So Fine Number 9
The Boston Blazers and the Washington Stealth met on February 27, 2010 at the TD Garden in Boston to play in their ninth game of their 2010 NLL season. The Blazers (4-4) were coming off of a high, winning four of their last five games. One of those wins came against Orlando. Boston and Orlando played through regulation and Boston came out on top in the second overtime period. It was the longest game played in NLL history.
Washington, who owned the best record in the NLL (6-2), came into the Garden with the taste of victory on lips. Little did they know, Boston was still hot and looking for more. After a scoreless 6:40 went by in the first quarter Mike Kirk drew first blood with his first goal of season to make it 1-0 Boston. The Stealth’s Lewis Ratliff answered back with a goal of his own to tie the game.
The game went back forth. At the half the score was 5-4 in favor of Boston. As the game crawled deeper into the night the score went back and forth favoring one team then the other. At the start of the fourth quarter the score was a draw at 7-7. In the fourth quarter we saw a late burst from the Blazers. As the minutes ticked down the Blazers chalked up 4 goals, 2 from captain Dawson, 1 from Bining and 1 from Thenhaus(3 goals, 3 assists on the night), whereas the Stealth tallied only 2. Along with the goals from Dawson, Bining and Thenhaus the Blazers’ defense in the fourth quarter was tenacious. With 48.1 seconds left on the clock Washington had a missed opportunity on a breakaway that turned into two missed opportunities off an odd-man rush. The Blazers held on to win the game 11-9.
After the game Captain Dan Dawson said this, “we have three things we work on, outwork, outsmart and out execute the other team.” Being a captain and a leader he mentioned this in a strategic huddle with 1:30 left in the game and that may have given the Blazers enough will and enough strength to lock it up for the city of Boston.
David Messuri is a senior at Stoneham High School
The Blazers Beat is a student reporter program which provides high school students access to the Garden on game nights. Students will receive a media credential for a game of their choice, access to the post-game player and coach press conference and can write a game recap which the Blazers will help to publish with their local papers. For more information, contact Krista Olson, Marketing & Event Operations Manager at krista@blazerslacrosse.com.