Shamrox.

Buffalo (9-4) jumped out an early 3-0 lead and in fact had three three-goal runs in the first half, building a 9-2 lead with four minutes remaining in the first half.

After Chris Panos scored to cut the Bandits' lead to six with 1:19 left before intermission, Brett Bucktooth countered with a goal inside of the final second.

Chicago (4-9) scored five times in the third quarter, keyed by two goals and an assist from Josh Wasson, cutting the Bandits' lead to 11-8.

Bill McGlone scored twice early in the fourth quarter to pull Chicago within 12-10, but two eerily-quiet heavy hitters -- John Tavares and Mark Steenhuis, each for just his second goal of the night -- struck for Buffalo, as did Bucktooth.

Kevin Dostie claimed top-scoring honors, recording seven points for the Bandits on a goal and six assists. McGlone and Wasson (2 goals and 2 assists each) were among four Shamrox to finish with four points.

Philadelphia Wings at Rochester Knighthawks
Saturday, 7:35 PM - Blue Cross Arena
Info: Game Stats

John Grant and Ken Millin recorded hat tricks as the Knighthawks clipped the Wings, 12-10.

Just like last night in Toronto, Philadelphia (5-8) had an abysmal first half, trailing 3-1 before the game was ten minutes old and 8-3 at halftime. Grant led the way for Rochester (11-2), finishing his hat trick in twenty minutes.

Philadelphia began the slow climb back with four goals in the third quarter, two by Jake Bergey, cutting the Knighthawks' lead to 10-7 midway through the quarter and putting the host team on the spot to maintain its league-leading record.

The Wings' final push didn't materialize until it was much too late, with Peter Jacobs scoring Philly's eighth goal with just over four minutes left. Jeff Ratcliffe and Athan Iannucci closed out the scoring for Philadelphia.

Greenhalgh and Millin tied for the game high in points, five, on identical lines of three goals and two assists.

Colorado Mammoth at Minnesota Swarm
Saturday, 8:00 PM - Xcel Energy Center
Info: Game Stats

The Mammoth overcame a 7-4 second-quarter deficit to defeat the Swarm, 11-9.

Minnesota (6-6) led 3-2 after a back-and-forth first quarter, despite playing catch-up for most of it as Ben Prepchuk and Pat Coyle delivered leads of 1-0 and 2-1, respectively.

Colorado (11-3) shot back with two goals from Gavin Prout to start the second quarter, but the Swarm countered with four straight goals over the next five minutes, for a 7-4 lead just one night after the previously best-in-NLL Mammoth got taken to the woodshed by Arizona.

The Mammoth drew to within 7-6 just before halftime when Prout and Mike Law scored a minute apart, but couldn't get anything going in the third quarter, scoring and allowing one goal each.

Nenad Gajic then tied the game eleven seconds into the fourth quarter, extending a four-goal run which gave Colorado a lead it would never relinquish.

In fact, the score didn't change until the game's final seconds, when Hill struck with fourteen seconds left to bring the Swarm within one and Jamie Hanford potted an empty-netter to swat Minnesota's last chance at overtime.

Prout led the Mammoth with six points, on four goals and two assists. Spencer Martin finished with the same total for the Swarm, scoring twice and dishing out four assists.

This game was the 1000th in Eagle/MILL/NLL regular-season history.

Portland LumberJax at Calgary Roughnecks
Saturday, 9:30 PM - Pengrowth Saddledome
Info: Game Stats

Nolan Heavenor scored five goals as the Roughnecks avenged last night's upset loss to the LumberJax, winning in a 21-11 rout.

Portland (3-11) opened up a 3-1 lead ten minutes in, with Scott Stapleford scoring all three goals for the LumberJax in what began with the look of another shocker.

Calgary (7-6) soon found its way, running off four goals to finish the first quarter and another to begin the second. After a while of swapping goals back and forth, Tracey Kelusky and Jeff Moleski strung together a pair for the Riggers, who then took a 10-6 lead to the locker room.

Stapleford and Matt Holman combined to bring Portland within 10-8 early in the third quarter, but it was the last good thing to happen to the LumberJax for quite some time -- Heavenor scored four goals in a 9-1 Calgary run, blowing the game wide open.

After that, there wasn't much left for Portland to salvage, and the game ended without major incident.

Heavenor (5 goals, 3 assists) and Ratcliff (3 goals, 5 assists) tallied eight points each, to lead all scorers. Stapleford paced Portland with six points, all on goals.

San Jose Stealth at Arizona Sting
Saturday, 10:30 PM - Jobing.com Arena
Info: Game Stats

The Sting overcame an early 5-0 deficit to defeat the Stealth, 10-9.

San Jose (6-6), which had its five-game winning streak snapped, took the early lead via three Jeff Zywicki goals and two Gary Rosyski tallies in the first nineteen minutes of the game.

Arizona (9-4) erased the lead even quicker, with Curt Malawsky and Dan Dawson keying a 5-0 run with two goals each, tying the game at 5-5 by intermission.

Luke Wiles then put the Stealth ahead 6-5 by scoring the only goal of the third quarter, but Arizona bounced back by scoring four times to start the fourth -- Andy Secore, Dawson, Malawsky, and Peter Veltman.

Kyle Sorensen scored seconds later for San Jose and Andrew Guindon brought the Stealth within a goal, at 9-8, with just under five minutes left, but Dawson netted an insurance goal with 1:17 to play.

Dawson led the Sting offensively with seven points, on four goals and three assists. Colin Doyle tallied five points for San Jose, all on assists.

Edmonton Rush at Chicago Shamrox
Sunday, 4:00 PM - Sears Centre
Info: Game Stats

A four-goal fourth-quarter rally fell short as the Rush defeated the Shamrox, 8-6, in the NLL's lowest-scoring game this season.

Edmonton (5-7) took a 3-2 lead after one quarter, with Dan Stroup scoring twice late in the period, then blew the game wide open in the second on two goals by Chris Gill and singles from Jim Quinlan and Jamey Bowen.

Stroup scored again late in the third quarter -- the only goal of the period -- extending the Rush's lead to 8-2.

Chicago (4-10) mounted a comeback in the fourth, starting with a Bill McGlone goal at 6:55. Mat Giles followed with a goal a minute and a half later, and Darryl Gibson tacked on a pair in the final five minutes.

Although this completely turned the tables on Edmonton, which had held the Shamrox scoreless for 38 minutes and then got shut out for the final sixteen, it still wasn't enough to catch the Rush.

Bowen had a goal and four assists, leading all scorers with five points. Giles (2 goals, 1 assist) and Panos (3 assists) paced the Shamrox with three points each.