PK’s NLL Power Rankings - Week 11

*Reminder these are Power Rankings. To see the Standings please head to NLL.com

1.       Buffalo Bandits – 6-0 (Last Week: #1)

11 weeks in, 11 weeks remaining the top team in the rankings. Buffalo continued their undefeated season with a 16-10 victory in a rematch from last year’s finals vs Albany. A 6 goal 1st quarter saw the Bandits extend their lead to 10-4 at half. A 4 goal run by the Firewolves in the 3rd saw the lead cut to 3, but in typical Buffalo Fashion a 5-2 4th saw the defending champs take the first of the season series and their first win of the Tucker Cup. Josh Byrne (5/5/10) and Dhane Smith (3/7/10) each went home with a 10 spot while Chase Fraser continued his heating up ways with a 2/3/5 night. Matt Vinc continued his impressive season with a 38/48 save night. In fact only 6/10 goals were even strength. The defense was tested and tired having to kill off 9 penalties in the game, but weathered another tough 3rd quarter which has not been their friend this season. The winning streak stands at 15 games while their home winning streak has now reached 10 games. They head into their final bye of the season before getting their 1st of 2 back to back weekends facing off against Toronto on Friday and San Diego home on Saturday.

2.       Saskatchewan Rush – 6-2 (Last Week: #4)

What a second career start from the human crowbar, Thomas Kiazyk. Making 36/44 saves on the night. After struggling out of the gate vs Albany last week before settling in, it was the exact opposite in this one. He held the Seals scoreless for the first 30:55 of the game. Besides a tough 6:35 which saw San Diego score 5 cutting the lead to 8-5, he was incredible in place of Frank Scigliano. There is no goalie conversation with the Rush. When Frankie is back, it’s his net. However, the Rush have their goalie of the future waiting and learning in the wings. He wasn’t the sole stand out on the back end as Jake Boudreau and Matt Hossack combined for 3 blocked shots and 5 CTO in the win. As for the forwards, Robert Church and Zach Manns both walked away with 2/6/8 nights. Ryan Keenan continues to rebound after a slow start to the season with a 1/5/6 night. And Mike Triolo added the depth scoring netting 4 of his own. We have struggled to find a consistent #2 ranked team this year. Seems like we can’t find one to stick. Can that team be the Rush? We liked what we saw and picked them to make the playoffs before the season began so it would not be a surprise to some. They are off this week before a back-to-back weekend heading to Calgary on Valentine’s Day while hosting the Knighthawks the next night

3.       Philadelphia Wings – 5-3 (Last Week: #2)

Down 1 spot this week are your Philly Wings after a 15-12 loss to the Knighthawks in the battle of the skies. A high scoring first half saw Rochester leading 9-7. The Hawks would score 4 of 5 in the 3rd to extend their lead to 5 as the team struggled to find answers on how to stop the big dogs in Rochester’s offense while also allowing 63 shots to pepper Nick Damude who made 48/63 saves. As for the offense, Joe Resetarits (5/3/8) and Mitch Jones (1/7/8) continued to lead the team with 8 points each. Blaze Riorden (2/2/4) and Holden Cattoni (1/3/4) were each credited with 4 points on the night. After their 4 game winning streak to move to 4-1, they have lost 2 of 3 allowing a whopping 47 goals or 15.7 a game. This team has the offense to compete with anyone in the league sitting 2nd at 14.25. However, they are allowing the 13th most goals a game at 13.25 trailing only Las Vegas. This group feels like a team that needs to have Paul Day go out and add a defenseman before the deadline if they want to be able to compete in the playoffs. Maybe a guy like Zac Masson from Albany or David Brock in Vegas if both of those teams keep losing. They host Halifax at home this weekend. In fact, they get to travel to the Nest next weekend before back-to-back games vs Albany to follow. It’s going to be an important next 4 games for Philly if they want to remain in the top half of the playoff seeding.

4.       Colorado Mammoth – 5-4 (Last Week: #3)

Up 6-3 at half, Colorado would score just 2 in the 2nd half and fall 9-8 in OT to Toronto on Saturday night. Ryan Lee looked like his old self, going 3/3/6 on the night. Connor Kelly and Connor Robinson each went 2/2/4 while Eli McLaughlin chipped in 2 points. Overall, the team held the Rock in check. Of course minus the righties who accounted for 8 of the 9 goals. Dillon Ward looked like vintage Dillon Ward in the loss making 57/66 saves. It’s one of those games that the team may look back on when playoff seeding is getting sorted out and wonder how they could have dropped one when your goalie played that well. After starting the season 2-0, the team has alternated between wins and losses. The team will look to stay above .500 Friday night vs Georgia and try to split the season series vs the Swarm.

5.       Calgary Roughnecks – 4-3 (Last Week: #7)

After movement at the goalie position this past week saw the team bring in Gowah Abrams to back up Cam MacLeod, we saw likely the best performance of his career in net for the young starter. Making 36/44 saves to backend the 11-8 victory of Ottawa to get back over .500 on the year. Tyler Pace led all scorers in this one going 4/2/6 on the night. Jesse King continues his great season with a 3/3/6 game, while Curtis Dickson went 2/3/5. But, it was their play on defense that should be talked about in this one. Yes, they were going against the worst scoring offense in the league this season. However, Calgary has struggled keeping the ball out of their own net. They held Jeff Teat scoreless and in check allowing just 3 assists to pair with 0/5 shooting. That is not an easy feat at all. As we said in the offseason, Calgary should have a very good offense. It was the backend that we were concerned about. MacLeod’s numbers still do not look promising with a 13.06 GAA and just a 74 sv%. But, if he can hold teams to 10-11 goals each game, I believe this offense can win more games than they lose. Those games have been hard to come by as it has happened just twice this season. They get another struggling offense in Vancouver Friday night to try to stack wins and continue their climb in both these rankings and the standings.

6.       Georgia Swarm – 5-3 (Last Week: #8)

Back in the win column for the Swarm for the first time in 2025 after their 16-14 victory over the Desert Dogs. Vegas cut the lead 15-14 with 2:44 to go before Andrew Kew netted his 2nd of the night to put the game away. Lyle Thompson was a solid 1/4/5 on the night and finally got the help he has needed this season. Mile Thompson (3/3/6), Brendan Bomberry (0/5/5), Shayne Jackson (2/3/5), Bryan Cole (2/2/4) and Kew (2/2/4) provided the depth scoring this team has wanted for years. However, it was the rookie Toron Eccleston who led all scorers with a 4/4/8 night. While you can’t rely on 8 points from your rookie each game, knowing that he is capable off popping off is something Georgia has been desperately missing. In net, Brett Dobson was shaky at times but made 29/44 saves in the victory. If Georgia can get steady goal scoring from their forward group, they are a threat to all teams in the league. The issue is it has not been consistent in years so I will not be fooled by 1 game. Beyond this one, their highest goal output was 13 goals. Their test will be coming up as they host Dillon Ward and the Mammoth Friday night before getting Nick Rose, Zach Higgins, and Frank Scigliano to follow. We will see what this offense is made of for sure in the next 4.

7.       Toronto Rock – 3-4 (Last Week: #11)

Welcome back into the top 8 for the Toronto Rock who have been missing since week 2 after starting the season in the #4 spot. But, an 0-5 start to a season will do that to you. A 9-8 OT win over Colorado boosted them up 4 spots to #7 this week to extend their winning streak to 3 games. Down 6-3 at half due to a 5-1 run in the 2nd quarter by Colorado, the righties of the Rock went to work scoring 8 of 9 goals in the win, including Josh Dawick’s game winner. He led the way with 4 goals on the night. Tom Schreiber was 1/3/4 as was Dan Craig who is looking to turn his quiet season around. One big negative in the game was the 0/9 shooting from one Corey Small who has looked very off this season. If this offense is going to make noise in the back half of the season, they need their lefties to step up. Craig (6/11/17) and Small (6/11/17) are the 2 vets on that side who have struggled all season long. With the exception of Mark Matthews who is out for the season, this team is fully healthy. In their last 3 games they are giving up an average of 8.33 goals while going against 3 of the top 6 scoring teams on the year. They get San Diego at home this week before a true test comes the Friday after with a rematch vs the Bandits to see where they stand. I still want to see more from the offense, but it seems like the Rock are back to being a threat across the league.

8.       Vancouver Warriors – 4-4 (Last Week: #5)

Sliding down 3 spots this week are the Warriors after their 10-9 defeat at the wings of the Thunderbirds. Vancouver held a 5-3 lead midway through the 2nd, but a 6 goal run followed by Halifax to give them the 9-5 lead. VAN would score the final 4 of 5 but alas, it was too late. Adam Charalambides led the way going 1/5/6 on the night while Keegan ball was held in check going 1/3/4. Marcus Klarich, Kevin Crowley and Ryan Martel all mirrored one another going 2/1/3. The depth scoring was there. Their top 2 goal scoring threats in Charalambides and Bal were held to 2/15 shooting on the night. In net Aden Walsh was a solid 43/53 and remains at the top of the league with a 9.15 GAA. The issues with this team remains the same. While they lead the league with a 9.25 GAA on the year, they are 12th in scoring averaging 10 a game. Only 5 players are averaging more than a goal a game for the Warriors with 1 being Owen Grant. Not having Ryan Sheridan in the lineup all year has hurt, but there are players on this team that have been known to put the ball in the net and are struggling to do so midway through the year. The team is 4-4 sitting in 7th in the standings, but have the likes of Halifax, Toronto and Rochester nipping at their heels. The warriors that started the season 3-1 are 1-3 in their last 4 games. They will look to sweep the season series vs Calgary Friday night in Vancouver.

9.       Halifax Thunderbirds – 3-4 (Last Week: #10)

10.   Ottawa Black Bears – 4-4 (Last Week: #6)

11.   Rochester Knighthawks – 4-6 (Last Week: #12)

12.   San Diego Seals – 3-5 (Last Week: #9)

13.   Albany FIrewolves – 2-7 (Last Week: #13)

14.   Las Vegas Desert Dogs – 2-6 (Last Week: #14)