NLL Week 13: Upsets in Denver and Albany

Just when fans thought they had a handle on the 2025 NLL season, the chaos continued. Albany and Vegas both secured upset victories, bringing them into a tie with the Toronto Rock, who dropped yet another heart breaker.

While Buffalo and Saskatchewan have separated themselves, there is very little to separate third place Halifax (6-4) and 11th place Rochester (5-7). The race to the end will be incredible for all fans of the sport.

Let’s check the game by game recaps from this past weekend.

Vegas Desert Dogs 14 – Colorado Mammoth 7

The Dogs snapped a three game losing streak with a big road win over the Mammoth. Jon Donville had 2 goals and 6 assists while Jack Hannah continued his strong season, finishing with 2 goals and 5 assists. Landon Kells was oustanding as well, making to post his season best 84.8% save percentage.

Will Malcom led the Mammoth with 3 goals and 3 assists.

Stat of the Game: Rookie Adam Poitras posted a career high 4 points while also scooping 8 loose balls. Poitras is second to only Connor Fields in loose balls by an offensive player this season.

Attendance: 10,079

Saskatchewan Rush 10 – Vancouver Warriors 7

The Rush are absolutely on a roll, securing their fifth victory in a row. It was also their third straight victory on the road, as they have had no issues winning in hostile environments.

It was a balanced scoring effort for the Rush, with Clark Walter, Brock Haley, and Zach Manns each contributing 4 points.

Keegan Bal had 2 goals and 2 assists for the Warriors, who dropped to 5-6 on the year.

Stat of the Game: Robert Church had 1 assist in the game, and now sits 4 helpers away from 500 on the career.

Attendance: 9,551

Halifax Thunderbirds 14 – Ottawa Black Bears 9

It ain’t broken, so the Thunderbirds aren’t going to mess with their formula of late. They got 6 goals from non-offensive personnel on Friday and used it to win their fourth straight and sixth in seven tries. After starting 0-3 they now sit near the top of the table at 6-4.

Randy Staats led the scoring with 4 goals and an assist for Halifax, while Ryan Terefenko continued his ridiculous scoring streak. He had his third hat-trick in four games, and has 11 goals in that span.

Jeff Teat led the scoring for Ottawa with 3 goals and 2 assists.

Stat of the Game: Terefenko’s previous career highs were 8 goals and 20 points. With eight contests remaining, he already has 14 goals and 26 points.

Attendance: 5,442

Buffalo Bandits 13 – San Diego Seals 12

After pulling off the biggest upset of the season last week, the Seals narrowly missed beating the Bandits again on Saturday. Kyle Buchanan scored the game winner with 4:25 remaining to secure the victory for the defending champs.

Josh Byrne had a goal and 5 helpers to pace the Bandits while Buchanan had a hat-trick.

Dylan Watson had a career high 6 points for the Seals with 3 goals and 3 assists, while Wes Berg continued his tear, scoring 2 goals and 4 assists.

Stat of the Game: The Seals held Dhane Smith to 2 goals and 2 assists. Amazingly, that was his worst performance of the season by a longshot. He had 8 or more points in each previous Bandits game.

Attendance: 6,280

Rochester Knighthawks 15 – Calgary Roughnecks 10

Connor Fields had 9 points and Thomas McConvey scored 5 times for the Knighthawks, who secured an ever difficult road victory inside the Saddledome.

Curtis Dickson had 4 goals and 5 assists to lead Calgary, while Brayden Mayea continued his strong rookie season with another goal and 4 assists.

Stat of the Game: Justin Inacio won 66% of his faceoffs on the night against Mike Sisselberger.

Attendance: 12,378

Albany Firewolves 11 – Philadelphia Wings 6

The Firewolves snapped a three-game skid with a victory over Philadelphia in which they led nearly the entire game.

Tye Kurtz had 4 goals to pace the Firewolves while John Piatelli had 2 goals and 3 assists. Defender Nick Chaykowsky had 11 loose balls in the game to lead all players.

Joe Resetarits led the Wings with a goal and 3 assists, while Mitch Jones and Holden Cattoni had 3 points each.

Stat of the Game: Albany has allowed 6.6 goals in their wins and 14.25 in their losses.

Attendance: 4,661

Georgia Swarm 11 – Toronto Rock 10

In arguably the game of the weekend, one of lacrosse’s all-time great duos connected once again to lead the Swarm to victory. Lyle Thompson found his brother Miles in overtime and Miles deposited the quick stick into the back of the net to secure the road win.

Lyle led all scorers with 3 goals and 4 assists while Shayne Jackson had 3 goals and 3 helpers.

That spoiled an incredible comeback from the Rock and incredible effort from Corey Small. Small scored twice in the last 5 minutes including one with just 27 seconds remaining and had 5 goals on the night.

Stat of the Game: Justin Inacio won 66% of his faceoffs on the night against Mike Sisselberger.

Attendance: It was the 56th time that Lyle has assisted on a Miles goal, and the second in overtime. No player has scored more goals on Lyle primary assists than Miles.