Marcelo A. Sagüez, Beat Writer Calgary Roughnecks
Lacrosse is Awesome
The Calgary Roughnecks (8-10) will miss the playoffs for the first time in 14 seasons, leaving the over eighteen thousand fans on Super Hero Night. And imagine the Saskatchewan fans who are so devoted and loyal they travelled eight hours in a bus to watch the Rush play in Calgary, which has become a great prairie rivalry between the two cities/clubs. Roughnecks fans would see a ‘Super’ win tonight over the Saskatchewan Rush 14-7.
Frankie Scigliano (92) stopped fifty three shots to earn the first regular season victory against the Rush since April of 2015. “It was packed tonight. We were playing for the fans more than anything.” On the final game of the 2017 season, the Riggers would set a new regular season attendance record of 18,845.
The first quarter seem to be controlled by the Rush out shooting the Calgary 15-9, but the Roughnecks led in the scoring 3-2. The Rush would open it up with a goal from Curtis Knight (assist Adam Jones). Jones was absent from the game against Colorado the night before, but was able to suit up for their final regular season game. Wes Berg would score at 5:59; followed by Dane Dobbie at 6:43. The Rush would answer back with one off Dan Taylor at 13:22; and Curtis Dickson would close out the frame for the Riggers with 53 seconds remaining. Score at the end of one: Calgary 3—Saskatchewan 2.
Calgary was man down heading int0 the second quarter, successfully killed the penalty and only moments into even strength, would see Jones tie the game at 2:54. Bob Snider (41) would put the Roughnecks up by one 4-3 at the 5:22 mark of the second quarter. It was short lived as the Rush would tie the game yet again, with Ben McIntosh hitting net at 6:47. But the lead was squashed with less than four minutes remaining in the first half with Dane Dobbie with a corkscrew shot that get by goaltender Aaron Bold (77), putting the Riggers up 5-4 going into the half.
The third quarter was all Calgary as they would shut out the Rush. To start off the third, Scigliano had seen 41 Rush shots. With the shot clock running down and only three seconds remaining, Jeff Shattler (77) made a run at the net putting the Roughnecks up by two. Tyler Digby (assist Dobbie and Riley Loewen) would fine twine at 6:31; Loewen would score unassisted at 7:08; and with less than two minutes left in the quarter a broken play behind the net allowed Curtis Dickson (14) to dive through the back of the crease to score on highlight reel goal. The Rush led in shots at this point in the game 47-33 but down on the scoreboard 9-4.
The Rush would get it started in the fourth on two power-play goals, one from Jones only 25 seconds in; and the other from Mark Matthews at 3:37. The Riggers would go on a three-goal run with Loewen; Dickson; and Manning scoring in a little over two minutes. Heading towards the half way mark of the fourth Calgary Roughnecks led the Rush 12-6. Calgary would throw the challenge flag on the unassisted Jones goal at 10:32, but after the goal review it was confirmed “goal” by the head referee. The Rush were still down 12-7 with time running out. The Roughnecks wanted to put the final nail in the coffin and they would hit net twice more in the final minutes. Holden Cattoni would fire at 12:14; and with 43 seconds in regulation Berg (14) would score the final goal of the 2017 NLL regular season for the Calgary Roughnecks. Final Score: Roughnecks 14—Rush 7.
“It’s been a long time since we beat them and you could easily just kind of went through the motions,” said Malawsky. “I think there should be a buzz in the crowd and should be a buzz around the town looking forward to our young group next season.”
Marcelo A. Sagüez, Beat Writer Calgary Roughnecks
Lacrosse is Awesome