Cinderella Story Ends For Lumberjax

A huge crowd came out to support the Portland Lumberjax, 10,843 Fans Cheer on the Jax in last game of the season.

The LumberJax came up short tonight against a veteran playoff team, the Arizona Sting who won the contest 14-11.

On the Jax offensive side, Mike Hominuck scored four goals and Peter Morgan had two. The Sting was led by Dan Dawson and Lindsay Plunkett who had three goals each. It was the Jax night, who could not get shots past Sting goalie Rob Blasdell who had 41 saves for the evening.

With the victory the Sting advance to the West Division final against the Colorado Mammoth. Both offenses started the game strong with five points each in the opening quarter. In the second quarter however Blasdell and the Arizona defense held Portland to a single goal while their offense put up four to give the Sting a 9-6 advantage at the half.

In the second half, the Jax made a run coming within one goal of the Sting, but Plunkett and Bruce Murray put in two finishing shots to end Portland’s season. Jax goaltender Dallas Eliuk had 31 saves, but suffered the loss for Portland. The LumberJax ended their season with the best record in the West Division at 11-5, but the Sting carried the win tonight in the first round of the playoffs.

”I’m excited about the success of the team this year,” said Coach/GM Derek Keenan. “We had good scoring chances, but it was a tough game.”

The National Lacrosse League and ESPN2 have announced the network will televise the league’s 2006 Championship Game live on Saturday, May 13 at 6PM Eastern/3PM Pacific.