Playoff Round 1: 5/14 vs Stanwood

Views, thoughts and opinions expressed are those solely of the lax-dad. No player or team representative has endorsed any of the below content.

Lynnwood: Here we come!

On a beautiful night before an equally divided crowd, SLC raced out to a quick 3-0 lead and never looked back, finally finishing off the team from the north, 9-2 in the first round of the DII playoffs. Sammamish will face Lynnwood on Friday, May 21 for the right to advance to the semi-final game against the winner of Wenatchee and Blanchet.

The offense came to play. Quick strikes by Christian Paxton and Tyler Wright dug a quick hole for Stanwood to trip into. A nice dodge and a sharp angled shot coming from behind the net on the left side by Matt only kicked sand in their face. A punishing defensive effort and faceoff wins in 10 of 13 draws for Matt and team limited Stanwood’s scoring attempts to a mere 7 shots. And the offense was clicking with crisp passing that resulted in Brian Headland racking up three assists to go with his one goal. Other scoring credit goes to Christian (2g, 1a), Neal Hones and Andrew Wenzel.

Friday’ game in Lynnwood (11-2), Westsidelax.com’s preseason favorite (SLC picked third), will match the most prolific scoring team in the league (three of the top five scorers in the league play for Lynnwood) against the league’s second-ranked defense based on points allowed. And while Lynnwood can put it in the net, opponent shots hit yarn at a high rate as well. Lynnwood scored 216 points and yielded 118 points for a point deferential of 98. SLC scored 160 points and opponents scored 42 goals for a =/- of 122 points. Lynnwood goalie David DeKoukkouk saved 94 of 180 shots for a Sv% of 56% and a Goal Against Average of 9 goals per game. Scott Johnson saved 49 of 79 shots, 63% for a GAA of 2.0/game.

As often stated here on this blog, I’m that last one who should be expected to offer insight or an accurate forecast for a game’s outcome. But that said, let’s take a look at some numbers. Both teams played opponents with a combined record of 54-63, so each team’s 11-2 record is padded with wins over weaker opponents. Lynnwood has proven that they will shoot, to an average of 29 shots per game while averaging 16 goals per contest. SLC shoots an average of 21 shots on goal and averages 11 points. I haven’t seen Lynnwood play, but I’m guessing that they just shove the ball down opponent’s throats with speed and quick passes.  SLC has a much more deliberate, structured offense, working the ball around the wheel before taking shots. This could account for the difference in shots on goals between the teams. Each team converted on 53% of their shots on goal.

While Lynnwood’s opponents shot an average of over 16 shots per game (7.7 pts/game), SLC opponents shot 7.6 shots and scored an average of 2.8 points per game. SLC goalie Scott Johnson saved, as noted above, 63% of attempts on goal; DeKoukkouk 56%. And, during the season Lynnwood faced four top 10 goalies (based on over 480 minutes in the crease) going 4-0 in those contests. SLC faced six top 10 goalies going 4-2, losing twice to Lake Washington.

The math then figures that if Lynnwood gets their 29 shots on goal and Johnson saves 63%, Lynnwood will score 11 points. If Sammamish shots their average 21 shots and converts on 53%, SLC will score 10 points. Does this mean that Lynnwood wins the contest 11-10?

Only if Lynnwood gets the ball. Therefore, control of the ball will begin with face-off wins. And when SLC gets the ball they need to hold onto it and not turn the ball over. And from the look at the season totals, Lynnwood didn’t face a defense like SLC. If this team is to win, the Long-pole Rats are going to have to deliver the checks and slides that minimize the flash fire offense of this team up the I-5.

 Win the faceoff battle

2.     Control the ball and no turnovers

3.     Play the defense this team is capable of

Do these things to minimize the Lynnwood shot attempts and be confident that Scott will have a great day in the crease and we will win!

Go team!

Game 13: 5/8 vs. South Kitsap

Views, thoughts and opinions expressed are those solely of the lax-dad. No player or team representative has endorsed any of the below content.

Sorry for the technical problem with the column width that results in 

broken words at the end of each line. Will work to fix the problem shortly.

SLC (11-2) finished up their regular season with a 16-8 victory over the peninsula team. I didn't attend and neither did the team's leading scorer, but that didn't much matter.

On to the playoffs. The guys will play Stanwood (9-4) in round one. From the looks of it the team can score but they give up a lot of points. Lets hope any offensive tightness gives way to the guys shooting bullets past their goalie. A victory only leads to a game with high-scoring Lynnwood, but who doesn't want that?

Matt scored 4 goals and finished the regular season as the third-leading scorer (8th in conference, 74 in league) on the team with 23 points (18g, 5a), a team and conference-leading 77 ground balls (20th in league), and an unofficial face-off win percentage of 87%. He controlled the offense from the top, made minimal mistakes and was one of the leaders on the team. A good season for Matt. But a good season means little without a win against Stanwood. Last year, the team was happy to make the playoffs. This season they expected to be here. Based on the teams they played and the huge point differentials, it's fair to question how good this team is. The difference between SLC and Redmond is the same difference that exists between Lake Washington, the conference winner with a 13-0 record, and Sammamish. For SLC to move past this first playoff game, there needs to be a lot more attention to the details than this team showed against LW. I believe Coach Mitchell is preaching that the guys just need to play, don't worry about winning. If they can relax and play as they are able they will be just fine in this first-round game.

Lets hope my next post is about a thrilling victory. Go Matt! Go SLC!

Game 12: 5/5 vs. Lake Washington

Views, thoughts and opinions expressed are those solely of the lax-dad. No player or team representative has endorsed any of the below content.

Hats off to Lake Washington. They played well, great defense again, and their goalie had a good night in the crease stopping some shots (he didn't have to stop the shots that we missed). And Jake (6pts) and Cody (3pts) had awesome games. Jake is such an active player, always squirming around with the ball. He just seems like the prototypical middie, that how he plays is how that position should be played. But I digress from what I really want to talk about.

Momma always said, if you're you're going to be critical of another, be sure to say three nice things before you say anything bad; then follow that up with another nice thing to say. She called this some sort of "love sandwich" or other...

OK, three nice things.

1) I didn't think of my kidney stones at all during the game. That's a positive thing

2) it didn't rain during the game

3) As of tonight standings, SLC (10-2, 139 PF, 33PA, +106 ) would play Stanwood (8-4, 111PF, 87PA, +24) in the first round of the playoffs on May 15th.

I've been saying this to everyone around me at games and on this blog that I'm the last one who knows anything about this game of lacrosse (however, I listened to some yelling parents around me tonight that would prove that statement to be false), But let me make a couple of observations:

1) We are (at least) one reliable stick away from being a decent team on offense. We come up short when looking for that player who can catch and shoot. You can't lift one guy from his position to fill the void without creating another hole. We always seem like we're a man down on offense.

2) For the last three or four games I've expressed concern about this team, that something is out of whack on offense. Despite the wins, despite the scoring, something that was working has stopped working. Here's my theory (or rather, my uneducated guess): We are a better team when Brian Headland has the ball. In the first seven games of the season Brian was a double-threat. He could score when he needed and wanted to, but he was unselfish enough to pass the ball when there wasn't a shot for him, so he got assists as well. In these last four conference games Brian's scoring is down and the offensive frustration is up. You go figure it out.

Tonight's game was so frustrating. We had scoring opportunities and didn't capitalize (at times didn't even shoot when in front of the net). We could've been tied/ahead at half if we had converted. Yet we never seemed to really be in the game, or I should say, never seemed to have the chance to win. We lost the opening faceoff and they score, Bernstein to Bernstein, 1-0. Just two brothers playing catch.

And that said, is there any love for the face-off win on this team?

To complete the "sandwich" I need to say something positive: I think we can beat Stanwood. Despite their scoring it looks like they give up a lot of points. SLC can score and defend. Stanwood had an early season win against then-undefeated Lynnwood, so Stanwood knows how to win.

Matt won 13 of 18 draws (118 of 134 for the season, 88%) with one goal. Much credit for the faceoff victories go to the wings who battled until Matt could finally wear down his opponent. The guys battled well.