Lacrosse Young Guns To Duel At The Saddledome
April 18, 2007 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Calgary Roughnecks News Release
Calgary, AB - Two of lacrosse's hottest young prospects will attempt to shoot the lights out when the Calgary Roughnecks entertain the Arizona Sting Saturday night.
Just four players topped 100 points in the National Lacrosse League's regular season - and two of them will perform in the West Division semi-final.
Dan Dawson, of Arizona, came 2nd with 107 points (47g, 60a), while Calgary's Lewis Ratcliff captured 3rd spot with 104 points (50g, 54a).
Only Rochester's John Grant bested them. He collected 111 points (51g, 60a).
"There's no doubt that these two guys (Ratcliff and Dawson) are the top young guns in the West," said Calgary's General Manager, Kurt Silcott.
"Both of them improve season after season and I fully expect that down the road they will be spoken of in the same breath as the greats of lacrosse like Grant, John Tavares and Gary Gait."
Ratcliff, who will celebrate his 26th birthday next week, admits he was not on top of his game the entire year.
"It was a weird kind of season," said Ratcliff today. "There were three or four games in the middle when I just couldn't get going. Not surprisingly I started to get frustrated. But after Dave Paskevich, the team psychologist, told me a couple of things he noticed I was doing - lacrosse tips, not psychology related - my game came back."
Paskevich told Ratcliff he needed to be more aggressive and more unpredictable.
"Dave was dead on with his comments," admitted Ratcliff, "and after I started to heed his advice, the points followed." In the last five games of the year, Calgary's ace sniper collected 41 points.
"Lewis has always been a dynamic shooter," said Silcott, "but as he matures he's learning to use the players around him more and more. He's now getting more assists than ever before and that is making him a more dynamic and dangerous player.
"He also has an incredible fitness level and that allows him to play shift after shift with virtually no drop off in energy or production."
'Dangerous' Dan Dawson, 25, is not a proto-typical indoor lacrosse player.
"At six feet six inches he's much taller than the great majority of the guys he comes up against," said Silcott, "and he uses his height and reach to advantage, reaching around and over his defender to create odd shooting angles.
"He's very hard to handle one on one because of his size and athletism, and unless you shut him down he can run up a whole bunch of points in a hurry."
Silcott added, "Dawson's an excellent shooter and he works the two-man game very well with his right-handed counterpart, Craig Conn."
The Roughnecks GM said both Ratcliff and Dawson will be legitimate league MVP candidates for years to come.
Saturday's semi-final at the Saddledome starts at 7.30 p.m.
National Lacrosse League Stories from April 18, 2007
- Sting Set To Battle The Calgary Roughnecks In West Division Semifinal On Saturday - Arizona Sting
- Minnesota Swarm's Nick Patterson Named NLL Defensive Player of the Week - Minnesota Swarm
- Roughnecks Practice Open To Public - Calgary Roughnecks
- Knighthawks' Steve Toll Wins Weekly Award - Rochester Knighthawks
- Jax Merrill 2007 NLL looseball leader - Portland Lumberjax
- Lacrosse Young Guns To Duel At The Saddledome - Calgary Roughnecks
- Luke Wiles Named Offensive And Overall Player Of The Week - San Jose Stealth
- Wiles Captures Player Of The Week Award - NLL
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