National Lacrosse League: 10 Things To Know For Week 3

The National Lacrosse League has its largest slate of games to date - seven contests - including the first-ever home game for the expansion Las Vegas Desert Dogs on Friday, with a Las Vegas-style celebration in the works at Michelob ULTRA Arena.

Here are 10 things to know about the NLL for Week 3:

The Las Vegas Desert Dogs have announced festivities surrounding their first-ever home game taking place this Friday night at Michelob ULTRA Arena against Panther City Lacrosse Club. All four team owners, Wayne Gretzky, Dustin Johnson, Steve Nash and Joe Tsai are expected to be in attendance and prominent in the night's activities. The team is opening doors at 6 p.m. and fans are encouraged to arrive early to the arena with Opening Ceremonies scheduled to begin at 7:10 p.m. PT. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN2 and streamed on ESPN+ starting at 7:30 p.m. PT/ 10:30 p.m. ET

TSN continues its Game of the Week series with Calgary vs. Vancouver, Friday at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. It marks the third straight week featuring the Warriors in action.
More than 100 U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities are represented on active NLL rosters. RIT and Limestone (S.C.) Univ. with 10 have the most players.

The Rochester Knighthawks, part of the NLL expansion in 2019-20 when the former team there relocated to Halifax, has its first two-game win streak after a second straight surprise win, 11-7 over Toronto on Saturday. Rochester visits Albany on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET.

The three squads that didn't play on Face Off Weekend were in action in Week 2, and though there were only four games on the schedule, they provided just as much excitement, with every game decided by four or fewer goals, including the San Diego Seals' OT win over the Saskatchewan Rush.

The Bandits will represent The City of Buffalo at the United Nations in a continuing effort to help stop hate, end racism and choose love as part of the Eradicate Hate Global Summit Sports Working Group.

The Desert Dogs last week visited the Ruby Duncan Elementary School as part of an initiative to introduce the sport to PE programs locally in 10 schools. They donated sticks and balls and gave a lesson in how to play lacrosse to the fifth-graders.

Some milestones reached last week include:

Vancouver's Keegan Bal (Coquitlam, B.C.) scored His 100th career goal in a four-goal effort against the Calgary Roughnecks
Saskatchewan's Dan Lintner (Courtice, Ont.) also reached the 100 goal mark vs. San Diego.
San Diego forward Dane Dobbie (Elora, Ont.) played in his 200th career game vs. Saskatchewan. He also recorded his 500th career assist in the contest.
Vancouver's Mitch Jones (Delta, B.C.) played in his 100th career game against Calgary on Saturday, and his five points left him just four shy of 400 in his career

Some attainable this week are:

Buffalo forward Kyle Buchanan (Nepean, Ont.) needs four points for 500 in his career
Georgia forward Lyle Thompson (Onondaga Nation, N.Y.) needs four assists to reach 300 in his career.
Panther City defenseman/transition player Tyler Burton (London, Ont.) needs one faceoff win to become the ninth player in league history to reach 1300 in his career.
Vancouver forward Shawn Evans (Peterborough, Ont.) needs three goals to pass Mark Steenhuis for ninth on the all-time list with 460.

With seven games scheduled this weekend, only Saskatchewan and San Diego will not be in action, while Panther City will play on both Friday and Saturday. Week 3 marks the first of 13 weekends in which at least seven NLL contests are on the slate.

Schedule – Week 3 (All Times Eastern)

Friday

Roughnecks (1-0) @ Warriors (0-2), 10pm, ESPN+, TSN 1/3, TSN.ca, TSN app

Panther City (1-0) @ Desert Dogs (0-1), 10:30pm, ESPN2, ESPN+, TSN.ca, TSN app

Saturday

Bandits (0-1) @ Rock (1-1), 7pm, ESPN+, TSN.ca, TSN app

Knighthawks (2-0) @ FireWolves (1-0), 7pm, ESPN+, TSN.ca, TSN app

Wings (0-1) @ Swarm (0-1), 7pm, ESPN+, TSN.ca, TSN app

Thunderbirds (1-0) @ Riptide, (0-1), 7:30pm, ESPN+, TSN.ca, TSN app

Mammoth (0-1) @ Panther City (1-0), 8pm, ESPN+, TSN, TSN.ca, TSN app