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May 19th, 2008 by Paul Tutka (www.nllinsider.com)

Having the two slickest clutch ballers in the post-season didn’t end up meaning much when it was all on the line. Portland’s snipe-show, Dan Dawson and Ryan Powell, as usual took their game to another level in their Champion’s Cup loss against Buffalo, only thing was, there weren’t many else clicking like the two of them.

And trust it, there were a ton of chances for a Jax scorer to step up and knot that game up.

With Portland inching in on the Bandits in the second, third and fourth periods of play, they just couldn’t bury that next goal that woulda, or at least coulda, made a massive difference in the outcome.

Although Mark Steenhuis‘ goal at just over the nine minute mark in the fourth period will officially get marked down as the game winner, there were a few goals previous to that that allowed Buffalo to keep that pillow over the Jax’s face just long enough to inch out the win.

The first one… Dawson had just rifled a short handed goal off a double team on what appeared to be a guaranteed heavy push of momentum for Portland partway into the second period. It was a beyond crucial point in the game. The score at that point was 6-5 in favor of the Bandits, but you could feel the Lumberjax were playing with a new sense of confidence and urgency… then Steenhuis stepped in. Mark got a feed from keeper Mike Thompson and buried a beauty off a high screen past Matt Disher, holding up a rush of momentum that definitely coulda had Portland leading at the half. Seriously, the goal was beyond game defining.

The scond one… happened right after Steenhuis put the breaks on the Jax, with Dawson somehow eeking out another potential momentum shifting marker. This time it was a top shelf blast that woulda hit iron had it gone any higher or even a half an inch to the right. Dawson scored about two minutes after the Steenhuis goal, coincidentally assisted by Powell, just like on the other one in the second period (actually, that was no coincidence). Anyways, this is where that ridiculous goal from John Tavares comes into play. JT took the rock almost right back up to the centre line off a restart, only to to take a detour filled path to the cage. Tavares either dodged, faked or worked some great two-man ball to score what was easily the sickest goal of the playoffs, if not the entire season. And even though everyone was busy wiping the drool off their shirts cuz of what JT just threw down, like Steenhuis’ goal just a few minutes previous, Tavares halted a sure fire run that coulda meant everything to Portland. Not surprisingly, Steenhuis scored 58 tics later too.

And the third one… Kevin Dostie’s third period goal, just seconds after Portland pulled within one again off a power play goal by Peter Morgan (again, assisted by who else but RP). Dosite used the high screen on Dish AGAIN and threw a wrench into Portland’s momentum shift just like his homies Steenhuis and Tavares did a period prior. It’s what kept the floodgates from crashing open to start the second half. Without it, who knows what coulda happened?

So even though Mark’s fourth period goal is what technically won Buffalo the Cup, without those massive goals from, well, Steenhuis anyways, and Tavares and Dostie, the script that played out on Saturday night could definitely have had a much different ending.

Anyways, did a couple things in this last NLL Money Ballers post (which actually had little talk of goals that gave a team a lead and more about the ones that stole ‘em). The first, I simply finished up the Playoff Edition and ran the numbers, which can be found in the first table below. The second, I mashed-up the regular season and post-season numbers to find 2008’s ultimate clutch scorer.

Was Dawson’s late season and playoff clutch scoring streak enough to put him ahead of the regular season champ, Athan Iannucci? Where did Ryan Powell, 08’s top clutch playoff performer, rank on the main leader-board? Find out below…

The foremost boxla writer, Tutka is a former NLL scout and a longtime Inside Lacrosse contributor. Email him at paul.tutka@nllinsider.com.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 6:13 pm and is filed under Press. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.