Edmonton sweeps home-and-away series with Washington

Everett, WA -The Edmonton Rush went looking for offensive contributions and for the second consecutive night, the club's back end helped top Washington as the Rush defeated the Stealth 15-14 Saturday in National Lacrosse League action at Comcast Arena.

With a season-best 15 goals scored and timely markers by defenders Brett Mydske and Derek Suddons, Edmonton won its second game in a row to sweep the defending champions over the weekend home-and-away series. The Rush defeated the Stealth 14-12 Feb. 11 in Edmonton in the first game.

The Rush improved to 2-5 on the 2011 campaign and earned their first road victory while Washington dropped to 3-5 in the second of three matchups between the clubs this season.

"It was just a great weekend for us," said Rush head coach and GM Derek Keenan. "Everyone's contributing and now we're back in it and hopefully getting on a roll here."

Mydske, recently named to both the NLL All-Star game and Canada's indoor squad, fired a hat-trick during a pivotal seven-goal run in the second quarter for Edmonton and Suddons' first of the year with just over five-minutes remaining in the contest proved to be the game-winner.

"I thought Mydske was just outstanding at both ends of the floor," said Keenan. "He got that going for us in the second quarter.

"Overall, I thought our transition game was outstanding once again and we got timely goals," he added.

Edmonton scored a franchise-best 11 goals in the first half, highlighted by Corey Small's six-point effort, to take an 11-7 lead into the half and then held off a late Stealth fourth quarter rally to preserve the win.

"The guys are real happy in there," added Keenan. "That's the way we have to compete every night."

After Small's heroics, Scott Evans (2G, 3A) had his biggest game of the season in silver and black with five-points and Gavin Prout had six assists, while Brodie Merrill (1G, 3A), Ryan Ward (2G, 1A), Dean Hill (1G, 1A) Stevens and Lafontaine added the other goals.

Rhys Duch (4G, 5A) had a nine-point night for Washington and the club also had big contributions from Lewis Ratcliff (2G, 6A), Paul Rabil (3G, 4A) and Luke Wiles (2G, 4A).

Edmonton's Matt Disher turned aside 40 shots for the win and Washington Tyler Richards, replaced by Matt Roik for a trio of spells, gave up 12 goals on 41 shots.

The Rush quickly built up a two-goal lead as Ward fired the ball in after setting up top with an extra attacker at 2:44 and then Small ripped a shot past Richards on the power-play 50-seconds later, before Small tallied again less than two-minutes later for a 3-0 lead.

After Rabil got Washington on the scoreboard, Edmonton answered back when Dean Hill found the mark 35-seconds later to go ahead 4-1 and then Washington went on a three-goal run with two power-play markers and a shorthanded tally to end the scoring in the opening quarter.

Duch kept the Stealth flying just 58-seconds into the second quarter as Washington extended its lead to 6-4 and then Mydske answered back in transition for Edmonton less than two minutes later.

The Rush continued the run as Merrill cut into the middle and beat Richards at 6:36 to tie the score 6-6 and then Mydske continued his hot hand with back-to-back goals including a quick-stick just 24- seconds after Merrill's and the hat-trick marker came 63-seconds later for a two-goal Edmonton lead.

Three more Rush goals followed in a span of 126-seconds as Lafontaine scored from the left crease and Evans then dented the twine with his long-range blast and Small's third of the night capped off the seven-goal rally with his hat-trick tally at 11:42.

Despite being outshot 31-23 in the opening half, Edmonton led 11-7 at the break.

After the nine-goal outburst in the second quarter, the third frame hardly lived up to it scoring-wise as the two clubs waited until the final four minutes to find the mark as the teams traded goals highlighted by two Washington power-play tallies and a short-handed ripper from Ward before Evans gave Edmonton a four-goal bulge with 16-seconds left in the frame.

Stevens then extended the Rush lead to 14-9 just over five minutes into the fourth quarter before Washington fired back two-goals in less than 26-seconds midway through the stanza.

Suddons' first of the season beat Richards to the short-side at 9:48 to give Edmonton a 15-11 lead before a late three-goal run by Washington in the final four minutes made for an interesting finish before the Rush closed out the game.

Rush mush:WSH outshot EDM 54-44 ... WSH went 27/33 in face-offs ... EDM went 0-2 on the power-play and WSH went 3-5 ... Edmonton scratched F Kedoh Hill, D Pat Jones and D Jarrett Toll.

By Bruce Rakoczy