It’s been a rollercoaster ride of a season so far for the FireWolves, who cracked the NLL’s top eight in the Power Rankings for the first time since Week Four. After starting the season 3-9, the FireWolves seem to have found their identity when it mattered most. Albany’s surge is thanks in part to its rookie heroics. Back-to-back game-winners from Dyson Williams have propelled them to three straight wins, and now the team is thoroughly back in the playoff mix. Doug Jamieson was sublime with 57 stops in the team’s win over Buffalo this past weekend. If he stays hot over their final three games, don’t bet against Albany to make the postseason and potentially make another run. In addition to needing Georgia, Calgary, and Ottawa to struggle, the road ahead is brutal for the FireWolves. After a bye week, Albany finishes with a road game against Vancouver and a home-and-home with San Diego.
7) Colorado Mammoth (8-6)
Week 17 Results: Lost to Ottawa 14-9 Week 18 Opponent: at Saskatchewan (10-4) Previous Ranking: 6th
Despite a disappointing loss to Ottawa on Sunday, it seems unfair to unduly punish Colorado given that Dillon Ward was out on paternity leave. Figuring out their offense will be a big question over the season’s final few weeks without Zed Williams and Eli McLaughlin. Colorado needs two more wins to feel comfortable in a playoff spot, but the road to the finish line is exceptionally difficult. Two meetings with Saskatchewan, plus games against Buffalo and Calgary round out the schedule. The Mammoth need to make a statement this upcoming weekend that they intend to close strong when they head to Saskatchewan to play the Rush on Saturday, 9 p.m. ET on ESPNU.
The Warriors are a completely different team than the version that lost to Saskatchewan on February 21. The offense has scored 11 goals or more in the team’s last three games, and Christian Del Bianco’s presence in the last two weeks has visibly impacted Vancouver’s overall confidence for the better. Del Bianco immediately became an anchor between the pipes, stopping 81.4% of shots in his first two games. What is so noticeable about Vancouver since that loss to Saskatchewan is the team’s sense of urgency on offense. They’re attacking early in the shot clock, pushing transition and setting the tempo of each game that they play. The playoff picture might look a lot different had Del Bianco been wearing a Vancouver sweater on March 7 when the Warriors lost a heartbreaker on the road in San Diego. This team is clearly trending in the right direction and will get a chance to make a massive statement this upcoming Saturday when it travels to Buffalo for a meeting with the league’s top-ranked team.
The Rush didn’t play this weekend, but they did clinch the playoffs for the first time since 2019! Despite the accomplishment, concerns still circle around their offense and its relative lack of scoring explosiveness throughout the last month. And due to San Diego’s effort against Calgary, the team slips one spot in the rankings. Since scoring 17 goals against Rochester on February 15, the Rush haven’t scored more than 10 in any game, and have been limited to an average of eight over their last three contests. The absence of Robert Church was clearly an issue, but even in his return two weeks ago against Halifax, the entire unit looked out of sorts. The good news for Rush fans is that their favorite team is primarily built from the back door forward, meaning that the Rush are more capable of winning defensive slugfests than most of their peers. Still, asking Frank Scigliano to be elite every week is less than ideal. That’s a lot of pressure for any goaltender. The schedule for Saskatchewan is fairly favorable down the stretch, featuring two games against Colorado, one against Calgary, and one against Ottawa. The Rush will have an opportunity this weekend to make a statement that they should climb back into the top two or three teams in the Power Rankings when they host the Mammoth on Saturday night at 9 p.m. ET on ESPNU.
The Graeme Hossack game! It wasn’t all that pretty, but the Thunderbirds held on to beat the Black Bears in a high-scoring spectacle over the weekend. Hossack netted a hat-trick in addition to two assists, 13 loose ball recoveries, and one caused turnover. Warren Hill’s struggles between the pipes are certainly a source of concern. Yes, he’s been very good for much of the season, but getting pulled less than halfway through the first quarter still is eyebrow-raising. The good news, however, is that the Thunderbirds proved they are capable of winning shootouts. While Mike Accursi and company would surely like to avoid playing 17-16 games in the playoffs, it’s certainly a nice data point to file in the back of his coaching staff’s collective mind. At the end of the day, the Thunderbirds may be an imperfect team, but they’ve won seven of their last eight games and can likely guarantee themselves a playoff spot with a win in any of their final four games—three of which will be on the road. The first opportunity to do so comes this upcoming Sunday when Halifax travels to Georgia. 4 p.m. ET on ESPNU.
With Kyle Rubisch and Trevor Baptiste back in the lineup for the first time in well over a month, San Diego shook off some early rust to dominate the Roughnecks down the stretch of the game. After falling into a 9-7 hole early in the third quarter, the Seals ripped off nine of the game’s final 12 goals to pull away. Wesley Berg is playing at an MVP level, pouring in five more goals and becoming the second player in the NLL to reach the 40-goal threshold this year. Ben McIntosh has found his scoring touch once again, netting five goals in his last two games after a seven-game stretch in which he scored just six times. Zach Currier once again bolstered his under-the-radar case for MVP with another insane stat line of three goals, two assists, 11 loose ball recoveries, and one caused turnover. The Seals are the healthiest they’ve been since opening weekend and have built depth and a resilient identity in the weeks since then. Still, a brutal stretch awaits San Diego, featuring three straight road games before returning to the West Coast for their regular-season finale at home. Their next game not only has massive playoff ramifications but could also have an impact on the MVP race when Berg and the Seals travel to Rochester to play Connor Fields and the Knighthawks on Saturday.
February 1, 2025: Rochester Knighthawks vs Philadelphia Wings
2) Rochester Knighthawks (8-7)
Week 17 Results: Idle Week 18 Opponent: vs San Diego (8-6) Previous Ranking: 2nd
Rochester took its four-game winning streak into a bye this past weekend, sitting at home with a chance to nurse any nagging injuries. During their winning streak, the Knighthwaks’ offense has been absolutely lethal, scoring 14 goals or more in all four games and averaging an absurd 17 goals per contest. Like Wesley Berg from San Diego, Connor Fields has been on an absolute heater the last four weeks, posting 37 points in the four-game run of victories, while potting 11 goals in his last two games. Fields and Ryan Smith (76 goals) make up the highest-scoring duo in the NLL and threaten teams with a remarkable left-right balance on the floor. Ryan Lanchbury is knocking on the door of his first career 100-point season, and Thomas McConvey’s development as a second-year player makes Rochester considerably more difficult to defend. Riley Hutchcraft has been quite good when needed this year, stopping north of 79% of the shots that he’s faced, while Rylan Hartley owns one of the highest ceilings of any young goaltender in the league when healthy. If the goaltending situation remains stable during their final three-game run, the Knighthawks may very well climb into a top two or three position, depending on what happens to the teams around them. Rochester now enters its showdown with San Diego on Saturday rested, and hoping to make a statement that the team’s position near the top of the Power Rankings is not a product of recency bias.
Buffalo Bandits’ Josh Byrne on March 21, 2025 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, NY. Las Vegas Desert Dogs @ Buffalo Bandits. (Caroline Sherman/NLL)
1) Buffalo Bandits (11-3)
Week 17 Results: Beat Las Vegas 13-10, Lost to Albany 11-10 OT Week 18 Opponent: vs Vancouver (7-7) Previous Ranking: 1st
The Bandits split their weekend, beating Las Vegas and losing to Albany in overtime. Still, it’s difficult to penalize the Bandits for slipping up in the second half of a back-to-back weekend against one of the hottest teams in the league. Dhane Smith and Josh Byrne combined for seven goals in the two games, which is slightly behind their typical pace of 4.3 combined goals per game. The good news for Bandits’ fans is that two of Buffalo’s three losses have come in the second half of a back-to-back — the Bandits have lost only once this year with a full week of preparation leading into a game. A playoff spot has already been sewn up in Banditland, which means that the final four games are just a matter of deciding seeding positions and possible home floor advantage. It’ll be an interesting final four games for the Bandits, who still play Vancouver, Colorado, Halifax, and Georgia. Next on the schedule is an interesting date with the surging Warriors on Saturday in Banditland.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
3rd Party Cookies
This website uses Google Analytics and Facebook to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.
Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.
Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!
