Zack Greer fires five goals in Edmonton win

Edmonton, AB -Rush forward Zack Greer sent a message to his former club with an eight-point performance as the Edmonton Rush nipped the Minnesota Swarm 14-13 Friday in National Lacrosse League play at Rexall Place.

Greer's fifth goal of the game with only four seconds left on the clock earned Edmonton (3-9) a hard-fought victory over the visiting Swarm (5-5) and the Rush snapped a four-game losing skid in the thriller on home carpet.

Acquired from Minnesota Mar. 2nd in exchange for Edmonton's first round draft pick in the 2013 NLL Draft, Greer was the offensive catalyst for the Rush in a night where he was one of many former players that made an impression on their former club.

"It was fun," said Greer. "Anytime you play your old squad you want to put on a good showing and obviously the most important thing is we got a W."

"They had confidence in me and I had the hot hand, so they gave me the ball and Deaner (Hill) set a great pick and opened it up and tried to find a hole by the knee where they were going in earlier in the night and it squeaked in there for me," he added on the game-winner.

"I think for him, it's all about opportunity" said Rush head coach and general manager Derek Keenan. "He's going to get an opportunity here as we've given him.

"He is a special player and he will be in this league for a long time. He's an athlete and he wants the ball on his stick at crunch time. That's his MO and we'll continue to give it to him at crunch time."

With their remaining schedule laden with home dates, the Rush needed a win on home soil to strengthen their playoff hopes as the club now sports a 2-3 mark at Rexall Place with three of their last four starts at home.

Edmonton was also able to close the game out this time around, despite dropping three games earlier this season with a lead in the fourth quarter.

"Even though we got down late, we still stuck with it and it was a complete effort by the whole group," said Keenan. "That's key because we've had so many games this year where we played well enough to win and we didn't. And now we get off the schnide and get that win that gives us confidence and now we remember to win."

Besides Greer's numbers, Ryan Ward (2G, 3A) and Brodie Merrill (1G, 4A, 10LB) both had five points and Scott Evans sniped two goals, while Mike McLellan (1G, 1A), Andy Secore (1G, 1A), John Lafontaine and Kedoh Hill added singles and Corey Small chipped in with three helpers.

Former Rush forwards Ryan Benesch (4G,4A), Callum Crawford (3G, 2A) and Mat Giles (3G, 3A) paced the Minnesota attack.

Goalie Matt Disher earned the win in net for the Rush with 28 stops on 41 shots and Nick Patterson was tagged with the loss for the Swarm.

Minnesota opened the scoring 94-seconds into the contest before former Greer responded back for Edmonton when he let the ball fly from 35-feet out on the power-play to tie the score 1-1.

After the Swarm went ahead 2-1 Edmonton then went on a four-goal run started by Ward after Kyle Sweeney took two defenders towards the corner and found Ward heading to the net and the Rush leading scorer deposited the ball past Patterson at 8:44.

Merrill gave Edmonton its first lead of the game after he galloped towards the net and found the near side with his deft shot that was followed by Kedoh Hill's sidewinder from the top of the crease just 12-seconds later and then Greer potted his second of the night with a long-range ripper from just inside the restraining line for a 5-2 lead.

The two clubs traded goals late in the stanza as Secore restored the Rush three-goal lead with his ninth of the year as Edmonton took a 6-3 lead into the second quarter.

Minnesota scored two markers within the first five minutes of the second frame to pull within one goal before McLellan answered back for Edmonton when he out-waited Patterson on the left crease at 10:57 before the Swarm netted two goals in an 80-second span to knot the score 7-7 into halftime.

The Rush power-play went to work in the third quarter as Evans notched his sixth and seventh man advantage tallies that sandwiched Greer's hat-trick marker as Edmonton went ahead 10-7 before the Swarm answered back with a three-goal run of their own to tie the score 10-10 after three quarters.

Ward broke the deadlock with a running snipe 2:11 into the fourth frame for his second of the night and Minnesota quickly answered back 28-seconds later to tie the score for the fifth time in the contest and then went ahead 12-11 with just over eight-minutes remaining.

Greer continued his hot hand as he netted his fourth of game when his shot from in tight dribbled past Patterson to lock the score again and then the Rush transition game lifted Edmonton up one goal as rookie Lafontaine tip-toed the crease and slipped a shot past Patterson with 95-seconds left on the clock.

Benesch then tied it 21-seconds later before Greer's heroics with only four ticks on the clock proved to be the winner when he cut into the middle and fired his fifth goal of the night to provide the Rush with the 14-13 victory.

The Rush face the Colorado Mammoth for the first of a three-game regular season series Friday, April 1 at Rexall Place that continues Saturday at the Pepsi Center in Denver in the back-half of the home-and-away series.

Rush mush: EDM went 3/6 on the power-play and MIN was 1/3 ... EDM outshot MIN 48-41 ... EDM went 19/31 in face-offs ... Edmonton scratched F Dane Stevens, D David Morgan and D Jarrett Toll.

By Bruce Rakoczy