By Scott Zerr
EdmontonRush.com

As of now Curtis Palidwor is the man.

His sensational performance coming off the bench to make 42 saves in the Edmonton Rush's 11-9 victory over the Arizona Sting earned the veteran goaltender Defensive Player of the Week honours from the National Lacrosse League. And when you're on a roll there's no sense in changing things up.

"We're going to go with whoever is hot," said Rush GM/Head Coach Paul Day when asked about his goaltending tandem heading into Sunday's return match with the Sting in Arizona.

"Curtis and Paddy (Pat Campbell) have totally different styles. Paddy already has six assists this year so he brings a different aspect to the team as far as our transition game. I think for the majority of the season they'll split the time. Our last six games are all back-to-back games so we'll need both of them going."

Palidwor is the second member of the Rush to win a weekly award from the NLL this season. Chris Gill picked up Offensive Player of the Week honours with his eight-point performance (four goals, four assists) in the Rush's season opener against Philadelphia. Edmonton had only one weekly award during the entire 2006 season when Campbell was the Defensive Player of the Week for a 54-save showing against Calgary.

Palidwor allowed only five goals in over 55 minutes of play - an effort that helped push the Rush to a 7-2 edge in scoring over the second and third quarters. From there, the Rush put up some solid defence that held the high-scoring Sting at bay.

"It was a pretty important win - our second at home after not winning any last year," said Day. "I watched Curtis over the last few years when he was in Calgary and he was definitely the strength of their playoff push in 2004. He's a mature guy and most times goaltenders are sort of off on their own, but he's a good leader in the room which is a nice surprise for us."

Although the Colorado Mammoth have stormed out to 6-1 start in the NLL's West Division, the rest of the teams are clumped close together meaning a Rush (2-3) sweep of the Sting (4-2) would certainly put them in a position to make some room for themselves. In order to do that, the Rush will have to contend with the Sting's stingy defence and find a way to control Dan Dawson, Arizona's leading scorer who potted four goals in Edmonton last Saturday.

"I see it being a low-scoring game and hopefully a low-scoring game will work in our favour," said Day.

new scout
The Edmonton Rush have added former Rochester Knighthawks defenceman Casey Zaph to the staff as a scout. Zaph played for Day in Rochester but had his own NLL career cut short when he suffered a serious brain injury.

Zaph is back to his full-time job as a teacher in Toronto and has already put together some comprehensive memos for the Rush.

"His reports are four or five pages long. He has always been a bright guy and even after the injury he's still very bright. You would never know he had the injury," said Day. "I think it's very important to have a guy like Casey involved in the game and I think it's great for our organization."

rush ramblings
It was overshadowed by the performance of Palidwor but Randy Daly now has both game-winning goals for the Rush this season. Daly's four-point night against the Sting gives him 17 points on the year - only seven back of his total for all of last season. Daly also has a lead of two (34-32) over Cam Bergman in loose balls.