‘JAX SNIPER SCORES FOUR, BUT PASSES THE PRAISE
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 12:13 pmDawson leads 7-goal outburst in final quarter
Kristen Odland, Calgary Herald
Published: Sunday, May 11, 2008
It was expected Dan Dawson would be somewhere in the spotlight.
The Portland LumberJax marksman followed up last weekend’s career performance by scoring five goals and 10 points in a 16-12 victory to end the Calgary Roughnecks’ National Lacrosse League season Saturday and claim the West Division final.
But this time, he made room for Ryan Powell to earn some credit.
The native of West Carthage, N.Y., scored four goals Saturday and couldn’t have picked a better time.
Powell nailed all of them in the final 17 minutes and scored half of a six-goal momentum builder in the fourth-quarter that drove the spike through the Roughnecks’ 2008 season.
“Those goals did come at a big time of the game,” he noted. “I think we kinda took the life out of Calgary.
“We played a great team game. I was just the one there in the fourth quarter with the ball on my stick. It could have been anybody. We’ve got confidence in all our guys out there in the offensive zone.”
While Calgary led Portland in faceoffs, loose balls, and shots on goal — the LumberJax still managed to out-gun the home team and get the job done.
While Dawson had scored seven goals in last weekend’s 18-16 win over the No. 1-seeded San Jose Stealth in the West Division semifinal, he noted Saturday was a group effort.
“It’s not a one-man team at all,” said Dawson. “We’ve got a lot of depth. I don’t think a lot of guys get credit out there.
“Look what Ryan Powell and Peter Morgan did out there — they won us the game.”
Peter Morgan also scored four goals, while Brodie Merrill, Derek Malawsky, and Richard Morgan rounded out Portland’s scoring with singles.
“Ryan Powell had a helluva fourth quarter,” said Portland head coach Derek Keenan. “We needed that.”
“They made an adjustment; they were doing a pretty good job on Dawson. (Powell’s) a difficult guy to handle one-on-one, and they left him alone a lot. He finished well, too, and I thought that was key for us.
“I thought we shot the ball extremely well.”
Portland had established a 6-3 lead after the first quarter and were limited to one goal in the third.
But after a seven-goal outburst in the final frame, the LumberJax were moving on.
“We’ve started scoring goals,” said ‘Jax netminder Dallas Eliuk. “We believe in each other. We’re peaking at the right time.”
Not bad for a team that started the season 1-5 in a 16-game regular season.
Now, they’ll ride into Buffalo’s HSBC Arena as the first team with a sub-.500 record to play in the Champion’s Cup final since 1992.
The LumberJax will take on the East Division Champion Buffalo Bandits next Saturday (7:30 p.m. MDT, The Score, Ch. 30).
kodland@theherald.canwest.com
© The Calgary Herald 2008
