NLL Week 18: Kew Does it Again

Nobody had a more important weekend than the Georgia Swarm. After beginning the season 4-0, Georgia had two separate three-game losing streaks and found themselves at 7-7 and in major need of a win.

They almost blew their lead against the Thunderbirds, but an Andrew Kew goal in overtime gave them a massive victory and left them in major control of their own destiny. With two games remaining against the reeling Wings, the Swarm have to like where they are at.

That was just one result from the weekend, let’s look at the full recap.

Ottawa Black Bears 13 – Philadelphia Wings 5

After stumbling through the mid-season, the Bears have won twice and also control their destiny. Jef Teat continued his tear of late, finishing with 4 goals and 5 assists. He now has 28 points in his last three games.

Taggart Clark also had 4 goals for Ottawa, while Zach Higgins was sharp, stopping 41 of 46 saves in the win.

Mitch Jones had 4 assists to lead the scoring for Philadelphia. The Wings have now lost eight straight.

Stat of the Game: Defender Callum Jones scored his second of the year and first since returning from injury.

Attendance: 6,487

Saskatchewan Rush 17 – Colorado Mammoth 12

The Rush capitalized on a Mammoth team that continues to miss Connor Kelly, Eli McLaughlin and Zed Williams. Austin Shanks had a career high 10 points including a sock-trick. That was one of two sock-tricks on the night as Ryan Lee had his first 6-goal game for the Mammoth as well.

Ryan Keenan, Robert Church and Clark Walter had 7 points each for the Rush, while Jake Naso won 82% of his draws to significantly slant the possesion advantage in favour of Saskatchewan.

Tyson Gibson had 5 points to trail Lee for Colorado.

Stat of the Game: Now up to 27 goals, Shanks is likely to top his career-high of 31, accomplished in 2022 with the Halifax Thunderbirds.

Attendance: 8,051 – the highest of the year in Saskatchewan.

Rochester Knighthawks 14 – San Diego Seals 13

Ryan Smith was the star for Rochester, scoring 5 goals including the game-winning tally with just 11 seconds remaining, Combined with Ryan Lanchbury’s 7 points (1 goal, 7 assists), the Rochester offence got it done once again.

Ryan Benesch led all scorers for San Diego with 2 goals and 5 assists, while Tre Leclaire found the back of the net four times.

Stat of the Game: Benesch reached 780 career assists, good for eighth all-time.

Attendance: 5,463

Vancouver Warriors 13 – Buffalo Bandits 12

The Warriors improved to 3-0 in the Del Bianco era, beating the Bandits in Banditland. Keegan Bal had a monster 10 points whole Adam Charalambides had a goal and 6 assists.

Dhane Smith had a goal and 6 helpers for the Bandits while Josh Byrne had 2 goals and 3 assists.

Stat of the Game: Buffalo has now lost three of their last five, and have lost three games at home this season. Two of those losses were in overtime.

Attendance: 19,070

Georgia Swarm 13 – Halifax Thunderbirds 12

Andrew Kew was the hero and Shayne Jackson had 9 points for the Swarm, who got a desperately needed overtime victory at home against Halifax.

The Thunderbirds scored twice in the last 19 seconds to tie it, almost pulling off the improbable comeback. But Kew sealed it with his third overtime winner of his career.

Clarke Petterson had 6 points and Dawson Theede had 4 goals to lead to Halifax. Ryan Terefenko had another goal and assist as he continues his impressive season.

The Swarm won depsite winning just 3 of 28 faceoffs (10.7%).

Stat of the Game: Kew’s goal was the second OT winner of his career. He had four game winning goals last season, including the OT winner over the Vancouver Warriors.

Attendance: 4,427