History to be made at Rush season opener

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Thompson added he’s played against his two younger brothers in college (Miles and Lyle) but never all four in the same game.

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“For me going into this weekend, you go out there and put your best effort,” he said. “It’s not about who you’re playing against. My brothers, the four of us had a lot of backyard experience growing up and that’s one of the biggest things going into this weekend. It brings up a childhood memory for myself with all the hours we put into the backyard growing up.”

The game, which will be recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records is sure to be an emotional one for the team.

“Spending as much time with Jeremy as I do I have a pretty clear understanding of what the game of lacrosse means to them. Just the tradition they uphold with their family so it’ll be a special night for sure,” Rush head coach and general manager Derek Keenan said.

Meanwhile, as a result of the line brawl at the Dec. 16 Christmas showcase game versus the Calgary Roughnecks, the Rush will be without two players, goaltender Aaron Bold and forward Ben McIntosh. Both players were issued a one-game suspension from the league for their roles in the fight.

The ruling suspended McIntosh for intervening in an altercation. Bold received his suspension as the brawl was his second fight.

Roughneck’s players Frank Scigliano Greg Harnett, and Garett McIntosh were also issued one-game suspensions.

“To me I think the league did a pretty good job of evening (the suspensions) out,” Keenan said. “We’ll deal with it this week and we have depth in our roster and we still like our chances going in.”

As a result of Bold being suspended, back-up Tyler Carlson will get the start and the team has signed a third goalie, Peter Dubensky to back-up. Practice roster player Matt Hossack will also dress.

Also playing in their first regular season game this weekend is Ryan Keenan and Mike Messenger who were selected first and third overall in the 2016 NLL draft respectively.

“[With McIntosh] being out we’ll dress four lefts and three rights on the offensive end, usually it’s the other way around,” Keenan added.

The Swarm was the second highest scoring team in the league last season. After adding goaltender Mike Poulin in free agency and adding a few new faces on defence, the game should be closer than the 14-8 stomping they received back in March 2016.

This will be the only regular season meeting between the two clubs.

The game starts at 6:05 p.m. CST, to watch it, click here.

Colton Swiderski is a news and sports reporter for meadowlakeNOW, paNOW and battlefordsNOW.com. He can be reached at cswiderski@jpbg.ca or tweet him @coltonswiderski.