Just two teams remain standing in the 2009 National Lacrosse League season and Friday night, one will be hoisting the Champion's Cup. The Calgary Roughnecks and the New York Titans will meet at Pengrowth Saddledome to decide who is the league's best team. Faceoff is at 9:30 ET and can be seen on the NLL Network at NLL.com.
History
The two teams have only met once previously and that was this season. Calgary traveled to Madison Square Garden and defeated the Titans 12-10 on February 28th. Kaleb Toth scored three goals and added three assists while Dane Dobbie had five points on three goals and a pair of helpers. Mike McLellan led the Titans with six points on two goals and four assists while Brendan Mundorf added a hat trick. Matt King made 33 saves for Calgary while Matt Vinc stopped 48 Roughnecks shots in the NY goal. New York played that day without Casey Powell and Patrick Merrill.
Playoff History
Calgary is 6-5 all time in the postseason, 3-3 at home. New York is 3-1 overall and 1-1 on the road. This will be the Roughnecks second Champion's Cup final (they defeated the Buffalo Bandits in 2004) while the Titans are making their first appearance in the finals.
How they got here
Both teams have been successful at home in the 2009 postseason. Calgary defeated the Colorado Mammoth in the West semis 15-8 before taking down the San Jose Stealth 17-5 in the West finals. New York needed overtime to beat the Rochester Knighthawks 11-10 at Madison Square Garden then hopped across to New Jersey and the Prudential Center to beat the Buffalo Bandits 9-3 in the East finals.
Who's Hot
For both teams it's easily the goaltenders. New York's Matt Vinc has a 6.38 goals against with 72 saves in his two games while Calgary's Matt King has a 6.50 GAA and 82 saves. Vinc held the Bandits to just three goals last Saturday while King shut out the Stealth for just over three quarters. The postseason goal and assist leaders are in Calgary (Tracey Kelusky with 8 goals and Josh Sanderson with 11 assists) while the Titans Casey Powell is the overall leader (6G, 9A) with 15 points.
Who has the rings?
Calgary has six players on their roster (Kelusky, King, Kaleb Toth, Andrew McBride, Devan Wray and Kyle Goundrey) who helped the Roughnecks to their 2004 NLL title. In addition, Toth (2000), Josh Sanderson (2005) and Pat Campbell (1999, 2000) won championships with the Toronto Rock. For New York, Patrick Merrill won twice with Toronto (2003, 2005) while Dave Stilley won in 2001 with the Philadelphia Wings and again in 2006 with Colorado. Bill Greer won in 2007 with Rochester.
Pick
Both teams have solid goaltending and have shown they can shut down a high powered offense. Their regular season meeting was a tight game. Calgary prevailed but New York fans might have wondered if the result could have been different with their leader (Casey Powell) in the lineup. They'll find out on Friday night.
New York 10, Calgary 8
