Small's eight points powers Edmonton

Edmonton, AB -Corey Small's offensive numbers and goaltender Matt Disher's saves helped the Edmonton Rush handle the Colorado Mammoth 14-10 Friday in National Lacrosse League action at Rexall Place.

While Small's (3G, 5A) eight points paced the Rush scoring, Disher's 47-save effort held off the Mammoth attack Friday in the first game of a crucial three-game regular season series between the two rivals as Edmonton improved to 4-9 in the standings and Colorado fell to 2-9 in a battle for fourth playoff spot in the NLL West.

The Rush also picked up its second win in a row and third home win of the year Friday with two of its final three games remaining on home carpet, as well.

The two clubs match up again Saturday in Denver in the back-half of the home-and-away series and the teams meet again April 9th at Rexall Place to wrap up the mini series.

"We got the result we needed. That was the key," said Rush head coach and general manager Derek Keenan. "We really needed a shutdown defensive effort and I thought right from Disher out, we had that. We played very well in our own end and we had a lot of jam ... We wanted it pretty bad tonight."

Friday's contest saw former Rush forward Gavin Prout return to Edmonton for the first time since his Mar.15 trade to Colorado, however it was Small who stole the offensive spotlight with his eight-points and Rush sniper Scott Evans (4G, 2A) added six points in the victory.

"It was nice to get the goals tonight," said Small, who took over the Rush scoring lead with 50 points. "I like taking the outside shot, but they gave me the underneath a few times and when you get the clean lane like that you have to go to the net."

"I thought Corey was outstanding tonight. He took the ball to the net hard and with authority and scored some big goals for us tonight," said Keenan.

Ryan Ward (1G, 3A), Brodie Merrill (1G, 3A, 14 loose balls), Andy Secore (2G, 1A), Dean Hill (1G, 2A), John Lafontaine (1G, 1A) and Zack Greer also replied for the Rush while John Grant Jr. (4G, 2A) and Alex Gajic (4G, 2A) both had six-point efforts for the Mammoth

Rush netminder Disher out-duelled the Mammoth tandem of Chris Levis and Chris King in the contest with his finest effort of the back-half of the season and his fourth win of the year.

"He was real good. He's been a streaky goalie his whole career and at this time last year he got hot and we certainly hope that's going to happen again," said Keenan of Disher. "When he gets hot, he's really good."

After a sloppy start to the game, Colorado opened the scoring on a cheeky behind-the-back shot from Grant at 4:11 and just 28-seconds later the Rush answered back when Secore jabbed at a loose rebound in front and found its way past Levis.

Edmonton then went to work with the extra man as Evans notched his team-leading 20th goal and his eighth on the power-play with his quick-stick at 10:39 and then the Rush went up 3-1 after Small's individual effort while shorthanded ended with the Rush sniper turning past the defense and beating Levis with a dip and dunk with 53-seconds left in the opening frame.

The Rush continued the run as Evans fired his second of the night 89-seconds into the second quarter and Ward then gave Edmonton a four-goal bulge when his shot from in tight dribbled across the goal line at 2:40.

Colorado stopped the Rush rally to cut the lead to 5-2 until Merrill turned the transition game up a notch for Edmonton when he took advantage of a bad Colorado and raced down the carpet to beat Levis for an unassisted marker at 5:30.

Grant continued his hot hand for Colorado with two more goals later in the frame to close the scoring with Edmonton ahead 6-4 into halftime.

One minute into the third quarter the Rush added to their lead as Hill quick-sticked a long feed into the open cage and then Small doubled the score to 8-4 when his diving effort across the crease found the mark just over two minutes later before Alex Gajic netted a power-play goal at 5:50 on a nifty three-way passing play.

Evans then outworked the Mammoth defense and beat Levis from in close for his hat-trick marker midway through the quarter before Gajic answered back again for Colorado on the power-play for a 9-6 Rush lead.

Edmonton continued their offensive attack as Secore quick-sticked an Evans feed past Levis at 13:10 and then Small fired his third of the game 80-seconds later to give Edmonton an 11-6 lead.

The Rush continued their run in the fourth quarter as Lafontaine out-waited Levis on a three-on-one to double the lead and Zack Greer then put Edmonton up 13-6 less than two minutes into the frame before Colorado got tallies from Dalgarno and Grant to trail 13-8.

Evans then dialled from long distance for his fourth of the night as his ripper from the restraining line eluded King to put Edmonton up 14-8 and then Gajic found the mark twice for the Mammoth to end the scoring with a 14-10 Rush victory.

Rush mush: EDM scored 14 goals for the third consecutive game ... EDM wore pink helmets in honour of Breast Cancer awareness ... EDM went 1/2 on the power-play and COL was 3/4 ... EDM was outshot 57-50 ... EDM went 14/28 in face-offs ... Edmonton scratched F Dane Stevens, D David Morgan and F Kedoh Hill.

By Bruce Rakoczy