The 2015 National Lacrosse League season, the 29th in the history of the NLL, began on January 2, 2015, and ended with Game 2 of the Champion's Cup Finals series on June 5, 2015. In the finals, the Edmonton Rush defeated the Toronto Rock two games to none to win their first-ever Champion's Cup.
Teams 2015 National Lacrosse League Division Team City Arena Capacity East Buffalo Bandits Buffalo, New York First Niagara Center 19,070 Minnesota Swarm Saint Paul, Minnesota XCEL Energy Center 18,064 New England Black Wolves Uncasville, Connecticut Mohegan Sun Arena 7,074 Rochester Knighthawks Rochester, New York Blue Cross Arena 10,662 Toronto Rock Toronto, Ontario Air Canada Centre 18,800 West Calgary Roughnecks Calgary, Alberta Scotiabank Saddledome 19,289 Colorado Mammoth Denver, Colorado Pepsi Center 18,007 Edmonton Rush Edmonton, Alberta Rexall Place 16,839 Vancouver Stealth Langley, British Columbia Langley Events Centre 5,276
Map of teams
Milestones and events
Pre-season August 5, 2014: The Philadelphia Wings announced that they have been purchased and will be moving to Connecticut, to play at the Mohegan Sun arena. In September, it was announced that the team would be known as the New England Black Wolves. September 21, 2014: The league announces the winners of 2014's annual awards. Winners include Cody Jamieson (MVP), Logan Schuss (Rookie of the Year), Matt Vinc (Goaltender of the Year), and Derek Keenan (Les Bartley Award and GM of the Year) September 22, 2014: The league announced that the Champion's Cup finals will expand to a best-of-three series for 2015. In 2014, a two-game series with a deciding "mini-game" was used. September 22, 2014: The Rochester Knighthawks traded young star Johnny Powless along with Joel McCready and two 2014 draft picks to the Vancouver Stealth for two 2014 draft picks and first round picks in 2015 and 2017. October 23, 2014: The Vancouver Stealth announced that team captain Kyle Sorensen would miss the entire 2015 season due to knee surgery. Less than a week later, the Toronto Rock announced that their captain Colin Doyle would also miss the season due to a shoulder injury. November 21, 2014: Scott Ranger announced his retirement from the NLL after eight seasons. November 27, 2014: Toronto Rock GM Terry Sanderson died of a heart attack at age 62. December 7, 2014: Former league commissioner Jim Jennings died of long-standing cancer at age 53. December 11, 2014: Stealth forward Johnny Powless is announced as a finalist in the voting for the Lou Marsh Trophy, given annually to Canada's top athlete. In 2014, Powless won the NLL Championship with the Rochester Knighthawks, the Mann Cup with the Six Nations Arrows, and the Minto Cup with the Six Nations Arrows. December 15, 2014: The Edmonton Rush announced that head coach and GM Derek Keenan would be taking an indefinite leave of absence for personal reasons. Keenan's wife Wendy had suffered from cancer for a year, and died on January 3, 2015. December 21, 2014: Former Vancouver Stealth and Calgary Roughnecks head coach and NLL Hall of Famer Chris Hall died of cancer. Hall missed the entire 2012 season due to his illness, but returned in 2013. He retired after the 2014 season and was named to the NLL Hall of Fame in the Class of 2014.
Regular season January 21, 2015: The Edmonton Rush announce that Derek Keenan would resume his head coaching duties beginning with their game in Calgary on January 24. March 28, 2015: The Toronto Rock clinched a playoff berth with a 12–10 road win against the Calgary Roughnecks which gave them an 11–3 record. It is the sixth straight playoff appearance for the Rock. March 30, 2015: The Minnesota Swarm traded captain Andrew Suitor to the New England Black Wolves in exchange for their captain Joel White as well as a 2017 second round draft pick. April 4, 2015: With a record of 11–4, the Toronto Rock clinched no worse than home-floor advantage for the division semifinals when the Buffalo Bandits lost at home to the New England Black Wolves, 12–11. April 4, 2015: The Edmonton Rush clinched a playoff berth and no worse than home-floor advantage for the division semifinals with a 17–10 road win over the Vancouver Stealth which gave the Rush a 9–4 record. It is the fourth straight playoff appearance for the Rush. April 4, 2015: With a record of 8–6, the Colorado Mammoth clinched a playoff berth when the Vancouver Stealth lost at home to the Edmonton Rush, 17–10. It is the fifth straight playoff appearance for the Mammoth. April 10, 2015: With a record of 8–6, the Colorado Mammoth clinched no worse than home-floor advantage for the division semifinals when the Vancouver Stealth lost, 14–7, on the road to the Toronto Rock. It will be the first home playoff game for the Mammoth since 2012. April 11, 2015: The Rochester Knighthawks clinched a playoff berth with a 14–5 win at home against the Colorado Mammoth which gave the Knighthawks a 10–4 record. It is the fourth straight playoff appearance for the Knighthawks. April 11, 2015: The Minnesota Swarm was eliminated from playoff contention when its record dropped to 5–10 with a 12–9 home loss to the Buffalo Bandits. It is the second straight season the Swarm has missed the playoffs. April 18, 2015: The Edmonton Rush clinched the top seed in the West Division and a bye to the West Division Finals with a record of 11–5 when it beat the Colorado Mammoth at home, 13–12. It is the second consecutive first-place finish for the Rush. April 18, 2015: The Rochester Knighthawks clinched no worse than home-floor advantage for the division semifinals when they improved their record to 11–5 with a 13–9 win on the road against the Vancouver Stealth. April 25, 2015: The New England Black Wolves were eliminated from playoff contention with a 14–6 road loss to the Rochester Knighthawks that dropped their record to 4–11. The Black Wolves' loss clinched a playoff berth for the Buffalo Bandits with a record of 8–7. Seven minutes later, the Bandits improved to 9–7 when they completed a 17–9 home victory over the Vancouver Stealth. May 1, 2015: The Toronto Rock clinched the top seed in the East Division, a bye to the East Division Finals and the best overall record in NLL with a 10–7 road victory over the New England Black Wolves in their final regular-season game. May 2, 2015: The Calgary Roughnecks defeated the Vancouver Stealth on the road, 14–13, in a game that decided the final playoff berth in the West Division on the final day of the regular season. Jeff Shattler's goal with 5:11 remaining broke a 13–13 tie and provided the winning margin. After an 0–6 start to their season, the Roughnecks went 7–5 in their final 12 games to secure the playoff berth.
Playoffs April 29, 2015: With Rexall Place unavailable for the weekend of May 21–24, the Edmonton Rush had requested permission to host Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals on Wednesday, May 20, and that request was approved by NLL. However, the Rush announced that, in the interest of the team's fans, it would give up its home-floor advantage and host Game 1 on Friday, May 15, with its opponent hosting Game 2. This means that if the series is tied, 1–1, after two games, the Rush's lower-seeded opponent would host the deciding mini-game. May 8, 2015: The Rochester Knighthawks defeated the Buffalo Bandits at home, 14–11, in an East Division Semifinal game. After the Bandits took the lead 26 seconds into the game, the Knighthawks answered with five straight goals in a span of less than nine minutes. The Bandits cut the Knighthawks' lead to one goal at 7–6 late in the second quarter. But Rochester responded with a goal 23 seconds later to take a two-goal lead to halftime. After a Buffalo power play goal early in the third quarter cut the Bandits' deficit to one goal at 8–7, the Knighthawks got three straight goals from Joe Resetarits in a span of less than six minutes to increase their advantage to 11–7. The Bandits never got closer than two goals the rest of the way. Resetarits finished with four goals and was named the game's first star. Cody Jamieson had two goals and seven assists and picked up nine loose balls for the Knighthawks to earn second star honors. Dhane Smith had three goals and four assists and picked up six loose balls in a losing effort and was named the third star. Matt Vinc had 44 saves in earning the win for the Knighthawks. The Bandits had won four straight and seven of their previous nine games entering the contest. May 9, 2015: The Calgary Roughnecks defeated the Colorado Mammoth on the road, 11–6, in a West Division Semifinal game. With the score tied, 1–1, in the latter part of the first quarter, the Roughnecks scored four straight goals to take a 5–1 lead less than five minutes into the second quarter. Two Mammoth goals cut the Colorado deficit to two. But Calgary responded 28 seconds later with the first of two goals in a 37-second span to take a 7–3 halftime lead. The teams exchanged two goals each in the third quarter, and after the Mammoth scored early in the fourth quarter, the Roughnecks held a 9–6 lead. Calgary held Colorado off the scoreboard the rest of the way while the Roughnecks scored two goals of their own to complete the victory. The game was delayed 26 minutes with 7:06 remaining in the fourth quarter by a power surge caused by inclement weather in the Denver area that resulted in the arena lights going out. Roughnecks goaltender Frankie Scigliano had 45 saves to earn the win and first-star honors. Mammoth goaltender Alex Buque entered the game with 2:15 remaining in the second quarter and the Roughnecks leading, 7–3. He saved 19 of the 23 shots he faced and was named the second star. Shawn Evans had three goals and two assists and picked up eight loose balls to take third-star honors for the Roughnecks. May 15, 2015: The Edmonton Rush defeated the Calgary Roughnecks at home, 10–8, in Game 1 of the West Division Finals. The Rush shut out the Roughnecks in the first quarter and led 4–0 early in the second quarter. Calgary responded by scoring six of the next nine goals and trailed by only 7–6 after three quarters. After a power play goal put the Rush ahead, 8–6, the Roughnecks scored two goals in just over three minutes to tie the score at 8 with 3:12 to play. Just over a minute later, Ben McIntosh put the Rush ahead, 9–8, with 2:10 remaining. Edmonton added an insurance goal 37 seconds later to complete the scoring. Mark Matthews had three goals and four assists and picked up five loose balls to take first-star honors for the Rush. Winning goaltender Aaron Bold had 29 saves and was named the second star. Zack Greer had three goals and one assist for Edmonton and was the game's third star.