Guess Who's Back? Grant Lifts Nats over Denver
from press release
In the final week of the 2009 regular season, the Toronto
Nationals made a strong statement for their post-season campaign
for the Seinfeld Cup by dominating the Denver Outlaws. Bud Light
MVP John Grant Jr. finally played up to his 2008 form as the
reigning MLL MVP by scoring 5 goals. With tonight's victory,
Toronto claims the second seed for this year's New Balance
Championship Weekend.
Denver jumped out to a quick, three-goal thanks largely in part to
power play goals from Drew Westervelt and Josh Sims. John
Grant Jr. found the back of the net for Toronto's first goal of the
night midway through the first, setting off a barrage of goals from
four different Nationals players. Shawn Williams, Jeff Zywicki,
Brodie Merrill, and Merrick Thomson gave Toronto a 5-3 advantage by
the end of the first period.
Kicking off the second quarter, the Outlaw attack answered with
two quick goals from Matt Brown and Westervelt, whose goal came off
another power play situation. But, in the same way as the first
quarter, the Nationals seized control with 5 goals, four of which
came from John Grant Jr.'s stick. Denver rookie Max Seibald was
able to find the net late in the half, but was unable to spark any
sort of comeback from Denver.
Entering halftime, the Nationals extended their lead to 4 goals,
with a score of 10-6.
Seibald started things off quickly for his Outlaws by scoring
within the first minute of the half. Following almost half a minute
later was teammate Dan Hardy. Just as Denver seemed to find some
momentum, the Nationals, again, cut off Denver by unleashing a
4-goal streak, including a crucial, short-handed goal from Thomson.
Gavin Prout, Stephen Hoar, and Delby Powless combined for the other
3 goals, pushing the Nationals lead up to 6 goals.
Westervelt gave some hope to his teammates by scoring an
unassisted two-pointer in the first two minutes of the fourth.
That, however, went to waste, as Toronto held the ball for most of
the quarter. Aside from two more goals from Thomson, the Nationals
chipped off minutes from the clock by smart possessions and play,
from both their offense and defense.
Both teams split halves with their goalies, a strategy that has
been standard for the Nationals this whole season. Denver's backup
Adam Fullerton saw quality minutes, playing for the entire second
half and making 6 saves off of 12 shots. Jesse Schwartzman played
subpar to what has been a phenomenal season for the All-Star
goalie, letting in 10 goals and making only 6 saves.
Toronto's Doc Schneider and Brett Queener played strong halves by
each making 10 saves. Queener was given the win, moving his record
to 6-3 for 2009. Along with strong performances from Merrill and
the rest of the defense, Schneider and Queener were able to hold
the Outlaws to a season-low 10 goals.
Offensively, Toronto obviously filled the stat book with 11
players recording at least a point. Aside from John Grant Jr.'s
spectacular performance, Thomson turned an equally impressive night
with 4 goals and 1 assist. Jeff Zywicki also tallied 5 points after
scoring once and assisting another 4 goals. Last but certainly not
least, face-off specialist Geoff Snider dominated the draws,
winning 18-28 contests at the X.
With the regular season over for both teams, Denver and Toronto
have the next two weeks to prepare for Championship Weekend.
Toronto certainly made statement to the other three teams with
tonight's victory, and Denver will definitely want to hoist up
their first MLL Championship trophy. This year's playoffs are
already shaping up to be the most exciting in league history.
