The success with sticks at Invesco Field at Mile High deepened Saturday night, when the Denver Outlaws completed their inaugural home schedule by improving their postseason position in front of another big audience.
Before the third-largest crowd in Major League Lacrosse history (12,739), the Outlaws defeated the Chicago Machine 17-12, moving the first-year MLL franchise into first place in the Western Conference, and keeping the visitors winless.
Denver (7-2, 5-2), playing without four players competing at the World Games in Canada, jumped on the Machine (0-9, 0-6) early, leading 9-1. Chicago scored 10 of the game’s next 14 goals, making it 13-11 early in the fourth quarter, before succumbing to the Outlaws’ final rally.
Josh Sims and Mike Law paced Denver with three goals apiece, including Sims’ two-point tally. Sims and Brian Langtry (two goals, three assists), had a team-leading five points.
“We’re really, really lucky to have this crowd,” said Outlaws coach Jarred Testa, whose team owns the MLL’s top five attendance figures. “The runs that we go on, I think there is a correlation between that and the energy that we get from the crowd. We’re very fortunate to have the best fans in the league, and hopefully we can reward them with a championship.”
Alex Smith of Parker, who was starting his first career MLL game between the pipes, stopped 14 shots. He was replacing Trevor Tierney, who took the loss in Team USA’s 15-10 defeat to Canada in Saturday’s world championship game in London, Ontario. Outlaws regulars Jeff Zywicki and Geoff Snider played for Canada, and Brendan Mundorf of Team Australia also missed the game for Denver.
“Everybody in this league is good enough to go on runs like that,” Smith said of Chicago’s rally that featured six consecutive goals. “It’s how you respond to those runs. People are going to score.”
Denver’s victory, coupled with San Francisco’s 17-10 loss to Los Angeles, gave the Outlaws a half-game conference lead over San Francisco (5-3, 4-2). The conference champion gets an automatic berth into the four-team playoffs. Denver has three games remaining, beginning Saturday at Long Island. Denver visits Chicago on Aug. 5 and Los Angeles on Aug. 12.
“Every game is big right now,” Sims said. “If we lose a couple games we could be out of this thing in a hurry. But this was a huge game. Alex Smith in goal, especially, stood on his head.”
Chicago 1 4 3 4 – 12
Denver 5 5 3 4 – 17
First quarter – Denver, Brian Langtry (unassisted) 3:14; Denver, Mike Law (Matt Brown) 4:41; Chicago, Kevin Leveille (Chris Malone) 5:23; Denver, Matt Brown (Matt Hanna) 9:29; Denver, Greg Bastis (Jeff Sonke) 13:17; Denver, Matt Rewkowski (unassisted) 14:00.
Second quarter – Denver, Josh Sims (2pt)(power play) (Jeff Sonke) 1:36; Denver, Matt Brown (Brian Langtry) 2:26; Denver, Josh Sims (unassisted) 2:36; Denver, Mike Law (power play) (unassisted) 4:19; Chicago, Dan Flannery (Dan Paccione) 4:38; Chicago, Chris Malone (Dan Flannery) 8:40; Chicago, Chris Malone (Sean Morris) 10:19; Chicago, Kevin Leveille (unassisted) 13:58.
Third quarter – Denver, Matt Rewkowski (Josh Sims) 0:07; Denver, Josh Sims (unassisted) 1:11; Denver, Mike Law (Brian Langtry) 2:48; Chicago, Sean Morris (power play) (Stephen Brundage) 7:56; Chicago, Kevin Leveille (Sean Morris) 11:02; Chicago, Stephen Brundage (Sean Morris) 12:23.
Fourth quarter – Chicago, Dan Flannery (power play) (Stephen Brundage) 1:17; Chicago, Zach Heffner (unassisted) 2:59; Chicago, Dan Flannery (Jake Deane) 3:15; Denver, Brian Langtry (unassisted) 5:28; Denver, Matt Hanna (Matt Rewkowski) 6:53; Denver, Matt Rewkowski (Matt Brown) 11:25; Chicago, Dan Flannery (Sean Morris) 13:21; Denver, Hunter Lochte (Brian Langtry) 13:50.
Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-820-5453 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
