There were only 2 games in the National Lacrosse League this weekend. On Friday night, the Toronto Rock once again showed that they are the class of the NLL. The Rock got 11 points (3, goals 8 assists) from Rob Hellyer and 8 points (4 and 4) from Stephan Leblanc as Toronto rolled over the Colorado Mammoth by a final of 17-9. The only reason the Rock might consider a future without Garrett Billings is because Toronto’s offence has not been this good since 2005 when Colin Doyle, Blaine Manning and Josh Sanderson each scored over 100 points.

Have Shawn Evans, left, and the Roughnecks finally turned the corner with Sunday's OT win over Brett Mydske and the Rush? (Photo: Dale MacMillan)

In the other game of the weekend, Daryl Veltman scored 4 goals, including the overtime winner as his Calgary Roughnecks defeated the Edmonton Rush, in Edmonton, by a score of 12-11. It’s a fine line between winning and losing in the NLL. Earlier in the season Calgary found away to lose every close game. Maybe their luck is changing.

Let’s see how these results affected the Power Rankings. Check it out.

1. (1 last week). Toronto Rock (9-1). The Toronto Rock are looking real good. They are tops in team defence, power play, penalty kill, and second in team offence. The only place where Toronto is hurting is on the faceoff circle. They were 6 of 31 on Friday and that bodes the following question; is the importance of faceoffs overrated in the NLL or would Toronto be that much scarier if it were winning its share? I’m not sure of the answer but at this time I would not take out any of Toronto’s defenders for a straight up FOGO. Next weekend the Toronto Rock have a home and home weekend against the Buffalo Bandits starting in Buffalo Friday night.

2. (2). Rochester (6-3). Rochester, which is 6-1 in its last 7 games, had the weekend off and will play in Calgary next week.

3. (3). Edmonton (4-4). Edmonton lost its second straight game, both at home, and both in overtime. This week, it was the Calgary Roughnecks defeating the Rush by a score of 12-11. Edmonton played a lot better this week than itdid last weekend but suddenly next weekend’s game, against the Vancouver Stealth, has become a first-place battle.

4. (4). Buffalo (5-5). The Bandits had the weekend off and will hope to have a health Anthony Cosmo and John Tavares in their home and home weekend coming up against the Toronto Rock.

5 (6). Vancouver Stealth (4-4). The Vancouver Stealth, who are 3-1 in their last four games, had the weekend off and will travel to Edmonton next week for a chance to jump into first place in the West.

6. (5.) Colorado (4-5). After starting the season with three straight wins, the Colorado Mammoth have gone 1-5 and took a bit of a beatdown at the hands of the Toronto Rock, losing 17-9. The game got away from the Mammoth in the second quarter and they never were able to get closer than 3 goals. Next week the Mammoth will host the Minnesota Swarm on Sunday.

7. (9). Calgary (2-7). Maybe the lacrosse gods have stopped punishing Calgary Roughnecks as they finally ended up on the winning side of a close battle. The Roughnecks defeated their Alberta rival, the Edmonton Rush, by a 12-11 OT score. Despite their terrible (0-6) start to the season, each of the three teams ahead of the Roughnecks only have two more wins. Next Saturday the Roughnecks host another tough team, the Rochester Knighthawks.

8. (7). Minnesota (3-5). The Swarm, who have lost three straight, had the weekend off. Next week they will host New England on Saturday and then travel to Colorado for a Sunday evening game.

9. (8). New England (2-5). The Black Wolves had their second straight weekend off and will hope to get a win in Minnesota next weekend. The Black Wolves are on a 5-game losing streak.