The Redwoods were in a strong position to make the playoffs entering Sunday’s regular-season finale: either a win or a loss by fewer than 12 goals would punch their ticket to the postseason.
For a team that had lost four of its past five games, however, California needed to do more than back into the playoffs. The Redwoods took advantage of a Denver Outlaws team missing its three starting defensemen and two starting attackmen, putting together a dominant 18-11 victory in Philadelphia.
“We’re excited we earned our way in,” head coach Anthony Kelly said. “We didn’t want to lose our way in. I think that’s important. Now, everything to this point doesn’t matter. Everything goes out the window. We’re in the final phase of the season. The playoffs is a new season. Today feels good, but put it behind us and moving on to Minnesota.”
The Redwoods seemed eager to get the job done. Ryder Garnsey got the party started with a highlight-reel-worthy goal where he caught a pass on the crease from Chris Kavanagh and shot underhanded, one-handed and behind-the-back to stymie Outlaws goalie Logan McNaney.
“Finn [Thomson] made a great cut, drew all the attention from the back pipe,” Garnsey said. “Chris is standing there with his hands free. I did my job to cut at the ball, and the ball ended up in the back of the net.”
That was followed by a goal from Andrew McAdorey.
After that, however, California didn’t score for the final 8:53 of the first quarter. During that time frame, the team committed four turnovers and shot 0-for-5.
Garnsey said the lack of goals wasn’t an indication of poor play on the part of the Redwoods.
“Maybe the score didn’t show it, we went on little bit of a lull, but I thought their goalie made some good saves in the second half of the first quarter,” Garnsey said. “In games past, when we’ve played some decent offense, and the shots haven’t fallen, we’ve sort of gotten away from what we came into the game trying to do. I thought we did a pretty good job of not getting away from what we were trying to do and trusting it and trusting that we’re good scorers, and the next one’s going to fall, and they started falling there in the second quarter.”
The team snapped out of its funk in the second quarter, ripping off four consecutive goals to take the lead and six in total to take control of the game.
Garnsey (4G, 1A) and Thomson (3G, 1A) each scored twice in the quarter to pace the offense. Garnsey, in particular, had the Outlaws’ defense biting on every pump fake and hesitation, getting him closer to go and a higher-percentage shot.
“His creativity shows,” McAdorey told ESPN’s Dana Boyle. “He’s also one of the smartest players on the team. Coaching at [Notre Dame], he brings over a lot of the principles they do, and they’ve been successful. He’s just another coach on the field.”
It was the second weekend in a row Garnsey led the Redwoods in points, but his performance in the victory over the Outlaws had one stark difference when compared to his play in the loss to the Cannons in Boston: turnovers.
Garnsey was immensely disappointed with his play against the Cannons after committing five turnovers. Against the Outlaws, he only turned the ball over once.
“I think it was important to know what I’m good at and what I’m not good at,” Garnsey said. “I thought too much last week, we talked about, dodging off the catch rather than the cradle. I don’t think I’m great dodging off the cradle. I thought I was doing too much of that last week, so just honestly trying to set myself up off-ball to be effective when I caught it and not overcarry.”
With a seven-goal victory, the Redwoods jumped the Outlaws in the standings and finished as the second seed in the Western Conference thanks to score differential, though the two teams will face each other again in the quarterfinals in Minnesota.
The Redwoods’ offensive outburst was a good sign going into the playoffs, but the team’s focus is on maintaining that execution in back-to-back games in order to keep its season going.
“We punched our ticket to the dance, but that’s what we came to do,” Garnsey said. “We’ve played good games over the course of the season and too many times followed up with a bad performance. We have to make sure we carry this momentum to Minnesota.”