Hot hand: Manns scores six in OT win for Saskatchewan Rush

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Zach Manns’ lacrosse stick was so hot that he needed to cool it off in a bucket of ice after the game.

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His white stick had turned ember-red, resembling a flamethrower Saturday.

It was that hot.

While Manns was burning his stick from both ends, the Saskatchewan Rush erased an 8-3 deficit with six unanswered goals — five of those coming from Manns, including the game winner at 7:17 of overtime — for a 9-8 comeback win over the Halifax Thunderbirds at SaskTel Centre Arena.

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Manns, who also scored in the third period, finished the game with six goals as Saskatchewan found a way to win and improve to 2-0 in the National Lacrosse League this season.

“I told (Rush associate head coach Jimmy Quinlan): ‘let me go up top and I’ll end this game’ and I did,” said Manns, whose team rebounded from a disappointing first half in which they trailed 6-2 at half-time.

“That was probably the worst first half I’ve ever played and, like, the best second half I’ve ever played in my life. It’s funny how things work and it just shows what sticking with it will do.”

After Halifax jumped out to an early 4-1 lead, scoring its first two goals on its first two shots and capitalizing on its size advantage, Saskatchewan slowly took over the game late in the third quarter.

It was Manns who nearly single-handedly led the way.

“He was a big factor,” admitted Rush associate head coach and general manager Derek Keenan.

“We just started to execute better and I think our depth overall was important to us because we played not only (Jake) Naso in the faceoffs but nine guys out the back door and they (Thunderbirds) kind of cut it down to five or six. I thought we had a lot more energy. Let’s be honest. We were not good on offence for almost three quarters. Even Mannsy, who basically carried us to a win, he didn’t even had a shot on net, I don’t think, until he finally scored when it was a little bit of a flogger. It kind of got him going and he’s such a dynamic athlete and you get the ball on his stick when it’s crunch-time and he did the job for us.”

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Brock Haley, Austin Shanks and Levi Anderson, who scored the tying goal in the fourth quarter, also scored for Saskatchewan, which took a shot deficit and turned it into a 50-47 advantage in the end.

“We like to make it interesting,” said Rush defender Holden Garlent. “We didn’t really come together as a team until the fourth quarter there, but we got it done. A lot of good performances — obviously Mannsy getting six. After a guy like Robert Church goes down (with a high ankle sprain), it’s pretty hard to bounce back and kind of rally around that but we obviously did a great job. Guys like Naso and Jake Boudreau had something like 21 loose balls, which is absolutely unheard of in this league. A lot of guys stepped up in obviously a crucial win. To start the season 2-and-0 is massive.”

Halifax fell to 0-2.

Dawson Theede paced the Thunderbirds with four goals. Mike Robinson, with two, Thomas Hoggarth and Randy Staats also scored for Halifax, which led 4-1 after the opening quarter and 7-3 after three quarters.

“They’re big bodies,” said Garlent. “Obviously Theede’s a handful. Robinson’s a rookie in this league but he’s fast-paced and has a lot to prove. He’s got a cannon of a shot. We kind of settled in. Looking back to last year, we struggled with these guys, getting blown out two straight games, but we showed a lot. Keeping a game under 10 is not easy in this league and to do it back-to-back weeks is absolutely massive. It just gives us the confidence to know that we can do it. And obviously two very good opponents, which is always good.”

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If the T-Birds used size to their advantage in the first half, they eventually appeared to run out of gas. The Rush got stronger and more fuel efficient.

“You know what? We like to think we have the quickness and speed advantage,” countered Keenan. “They’re a big club. The other thing, too, is offensively — and this is something we need to talk about and address — we didn’t play last week and that’s a factor and you could tell, We weren’t sharp. We dropped passes. We didn’t shoot the ball very well. We missed the net on really good looks. Our execution timing was off and, as the game went on, we got better and it’s not only Mannsy but the whole group sort of, especially after Robert went down, they buckled up and said, ‘let’s go.’ After they got seven, and they only got two (goals) in the second half, we were outstanding. We set the tempo. That’s what we talked about. We want to dictate tempo and dictate pace in the game, especially on defence, and I thought we really did that in the second half and Frankie (Scigliano) was excellent.”

Scigliano made 39 saves for Saskatchewan.

“Overall, we could see it in the fourth quarter and overtime — we had more energy,” added Keenan. “They were tired. They were tired on D. They were tied on offence. I thought we were the better team in the latter part but we certainly weren’t great for almost three quarters, especially on offence.”

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