The Saskatchewan Rush need a win in Game 2 of the National Lacrosse League’s Champion’s Cup to extend their season and keep their hopes of a three-peat alive.
Georgia Swarm’s Game 1 victory snapped a string of nine-straight playoff wins for the Rush, dating back to the 2015 West Division Final.
READ MORE: Georgia Swarm top Saskatchewan Rush 18-14 in Game 1 of NLL Champion’s Cup
“We’re a better team than we showed and we have to cut down a little bit on our errors,” Rush head coach and general manager Derek Keenan, aid on Friday in Saskatoon.
“If you give a team like that extra possessions, it’s going to put you in trouble so we expect to be better tomorrow.”
The defending NLL champions have had a week to review the video and there are a few things they’re looking to clean up for Game 2.
Those include taking better care of the ball and putting more pressure on the Swarm forwards, who had their way with the Saskatchewan defence for most of the second-half of last weekend’s match up.
“We got to make life much tougher for them. They’re getting to what we refer to as the ‘dirty areas of the floor,’ you know, prime scoring areas, and they’re getting there way too easily,” Rush captain Chris Corbeil said.
“We got to make them pay the price and it’s not a matter of playing dirty lacrosse — it’s just playing hard lacrosse. You’re allowed to cross-check guys out here, you’re allowed to use your stick, so we got to do a better job of doing that.”
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The ball drops at 7:30 p.m. CT at SaskTel Centre.
A Saskatchewan victory on Saturday would force a deciding Game 3 back in Georgia on June 18.