Lumberjax Win Playoff Berth

April 03, 2006
Paul Vogel, Inside Lacrosse

Drought is not a condition all that familiar in the rainy Pacific Northwest, but for the second home game in a row, the Portland LumberJax experienced just that for nearly ten minutes of the first period, this time against the never-give-up Edmonton Rush. But it was a one-sided drought as Edmonton rained five unanswered goals on Portland goalie Matt King, before Dallas Eliuk replaced him after only 6 minutes in the first. Fortunately for Eliuk, the Portland defense also checked into the game with him, and the tide turned.

After that, the LumberJax had a more Pacific Northwest attitude and poured in 10 unanswered goals, dominating the next three periods and outscoring Edmonton for the win, 14 – 10. The win, combined with Colorado's defeat of Arizona, gives the LumberJax its first ever playoff berth.

The Rush clawed to stay in it with 3 power play goals in the fourth, but that only made the final score seem closer than the game ever was after Ryan Sharp started the Portland onslaught at 1:55 in the first period started.

Merrill finished the night with another assist plus a trio of goals and another 26 loose balls, but Peter Morgan led all Portland scoring with 4 goals and 3 assists. Added to his 7 points with 5 goals from these two teams’ meeting on Friday night, Morgan had a big weekend with a total of 9 goals and 14 points in 48 hours. Jason Clark was also the scoring leader for Edmonton both nights, bagging a hat trick and 5 assists in this game.

Del Halladay led 5 other Portland scorers with 2 goals. Shawn Cable had 5 points on 5 assists; Bruce Alexander had 5 points including one goal. The Portland crowd roared when role-playing defenseman Ray Guze notched his first goal of the season.

Edmonton scoring rested heavily on Clark, though Kevin Howard had 4 points including a goal.

Peter Morgan’s performance this weekend nonchalantly moves him into the point lead for Portland this season, surpassing Mike Hominuck who was absent for both games with other obligations.

After the game, Peter Morgan said, “They were capitalizing on everything they could. But we needed to pick it up offensively, and we did.”

Morgan credits his teammates to a great extent for his big weekend.

“I feel I’m working well with the guys, especially with Cable,” he said. “He’s a big threat, too, and that creates opportunities.”

After the Edmonton first-period explosion, Portland dominated scoring and defense holding Edmonton to 1 goal in the entire second and third periods.

“The big key was, we had to shut them down, and we did,” said Jax coach Derek Keenan. “We started out again a little soft defensively and we dug a hole…. we can’t win games like that all the time; you only have so many of those in the tank.”

The torrent became so great, even Edmonton made a goal change in period 3, substituting Portland native Dwight Maetche for starter, Pat Campbell. But all Maetche was able to do was absorb the loss. For Portland, King and Eliuk simply reversed roles from their game against San Jose last week when  a rusty Eliuk, just back from injuries gave up 6 goals in the 1st period, but King came in to shut down Stealth scoring on the way to earning NLL Defensive Player of the Week honors.

Eliuk had 37 saves on 42 shots; King 3 saves on 8 shots; Campbell and Maetche combined for 43 saves on 58 shots.
Asked what changed things for Portland offensively, both Keenan and Merrill answered, “defense.”

Merrill explained, “When you’re down that fast by a score like that, you play a little more desperately; you’re looking for some momentum; you get more aggressive in transition, and that works for us.”

The game was drawn out to almost 2 1/2 hours to clock malfunctions, prolific referee and official conferences, plus 84 minutes of penalties on 22 infractions, not completely unusual with teams playing two back-to-back weekend games.

When confronted with 36 scoreless minutes by Edmonton, Jax goalie Eliuk said, “I wouldn’t give that too much thought or credit … this game is all about momentum.”

Portland created the momentum. And about the playoffs and how far Portland can go, Eliuk responded, “As far as we want to go. We started off flat but won the game convincingly.” He believes that on any night this team can do what it wants, and needs, to do.