Paul Suggate loves to get checked and the results have made him the leading scorer in the National Lacrosse League. “I’m always getting checked very closely,” explained the 25-year-old Maryland Arrow. “But it’s an advantage for me. It keeps me in the game.
I try to get the defensive man in a false sense of security. Once he thinks he’s got me, and I see an opening, I go for the goal. ” Suggate’s tactics have worked well. They brought him 57. goals in his first 22 games and when the defence managed to close in to stop him, he passed off for another 65 goals for a league high point total of 122.
“I try to act a little cocky out there,” explained the three-year Brantford senior veteran. “It angers the defensive players. Then they try to hurt me rather than defend against me. When they’re out’ of control, I know I can win. “l expect to be hurt, but I try to keep cool. I feel I play better under pressure, but I have to keep cool or I’m going to defeat my own game. “
The five foot, ten inch, 195-pound defenceman knows what he wants to do on the floor and, if everything else fails, has one favorite shot “which works most of the time”, “Practice is very important to me,” says Suggate. “I always shoot for the corners where I think the goalies are going to be vulnerable. In practice, I start from the wall as if I’ve been checked. Then I roll and shoot at the goal.” Although he led the league in scoring for the first half of the season, Suggate feels he’s going to do even better. “I’m just now getting into good shape. You’ve got to practise and play a lot. And you’ve got to be hit continually.
“You have to be used to it (getting hit),” says Suggate who is nicknamed the golden slug . “Then you can still perform under pressure. ” Playing 45 to 50 minutes is Suggate’s game. And when “T’m always studying the op- he does get a breather, position. ” Knowing where you are and what you’re going to do at all times is just as important as being able to take the hitting,” says Suggate, who has provided the Arrows with a number of key goals just at the right time. It was a Suggate goal with a minute remaining, and then a pass from Suggate to Wayne Thompson some 30 seconds later, that enabled the Arrows to tie Montreal in regulation play and go on to register an 18-17 overtime victory.
“You can get really tired playing 10 to 15 straight minutes,” said Suggate. “But during a faceoff you try to get a breather and regain your strength. “You have to know what to do with the ball at all times. When I’m really tired, I try to save myself for big spots. If you can stop the opposition from scoring and come back and score yourself, that’s a two-point goal and the kind of big play I want to make.”
Suggate, the Arrows’ first round draft choice, isn’t surprised at his goal making and attributes his offensive exploits to playing on Maryland’s power plays. His statistics tend to support his belief. In 1971, his first year of senior ball for Brantford, Suggate finished third in the league in scoring without playing on the power line. Again the next year, Suggate still didn’t play power offense, and yet finished second only six points behind the leader. And last year, he was one of a number of players scoring more than 100 points.
Along with his scoring expertise have come com- parisons between Suggate and Montreal’s Johnny Davis, but the Arrows’ star isn’t ready to claim he’s better, at least not yet. “John Davis may do some things better than Suggate, but there’s nobody in the National Lacrosse League who’s as versatile as Suggate,” says Jack Gibson, Arrows’ director of player personnel. “Johnny Davis is number one until somebody proves differently,” remarked Suggate. “He definitely is one of the game’s greatest offensive players.
That may be so, but Suggate has shown Davis a thing or two this summer. Suggate will keep Maryland fans talking for some time about the overhead back-hand shot he made in Toronto, in the first game ever televised back to Washington. Then there was the one-on-one confrontation between Suggate and Davis at the Capital Centre. Davis, on offence, began to come up court with the ball. But there was Suggate, checking, checking and checking. Suddenly, the ball came loose. Suggate took it, moved ,around Davis, and scored on Montreal’s Dave Wedlock. It was perhaps the best one man offensive play at an Arrow’ home game this summer.
Although he has more goals than any other player in the NLL at the season’s mid-point, Suggate shrugs off suggestions he’s shooting too much. “I may have 57 goals but I also have 65-assists,” says Suggate. “That means somebody else is putting the ball into the net. ” Since he’s always been a top scorer, Suggate doesn’t notice much difference in playing style in the new League. “I’ve always been checked, so I’m used to it. But I think some of the guys who had previously just brought the ball up and weren’t checked because they weren’t scoring threats are now getting hit a lot more,” Suggate explained.
Like most of his teammates, the golden slug is pleased with the reception the Arrows and the National Lacrosse League has received. “If people just give it a chance, it’s definitely on the upswing. It’s good entertainment. People will not find anything as exciting, and the violence is there for those, ‘that want it. “Playing every day is making me a better player. You’ve got to have the stick in your hands at least three or four days a week if you want to improve. ” How much better can Paul Suggate get? Only time will tell.