NLL: Saskatchewan Rush travel to Halifax to open semifinal series

All eyes will be on the Saskatchewan Rush this weekend as they make the lengthy flight to Halifax for the first game of its best-of-three National Lacrosse League (NLL) semifinal series against the Halifax Thunderbirds.

The Rush had the second-best record in the league in the regular-season and are coming off a 13-9 quarter-final victory against the Georgia Storm last weekend.

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Derek Keenan is the co-head coach and general manager of the Rush and thinks it will be good for his group to get its first “mini-game” out of the way in Nova Scotia.

“The mini games are great when you win them,” Keenan joked. “You get a little more perspective on who you are and who your opponent is.

“At the same time, they’re difficult and travel is a big part of it. That’s kind of the reason we have done things this weekend and next weekend, because it was our right to do what we chose to do in terms of when we played the games.”

Keenan and the Rush got into Halifax on Thursday so they could have an extra day to adjust from the travel.

The Rush will host games two and three of the playoff series on May 10 and 11 at SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon. The third game will only be played if the series is tied at 1-1.

The Rush and Thunderbirds split their regular season series, with Saskatchewan defeating Halifax 9-8 in overtime on Dec. 14 and losing 17-8 to the Thunderbirds on March 14.

Keenan admits the Rush have struggled in Halifax and knows Saturday night won’t be an easy game.

“I think we’ve had tough times here because of, honestly, logistics. That’s not an excuse, but we are leaving nothing to chance this week.

“Everybody got in two days in advance. We’re going to get a really good practice in, dinner tonight, and we’ll be much better prepared, rested and ready to go,” Keenan said on Friday.

“Having said that, we got to get out and perform. They’re a difficult team to play against because they play an interesting style — they never want to play a controlled style of play. They’re just going to go to the net all the time and they’re good at it,” he said.

“Our transition game has to be really solid, we have to be disciplined and we have to not turn the ball over. We have to be good in all areas in order to have success here.”

Keenan is hoping his team can play Halifax like it did the first game of the season.

“The way we played them at home, we played them more straight up and honest. Game control, stayed out of the penalty box, power play was good when we needed it to be,” he said.

“We just need to play more of a controlled game here than we did here last time.”

Saturday’s game starts at 4:30 p.m.

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