The monkey is finally off both Logan Schuss and the Vancouver Warriors’ backs.

Schuss, who hadn’t scored a goal in Vancouver’s previous two games, scored for the fourth time Saturday in overtime to lift his team to a 11-10 comeback victory against the Colorado Mammoth.

The win was the franchise’s first at home since the 2017 season and the first at Rogers Arena.

“In the second half we came out with some fire,” head coach Chris Gill told NLL.com. “[The coaching staff] challenged the boys. We said, ‘Are you happy losing? Is this that what we’re going to do the rest of the year: be content with losing?’ We challenged them and they stepped up.”

Luck didn’t appear to be in Vancouver’s favor after hitting the bar twice in the first minute of the extra frame, but Schuss corralled a rebound and was able to get off a shot that just snuck between Colorado’s Dillon Ward’s legs.

With that shot, Vancouver moved ahead of Colorado for the final West playoff spot.

“It was huge for us to get that win and we need to keep moving forward,” Schuss said.

THE WINNING MOMENT @LoganSchuss18 #VancouverWarriors #COLvsVAN pic.twitter.com/Lkb3W6DNUu

— Vancouver Warriors (@nllwarriors) January 27, 2019

Knighthawks break streak

Speaking of an offensive return to form, the Rochester Knighthawks had their best showing out the front door of the season with an 18-13 home victory against rival Buffalo Saturday. The win ended the team’s three-game losing streak.

It was a huge rebound performance after scoring just four goals against the Bandits earlier this season. To make things even sweeter, the team chased former goalie Matt Vinc.

Austin Shanks was the engine on offense, scoring seven times. He completed the hat trick less than five minutes into the second and the sock trick in the final two minutes of the third.

Buffalo got eight more shots on goal than the K-Hawks but Angus Goodleaf was up to the task. He kept a Bandits offense that lost Josh Byrne to IR earlier in the day at bay.

Big response

Buffalo co-coaches John Tavares and Rich Kilgour must have given a heck of a speech during the team’s long journey from Rochester to Connecticut. The Bandits defense looked stellar on Sunday. Buffalo was less than a minute away from tying the franchise record for fewest goals allowed for a second time this year in a 15-5 victory against New England.

The Black Wolves on the other hand, experienced the opposite swing of emotions. After besting Saskatchewan and Georgia, the Pack looked like a force to recon with. Now they have to go back to the drawing board.

Title rematch

Georgia got ahead in the first quarter, scoring five straight to take a 6-1 lead 15 minutes in, and stayed in front the rest of the way in a 13-10 win against Saskatchewan.

As usual, Randy Staats (two goals, nine assists) and Lyle Thompson (two goals, five assists) had strong performances, as the Swarm won a rematch of the 2018 NLL championship.

Zed Williams, who has spent most of his time in the NLL as a defender, also scored his first career hat trick as Georgia ended a rare two-game losing skid.

“Anytime you lose two, you want to win,” Swarm head coach Ed Comeau told GeorgiaSwarm.com. “You want to win at home, and I think for our group, we know that team down there is a championship-caliber team, and I think we were up for that, and we were also up because we had lost two.”

The Rush will be tested by one of the powers of the East again next week when they travel to Toronto.

Unexpected leader

With Saskatchewan’s loss, the dormant San Diego Seals slid up to first place in the West Division standings. Pretty good for an expansion team, especially considering the Philadelphia Wings are still looking for their first victory.

Philadelphia’s latest close call was perhaps it’s most frustrating. The Wings led the Toronto Rock 10-6 after three quarters thanks to an impressive showing from Kevin Crowley.

Toronto, suddenly with a late burst of energy, needed just half the fourth to take the lead. The Rock ended up scoring one more goal in the fourth than they did the entire rest of the game in a 13-12 victory at Wells Fargo Center.

Toronto, now alone in first in the East, deserves plenty of credit, but it’s hard to not second guess things if you’re a Wings player right now. 

“It’s really easy to point the finger and say, ‘We’re an expansion team. We’re building. We’re growing,’” Wings faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste said. “But I think, as you can see in all the games that we’ve played, we really don’t have much quit in us.”

NLL Week 8 Preview

Knighthawks at Wings
Friday, 7 p.m. ET

Offense: Rochester’s Joe Resetarits had seven points against Buffalo, his best showing all year. Crowley looks to be back in sync after a ten-point performance Friday.

Defense: Wings GM and head coach Paul Day said the defense was gassed at the end of the game this week with Zac Reid playing injured, Chet Koneczny absent after a fight and Dylan Evans sitting in the press box. Rochester’s defense hasn’t allowed more than 13 goals all season.

Rush at Rock
Friday, 7:30 p.m. ET

Offense: Georgia held Saskatchewan’s Ben McIntosh off the board for the first time this season. He previously hadn’t scored less than two goals in a game. Toronto’s Rob Hellyer and Tom Schreiber are now tied with Dane Dobbie for fourth in the league in points.

Defense: It will be a fierce battle at the faceoff X between Jeremy Thompson and Jay Thorimbert. Thompson leads the league with 76 loose balls.

Black Wolves at Swarm
Friday, 7:35 p.m. ET

Offense: Lyle Thompson notched his 300th career point this week. Riley O’Connor and Tyler Digby both failed to score this week for New England. Callum Crawford had three of the team’s five goals.

Defense: New England pulled Doug Jamieson in favor of Alex Buque this week. Buque did well against his old team to stop the bleeding. The Georgia defense was the first to hold Saskatchewan to ten goals since the Swarm did it in the second to last game of last year’s regular season.

Swarm at Knighthawks
Saturday, 7:30 ET

Offense: Georgia scored 10 goals in two of its three regular season games against Rochester last season.

Defense: Rochester is undefeated at home, allowing a combined 22 goals in two games.

Mammoth at Bandits
Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET

It should be an emotional night in Banditland as the team celebrates its annual Tucker Out Lymphoma night. Shawn Williams will be coaching on the other side this year, adding special meaning to the game. For the first time ever, both teams will be wearing special uniforms.

Warriors at Roughnecks
Saturday, 9 p.m. ET

Offense: Vancouver came out strong with 14 goals in the first meeting between these teams but only mustered eight in the second. Calgary’s Dan Taylor has 21 points, two off a career high.

Defense: Warriors goalie Eric Penney did well in net this week in stead of injured starter Aaron Bold. Colorado lost a three-goal halftime lead against Vancouver.