Vancouver Warriors miss playoffs for the sixth time in seven seasons


Warriors will look to play spoilers when the San Diego Seals visit Rogers Arena on April 30 to close out the regular season.

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The Vancouver Warriors are missing out on the National Lacrosse League playoffs once again.

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The Warriors’ 15-13 loss to the Calgary Roughnecks on Saturday at Rogers Arena eliminated Vancouver from post-season contention with one game left on the Warriors’ 18-game schedule.

Vancouver (6-11) has a bye this week and then finishes off the campaign by hosting the San Diego Seals (9-6) on April 30 at Rogers. The Seals, Roughnecks (9-6) and Colorado Mammoth (10-7) have grabbed the three automatic playoff spots out of the six-team Western Conference, and will jockey for seedings in the final two weeks of the campaign.

Fourth-place Panther City (7-9) could nab the eighth and final spot in the league if the expansion club from Fort Worth, Tex., finishes with a better record than the fifth-place team from the eight-team Eastern Conference. That currently belongs to the Albany Fire Wolves (8-9).

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NEXT GAME

Saturday, April 30

San Diego Seals vs. Vancouver Warriors

7 pm, Roger’s Arena. TV: nll.com


The Warriors started the season 5-3 but have dropped eight of nine, including the past four games in a row. They’ve had trouble closing out games. Four of their last five losses have come by two goals or less.

Vancouver has made the playoffs just eleven in the past seven seasons. That doesn’t include the 2020 campaign that the NLL shut down early due to COVID-19. Vancouver was 4-9 then, which was the third-worst mark in the then-13-team loop.

Vancouver lost in the single-game elimination first round in 2017, a season where they wrapped up league play at 9-9.

The Warriors have been under the Vancouver Canucks’ umbrella since June 2018, which is when the NHL club bought the Vancouver Stealth, moved them from the Langley Events Center to Rogers Arena, and gave them a new name and a new look.

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Vancouver has missed star forward Mitch Jones (foot surgery) for the past 12 games. He took the warm-up against Calgary but team medical staff didn’t clear him to play. It’s doubtful that the Warriors would opt to use him against San Diego with the playoff situation already determined.

Keegan Bal (42 goals) and Kyle Killen (41) go into the San Diego matchup with a chance to break the Vancouver franchise record for goals in a season. Jeff Zywicki set the standard when he carved 48 times with the San Jose Stealth in a 16-game season in 2008 and Rhys Duch equaled it in 18 games for the LEC-based Stealth in 2016.


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