Out from hockey's shadow: youth interest in lacrosse is growing in Alberta. One visit to a live game reveals why.

For just one night, a Vancouver electrician named Curtis Palidwor became the king of Edmonton. Palidwor, a veteran goaltender in the National Lacrosse League, was supposed to be nothing more than a spectator at the Edmonton Rush's Feb. 9 home game, against the Arizona Sting. Earlier in the day he had been officially traded to the Rush from the expansion New York Titans--a trade he requested because, like most NLL players, he was commuting from home for every game, and the transcontinental flights were wearing him down. But as Palidwor watched from the bench, Rush starting goalie Pat Campbell was swallowed up by a nightmare.

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The Sting won the first faceoff cleanly, streaked up the floor, overwhelmed a backpedalling defence and zapped their first shot past Campbell. And then it happened again. And again. And again. All in the first four and a half minutes.

Rush coach Paul Day had little choice but to send in Palidwor, who was most valuable player in the NLL championship game as a member of the victorious 2004 Calgary Roughnecks. When Palidwor made a routine stop on the fifth Sting shot, the Rexall Place crowd roared. The Rush quickly found their bearings and began to test Sting goalie (and NLL January player of the month) Rob Blasdell, finding him just as vulnerable as Campbell. The home side scored the next three goals and scrambled to an 11-9 win--only the third in the short history of the franchise.

You would have to consider yourself lucky if you chose this to be the first lacrosse game you had ever attended in person, as I did. Since the excitement over the Roughnecks' championship inspired the creation of an Edmonton NLL franchise before the 2006 season, I've felt a nagging responsibility to play the consumer advocate on this page and check out pro lacrosse live for myself. It is frankly puzzling that two of the NLL's 13 teams should be located in Alberta, since the league is only now expanding into Chicago and New York. In Canada, the sport's popularity has traditionally been concentrated in B.C. and Ontario, with particular strength in the traditional stomping grounds of the Iroquois Confederacy (who now send their own national team to the World Lacrosse Championships). Albertans have virtually no history with lacrosse to speak of, yet while the NLL flopped in Vancouver, the Rush routinely boast five-digit attendance at home and the Roughnecks packed a reported 14,175 into the Saddledome for their 10-7 loss to Philadelphia on Feb. 10.

Even though I wandered into a genuine barnburner, I have to admit my fan experience was a little unsatisfying. As a rule, I'm generally able to sit down and enjoy a new sport or a contest between unfamiliar teams, but lacrosse left me cold and uncomprehending. The rules of the NLL have been adjusted to make the game more hockey-like, but the relative ease of controlling the ball means the basic lacrosse offence resembles a never-ending power play, with lots of perimeter passing and one-timers. Shots are released faster than the untrained eye can really discern, and the absurd size of the padding on the (relatively immobile) goalies reminds one where the NHL was heading before the league came to its senses on its equipment regulations.

It's possible, though, that indoor lacrosse is simply not meant for my demographic. Thanks to the Roughnecks' championship, youth interest in lacrosse is growing throughout Alberta, and the province's NLL teams are admirably energetic and experimental about marketing. There is a lot of visual appeal at the games for adults and kids alike; the Rush's impossibly attractive dance team and its twin motorcycle-riding yeti mascots might just work harder than the players do. The punk- and nu-metal-flavoured music is certainly less stale than the stuff played at NHL games, and it continues throughout the play, which ought to appeal to console-trained video-game junkies.

Above all, it's easy to see how a working family that has watched the price of pro hockey ascend out of reach would be tempted to shell out a mere $80 or $120 a head for Rush season tickets. For lacrosse, the gentrification of hockey might just be the key to success.