Friday, April 2 - 7:00 pm at Rexall Place

Edmonton, AB -- The Edmonton Rush will look to improve their post-season positioning with a home-and-away doubleheader weekend.

The Rush will host the NLL's best team, the Washington Stealth, on Friday night before rounding out a home-and-home, back-to-back weekend set with the Minnesota Swarm on Saturday night.

With last weekend's 16-14 win over Minnesota at Rexall Place, the Rush came closer to clinching their first playoff berth in franchise history and now have an opportunity to position themselves for a home playoff date and even a shot at the division lead. Washington currently has the best record in the entire NLL and leads the West Division by 1.5 games on the Rush. Edmonton, which is tied with Orlando for the second-best overall record in the NLL, has a one-game lead on Calgary in the West and is two games up on fourth-place Minnesota. Edmonton, Calgary, and Minnesota all have one game in-hand on Washington.

The Rush got an all-around offensive outburst in their win over Minnesota as 10 different players hit the back of the net. Dean Hill led the way with three goals while also chipping in two assists. Ryan Powell, Ryan Ward, Corey Small, and Gavin Prout each counted two goals with singles going to Brodie Merrill, Jimmy Quinlan, Brett Mydske, Derek Suddons, and Scott Stewart. Ward also paced the attack as he added in five assists for a team-high seven points.

Washington holds a distinctive edge over the Rush in all-time meetings, although the teams have met only once since the Stealth moved from San Jose, California, to Everett, Washington. On the whole, the Stealth have won 10 of 11 meetings with the Rush including a 15-7 victory in Edmonton's opening game of the 2010 season. Ryan Ward and Dean Hill each had two goals in that game for the Rush with singles going to Scott Stewart, Gavin Prout, and Corey Small. The lone Rush victory against the Stealth came during the 2008 campaign as they took a 12-5 victory at Rexall Place. The Stealth came away on top of both meetings last season, which were both played in San Jose.

Last weekend's win over the Swarm was Edmonton's first in three meetings with Minnesota. In both Minnesota victories - one each coming in the 2006 and 2009 campaigns - the Swarm received stellar goaltending as Nick Patterson made 40 saves in a 7-6 win at Rexall Place and Kevin Croswell stopped 46 shots in a 9-7 decision at Xcel Energy Center. The win in Minnesota last season put an ended to the Rush's late-season drive towards a playoff spot.

With seven points in the bank from last weekend's win over Minnesota, Ryan Ward leads the Rush in scoring with 50 points including 21 goals which puts him 19th in the NLL in goals. Gavin Prout is second on the Rush with 41 points (16 goals, 25 assists) and he is tied for first in the league with three game-winning goals. Brodie Merrill is tied with Prout at 25 assists while Andy Secore sits second on the team with 19 goals.

During this weekend's doubleheader, the Rush will face four of the NLL's top offensive players. Washington's Lewis Ratcliff leads the NLL with 32 goals while teammate Jeff Zywicki is third in points with 68 and second in goals with 28. Those two anchor the league's best offense which has racked 154 goals on the season, four better than second-best Toronto. Minnesota's Aaron Wilson, who counted nine points against the Rush last Saturday, is fifth in league scoring with 65 points, while teammate and former Rush Callum Crawford is tied for seventh in scoring with 63 points.

Statistically Speaking: Brodie Merrill collected 17 loose balls last Saturday against Minnesota and climbed to 130 on the season, good for commanding control of second spot in the NLL. Ian Hawksbee stands seventh in the league with 88 scoops on the year ... Andy Secore's five power-play goals on the year is good for 20th spot in the league ... Corey Small continues to creep up the ladder in rookie scoring. The University of Albany product and the Rush's first-round pick in the 2009 Entry Draft has moved into fifth spot in the NLL with 19 points on seven goals and 12 assists. Dane Stevens is 10th in rookie scoring with 10 points (four goals, six assists) in only four games ... Matt Disher has moved into a tie for top spot amongst NLL goaltenders with seven wins on the year. The veteran stopper is fourth in the league with 401 saves.

By The Numbers: The Rush have scored the fourth-fewest goals in the NLL with just 121 on the year - only Rochester, Colorado, and Boston have notched fewer. The 134 goals the Rush have surrendered is the second-best total in the West Division ... The last game of March has proven to be an offensive catalyst for the Rush. Edmonton's 16 goals against Minnesota last weekend on March 27 tied the franchise high for goals in a game originally set last season on March 28 in a 16-12 victory over Toronto ... Defensive stalwart Rory Glaves picked up his first point of the season with an assist against the Swarm ... The Rush are running into two of the league's best power plays this weekend. Minnesota ranks No. 1 with the man-advantage at 59.2% (29-for-49) with Washington third at 47.3% (26-for-55). Edmonton's power play is eighth-ranked at 35.8% (19-for-53) ... Washington has the league's best penalty-killing unit at 69.0% (18 goals against in 58 shorthanded situations). The Rush and Swarm are seventh and eighth, respectively, in penalty-killing - Edmonton at 55.2% (26 goals against in 58 shorthanded situations) and Minnesota at 54.5% (25 goals against in 55 shorthanded situations). Washington also has a whopping 12 shorthanded goals on the year, tops in the league and six better than both Minnesota and Edmonton.