In a Rush, Saskatchewan fans have embraced new lacrosse heroes

A smile comes easily to Bruce Urban’s face as he looks around the packed SaskTel Centre.

Urban moved his National Lacrosse League team, the Rush, to the Saskatoon arena at a lesser rental rate and crossed his fingers in the hope the move would pay off after a decade of losing money in an NHL rink in Edmonton where there were more empty than occupied seats. It did, and more successfully than he could have imagined. More than 13,000 spectators were roaring their approval as the Rush put the finishing touches to a 13-8 victory over Toronto on Saturday night, completing a home-and-home weekend sweep of the Rock that began with an 11-9 win Friday at Air Canada Centre -- where attendance was 8,836.

Saskatoon, population 250,000, topping Toronto, population over 2.8 million, in NLL attendance? You bet. In fact, the Rush this week are third in average attendance (10,809), trailing only Buffalo (14,794) and Colorado (13,866).

GM-coach Derek Keenan and half of the Rush roster hails from Ontario. The rest are from British Columbia. Not one is from Saskatchewan. Yet sports fans in the prairie province have welcomed them as if they were returning sons. They’ve done this for decades in support of their Canadian Football League team, and now they are showing the same kind of love for their new pro indoor lacrosse team.

“Very few things in life can unite a community like sports and Saskatchewan fans are proof of this,” says Urban. “There’s never any doubting the loyalty of a Saskatchewan fan. The players can feel it. Our players love these fans and want to give 110 per cent every night because of the close feeling they have with them and the support that Saskatchewan is giving. It’s beautiful to watch.”

It helps, of course, to have a winning team. The Rush won the NLL championship last spring over Toronto and the two weekend wins moved them into a tie with Colorado, each at 9-3, atop the NLL West. Keenan is a three-time coach of the year, Aaron Bold is one of the sport’s premier goaltenders, a defence corps headed up by captain Chris Corbeil is No. 1-ranked, and the dynamic offence includes perennial MVP candidate Mark Matthews is currently ranked No. 2. The Rush provided an NLL-leading seven players to Canada’s lineup that won the world indoor championship last September, and Keenan had a key coaching role.

“Unselfishness,” Urban offers when asked for one word to describe Rush players. “We have chemistry on our team that is something I am so proud of. Our players care about each other at a level that is rarely seen in sports. We have talent and great athletes but, most of all, we have amazing character and good human beings and that has to be number one in my mind.”

The winning goal in Toronto was scored by Curtis Knight with 26 seconds remaining and sparked a raucous celebration by the many family members and friends who had driven in from Oshawa-Whitby where Knight, Matthews and teammates Zack Greer, John LaFontaine and Adrian Sorichetti played junior lacrosse under Keenan.

“We have a lot of Toronto-area guys on the team so everyone had a lot of people coming out,” Knight said. “At times, I could hear them cheering for us. That’s rare in an away building.”

Bold produced his best performance of the year. Given the way Nick Rose was playing for the Rock, he had no choice but to do the same.

“He gave us a chance to win,” Keenan said of Bold. “That’s what he usually does. He had a tough week last week but he bounced back. He was really focused. He made saves he should make and he made some spectacular ones as well. Defensively, especially in the second half, (the Rock) were tough. They played hard and we knew they were going to. Rose played really well. We just kinda of gutted one out. We got a great defensive game and a great goaltending performance.”

On Saturday, the Rush trailed 6-4 in the third quarter and took control with eight consecutive goals. The rally had fans jumping for joy.

“The electric atmosphere in SaskTel Centre is truly an extra man on the field for the Rush,” says Urban. “It pumps up our players and intimidates the other team.”

“It’s been amazing,” says Kyle Rubisch, who has won the league award for defensive player of the year each of the last four years. “The fans and the city are right behind us. They’ve embraced the team. Every game is packed and loud. It makes it real easy to get up for those games. It’s fun to play in front of those types of fans.”

“It’s been phenomenal,” says Keenan. “Our owner and his people did research and they really felt it was a good market and they were right. It’s been fantastic. There’s a buzz around town. The support from the fans, the arena staff, the hotel we stay at, has just been phenomenal. We have dedicated fans. I think we’ve kind of jumped on the Roughriders bandwagon a bit. Fans drive for hours to see games and buy tons of merchandise. Look in the stands and most everyone has on a team shirt or jersey.”

There will be even more of them, after an auction of players’ jerseys raised $10,000 for a local children's hospital.

As the 18-game schedule enters its last month, the main goal is to earn the first-round playoff bye awarded to the team that finishes first.

“To sweep this weekend was huge for us,” Keenan said. “Finishing first is really important given the one-and-done first-round playoff (between teams finishing second and third). That’s a crapshoot no matter who you’re playing. We want to keep striving for (first place) down the stretch here.”

The newest fans of indoor pro lacrosse will be cheering them on.