February 27, 2010
Blazers surpass Stealth, .500
by Phil Shore/
Fighting to go above .500 for the first time this season, the Blazers had their hands full against the Western Conference-leading Washington Stealth Saturday night at TD Garden.
Neither team amassed more than a one-goal lead until Dan Dawson’s third goal of the night with 1:37 remaining in the fourth quarter lifted Boston to an 11-9 victory.
“Obviously we started off the season 0-3 but we’ve just been taking it one game at a time,” coach Tom Ryan said. “Last year we struggled a little bit at home and I’m really glad to see that we’re really buckling down and getting those close wins at home.”
The Stealth are second in the NLL in goals but it took them more than 10 minutes to score their first goal of the match, which tied the score at 1-1.
“Washington has a very talented offense,” Ryan said. “We were just making sure that we were shutting off the creases and not giving them anything easy, and we were stressing all game long little things — hustling on the floor, taking care of the ball.”
Dawson (three goals, three assists) put the Blazers (5-4) on his back in the fourth quarter. He broke a 9-9 tie with 5:29 left with a goal off a pick and roll with Brenden Thenhaus (three goals, four assists) in front of the cage, and iced the game nearly four minutes later with a diving goal across the crease.
“A lot of times this season I haven’t been taking the ball to the net as much as I should, and when it comes to the fourth quarter, crunch time, sometimes I’ve been a bit too passive,” Dawson said. “I’ve come in at the start of this second half to have a new mind-set that near the end of the game I want the ball in my stick. I’ll take the pressure if we lose the game.”
Thenhaus also made an impact in the fourth quarter. He set up the go-ahead goal and scored to give the Blazers a 9-8 lead. Thenhaus corralled a loose ball behind the goal and rolled around the crease, shooting one-handed and putting the ball in the back of the net.
“Let’s talk about the loose ball I missed 12 seconds before that. I felt kind of bad,” Thenhaus joked when asked about his one-handed goal. “I was just lucky. I looked up, saw the ball, and [Washington goalie Tyler] Richards was right in front of me so I just tried to get it in there as quickly as I could.”
The Blazers defense had another strong performance against a strong offensive team. For the fifth time this season, Boston’s defense held its opponent to single digits in goals. It also prevented Jeff Zywicki, who entered the game tied for the league lead with 23 goals, from scoring.
“Jeff is very talented. If you give him an inch he’ll score,” Ryan said. “We just wanted to make sure we always knew where he was. When the ball was loose or rebounds came off the boards, we knew where he was and we weren’t going to give him any garbage goals.”
Gary Bining added two goals for the Blazers, and Mike Kirk, Brett Queener, and Daryl Veltman also scored.
The Blazers have a bye next week and will return to action March 13 when they host the Buffalo Bandits.
