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It turns out the Vancouver Warriors were exactly what the Saskatchewan Rush needed.
After struggling at home all season long, the Rush laid a 17-7 beating on the Warriors, a team they’ve dominated in recent years.
With the pressure on to produce at home following a 1-3 record, head coach Derek Keenan was happy to put on a shining performance in front of the fans at SaskTel Centre.
“I think it was really important to have a bounce back game,” Keenan said. “Just a complete game from goaltending, defence, transition — it was really, really good.”
The win over the Warriors extended Saskatchewan’s winning streak over Vancouver to nine games, including season-series sweeps in 2018 and 2019.
After letting a 7-3 halftime lead slip away a week ago against the Toronto Rock, Keenan and company were determined in all parts of the game.
“We haven’t been great at home this year,” Keenan said. “We’ve been losing the hard work part of the game. I thought we did a good job of that.”
Saskatchewan was determined not to worsen its home record at the start of the game. The Rush swarmed the Warriors on offence with three goals in the opening 6:31 of the first quarter, with Jeff Shattler being involved in all three.
“We want to step on throats,” Rush veteran Jeff Shattler said about the team’s desire to perform early on.
“We want to get up on teams, and then we want to finish teams.”
Saturday was the first time the Rush have scored more than 10 goals at home this season, something they did seven out of eight times at home last season.
“It feels overdue more than anything,” captain Chris Corbeil said of putting up a sizable score.
“It’s more of a bit of a relief. It confirms what we’ve always thought we’re capable of doing.”
Logan Schuss would break the 3-0 lead less than midway through the first quarter. Saskatchewan would respond with four goals in a row, and most of them were treats for the 11,632 fans at SaskTel Centre.
After Ben McIntosh built the lead to 4-1, Mike Messenger picked up a loose ball in transition and bulldozed his way to the front of a net, sending a Warrior defender flying in the process, before slotting his breakaway shot into the net at point-blank range.
Ryan Keenan would add to the lead before a near-perfect power play went to work. Mark Matthews and Robert Church would quickly link up for a slick pass as McIntosh dove from behind the net for a one-time effort to finish off the tic-tac-toe goal.
Keenan was impressed with the showmanship that went along with the score line.
“There were some really precision plays,” Keenan said.
Vancouver was able to score two more goals before the end of the half for a 7-3 score at halftime.
That’s when Corbiel confronted his team to ensure another lead wouldn’t slip away.
“People are watching what happens here to start this second half,” Corbeil said to his team. “Are we going to turn this into bad habits or have it define us this season when we can’t close games out or are we going to show our character and close a game out?”
Back-to-back goals from Robert Church started a 5-2 scoring advantage for the Rush in the quarter.
Shattler would add to the home field scoring breakout for the Rush with a breakaway goal straight from the penalty box in the fourth quarter to make the game 16-7.
Keenan would add a last goal to finish the scoring.
Nine different players scored goals for the Rush.
Mark Matthews led the way with two goals and seven assists. Ryan Keenan led all goal scorers with four goals and added an assists and Ben McIntosh put up six points with three goals and three assists.
Saskatchewan travels to Calgary on Friday to take on the defending champions.