Darren Zary, Saskatoon StarPhoenix
The Saskatchewan Rush gave its fans an early Christmas present over the weekend.
The Rush will be heading into the Christmas holiday break with a bow tied to its first win of the National Lacrosse League season.
With a sudden outburst of scoring, Saskatchewan pulled off a 17-5 victory over the host Las Vegas Desert Dogs in NLL action late Friday night.
Saskatchewan — which lost its season-opener to the Halifax Thunderbirds and home-opener to the Rochester Knighthawks — built up a commanding 9-2 lead at the half in Vegas and never looked back.
Captain Ryan Keenan had his best game yet in his NLL career with a 10-point night, recording a goal and nine assists.
Robert Church scored four goals and added three assists for a seven-point game. Zach Manns tallied four goals and one assist, while fellow newcomer Nathaniel Kozevnikov had a hat-trick. Clark Walter chipped in with two goals and two assists. Cameron Wengreniuk, another new face for the Rush this season, had two goals.
Mike Messenger, who caused a game-high four turnovers defensively, rounded out the scoring.
Patrick Dodds collected seven assists for Saskatchewan, which held a 48-43 edge in shots and capitalized on five of 10 power play chances. Las Vegas went 2-for-5.
Isaac Ngyou scooped up eight loose balls to lead the Rush in that category,
Big off-season acquisition Frank Scigliano made 38 saves to record his first win for Saskatchewan, which outscored Vegas 6-0 in the final quarter to salt away the victory.
The Rush return to action New Year’s Eve when they play host to the Albany Firewolves. Game-time is 7 p.m. at SaskTel Centre.
