Blazers and Titans put on offensive show; Titans defeat Blazers 19-14

In our game preview, we predicted that Saturday evening's Boston Blazers inaugural regular season game against the New York Titans would be a high scoring affair. Both teams did not disappoint.

The Titans pulled out a 19-14 win over the Blazers, with Titans forward Casey Powell continuing his impressive offensive output. Powell had 9 points on the night (3 goals, 6 assists), scoring 3 goals in the third quarter, and gave Blazers' goalie Anthony Cosmo a difficult go of it.  Cosmo faced 49 shots on the evening, but letting up 19 goals is a rarity for the onetime NLL Goaltender of the Year. Titans forward Pat Maddelena also had a productive evening, also scoring 9 points (4 goals, 5 assists.)

Blazers' forward Brenden Thenhaus was impressive, scoring 8 points on the evening (4 goals, 4 assists), and rookie Daryl Veltman had 6 assists. Thenhaus will go on record as scoring the Blazers' first ever regular season goal.

Penalties played a big part in the game - the Blazers took 11 penalties on the evening.  In the fourth quarter, Blazer Kyle Ross took a seven minute penalty for high sticking, which effectively ended the Blazers chances to make the game close. This may be an area of the game that the Blazers need to work on prior to next week's rematch with the Titans.

In addition to avoiding penalties, another issue the Blazers may need to keep an eye on this week is the play of goalie Cosmo. Although it was expected that the game would be highly offensive due to the likes of Powell and Maddelena on the Titans, letting up 19 goals is not normal for Cosmo. Although I doubt the Blazers will make a change in net (Cosmo has too much experience to sit), he will definitely feel the pressure to perform well in next Saturday's home opener at the Garden.