The PennZone

PHILADELPHIA - PennZone -- The National Lacrosse League (@NLL), the largest and most successful professional lacrosse property in the world, has one unbeaten left… and the defending NLL Champion to go through to keep a clean slate as the Toronto Rock (5-0) hosts Buffalo on Saturday (7 p.m. ET, ESPN+, TSN+) in the NLL Saturday Showcase.

The Albany FireWolves were doused from the ranks of the undefeated by a revived San Diego Seals team that looks to continue an East Coast run with a game at Philadelphia (Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+ and TSN+), while the NLL Game of the Week on TSN features the Colorado Mammoth visiting the Vancouver Warriors (Friday, 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT).

Here are 10 things to know about the NLL entering Week 9:

• Three C's for Lyle: Georgia's Lyle Thompson (Onondaga Nation, N.Y.) remains one of the NLL's elite players, and he became the third Indigenous player to reach the 300 goal mark with this fancy tally. NLL.com's Adam Levi went a little deeper into the superduperstar's achievement here (https://www.nll.com/news/lyle-thompson-continues-to-make-history-as-an-indigenous-star/).
• Sands Connects with Riptide: The New York Riptide announced (https://newyorkriptide.com/news/new-york-riptide-partner-with-sands-corporation/#:~:text=Uniondale%2C%20NY%2C%20Jan.,agreement%20comes%20into%20effect%20today) last week that Sands New York (Las Vegas Sands) will become the team's presenting partner for this season and next.
• Shoot, the Messenger: ESPN SportsCenter liked this Mike Messenger (Surrey, B.C.) behind-the-back goal so much (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VwRYCGYfXw&...) that the network made it their No. 7 play from Saturday.
• Community Corner: A few teams continued notable community outreach recently, including:
  • For each home contest, the Vancouver Warriors and Head Coach Curt Malawsky host a local family at Rogers Arena. Malawksy donates the tickets to B.C. Children's Hospital (https://www.oursportscentral.com/services/relea...).
  • The Las Vegas Desert Dogs went back to school on Saturday, (https://vegaspublicity.com/44485/las-vegas-dese...) offering a one-hour assembly-style presentation available to all Clark County School District schools
  • Fox29 in Philadelphia detailed Philadelphia Wings defenseman Alex Pace's meeting (https://www.fox29.com/news/life-saving-donation...) this month with the recipient of Pace's anonymous bone marrow stem cell donation two years ago.
  • The Buffalo Bandits announced the return of the Native American Heritage Scholarship, which will be awarded on Native American Heritage Day (https://www.oursportscentral.com/services/relea...)
• Snow, Snow Go Away: The Week Seven game between the Saskatchewan Rush and Philadelphia Wings will be made up on Thursday, March 28 at 7 p.m.
• Screen Time: Five NLL games this weekend will feature local broadcasts, on six networks.
• Rock New Power Players: NLL.com's Week 9 Power Rankings are live (https://www.nll.com/news/week-9-power-rankings-2/), and there's a new No. 1 as the Toronto Rock displace Albany.

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