Saskatchewan Rush share jet with opponents to get home for sold-out game

Some last-minute air travel arrangements were put into play Friday to ensure the Saskatchewan Rush — and the team they are playing Saturday night — would make it to Saskatoon for the sold-out game.

The Rush are the hottest ticket in Saskatoon these days but they nearly had to reschedule Saturday's match.

On Friday night the Rush beat the Colorado Mammoth 11 - 5 in National Lacrosse League action. With the win, the Rush improved to 11 - 4 and are now one game up on Colorado in the West Division. The Saskatchewan team also sits first in the entire NLL.

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The teams were scheduled to go head-to-head for the second straight night, but this time in Saskatoon. The game, however, was in jeopardy. The problem: bad weather was expected to disrupt air travel out of Denver.

If we didn't do that, we would have had a lot of disappointed fans.- Lee Genier

Rush president Lee Genier explained how the team learned Friday that a major storm was set to hit the Denver area — where Saskatchewan and Colorado faced-off Friday night — at about 4 a.m. Saturday.

"All the flights would have been cancelled — ours and the Mammoth's," Genier said Saturday. "We wouldn't have had a game tonight."

With more than 14,000 lacrosse fans expected for the sold-game, it would have been a major letdown for the red-hot franchise.

"So we sent a jet down roughly about 11 o'clock last night to pick up both teams and bring them back here last night," Genier said. "If we didn't do that, we would have had a lot of disappointed fans."

Mammoth agrees to ride-share

He said it was important to get their opponents to join them on the flight.

"We're talking four feet of snow, freezing rain," Genier said of the storm. "So I thought it was prudent that we needed to really convince the Mammoth, too, to get on this flight. I know that's a bit of an anomaly — that both teams would fly on the same plane back."

After a flurry of last-minute planning, the teams arrived in Saskatoon — together — around 2:30 a.m. CST Saturday.

"Hopefully they had a good sleep," Genier said.

He said cancelling or rescheduling his club's final regular season home game would have been a setback to what has been an electric inaugural season for the Rush.

"It has absolutely turned into a phenomenon here," Genier said. "Everywhere you go people are talking about the Rush. Everywhere. Everybody is wearing a piece of Rush merchandise, which is fantastic."

The two rivals — and travel companions — compete at 7:30 p.m. Fans are advised to arrive early to avoid traffic. Doors open at 6 p.m.

The Rush will play two more road games before starting the 2016 NLL playoffs, at home, in May.