Express finishes home-and-home sweep of Rebel
Montreal grabs early lead, rides it to 13-9 win
Bob Cochrane (Outsider's Guide Game Correspondent)

Tracey Kelusky and Ted Dowling had hat tricks and Curtis Palidwor stopped 45 of 54 Ottawa Rebel shots in the Montreal Express' 13-9 victory Sunday afternoon at Corel Centre.

Montreal controlled the ball for most of the first six minutes, scoring three goals on nine shots. Ottawa tried to dig out by trying long passes to get an offense going; Montreal seemed to like that plan, going to the exact same strategy. Both teams gave up on it, though, after many of the passes were intercepted, creating odd scoring chances that really did not result in any goals. Back-and-forth action for the rest of the quarter had both teams exchanging goals with two each. Score after one quarter: Montreal 5, Ottawa 2.

Rory Graham and Jamie Roy each scored shorthanded goals early in the second quarter, bringing Ottawa to within a goal. The Rebel defended on the power play very well, but then when all was even, Kelusky put the Express up by two on a nice passing play from Bryan Bendig and Todd Richard. The power play teams then took over, with Evans getting one for Ottawa and Kelusky one with Ottawa down by two men. Dean Harrison finished the first-half scoring on a power play goal, which sent the teams to intermission with the Express up, 8-5.

Ottawa started the second half on the power play because of penalties assessed because of a scuffle at the end of the first half. Mike Benedict scored just 29 seconds in and Steven Evans struck right off the faceoff, just nine seconds later, to bring the Rebel to within one again. Brian Bendig recovered the two-goal lead two minutes later and both teams settled into a defensive mode for the rest of the third quarter. End-to-end but not many real scoring chances. Ottawa got most of its 15 third-quarter shots late, in what seemed like a shooting gallery; it led to no scoring, however. The players on both teams were having problems picking up and passing the ball in the third quarter. The result was not many scoring chances and disorganized play. Ottawa won the period, but still trailed afterwards, 9-7.

Montreal played "keepaway" in the fourth quarter, spreading four goals over twelve minutes while closing the door on the Rebel. Shots were even at thirteen for each team (even the loose balls were level at 15), but Montreal scored four goals to Ottawa's two, those scored in the last minute of the game one with Montreal down by two players on the first, the other down by one. Final score: Montreal 13, Ottawa 9.

Matt Disher replaced Andrew Leyshon in the second half. Leyshon played very well in the first half, so it appears Rebel coach Lindsay Sanderson wanted to have a look at both of his goalies. All three goaltenders made great saves today, with Palidwor earning the win with his many great saves and outlet passes. Leyshon even got into the action early in the game, coming out of his net to put a nice defensive check on one of the Express players trying for an outlet pass from Palidwor. The player of the game was Montreal's Bruce Codd, for his three-assist, 18-scoop performance.

The crowd of 6,304 Rebel fans enjoyed a very good lacrosse game today. Even the music was good, both in terms of volume and song selection. No complaints about the music were heard today -- just a few rumblings about the loss and the hope that the coaching changes will give the Rebel some wins. In other words, the usual banter of fans.

Game Report reprinted with permission from The Outsider's Guide to the NLL. (Original text is here.)