CALGARY – Shawn Evans’ huge night against his former club put the Calgary Roughnecks atop the National Lacrosse League standings.
Evans scored three times and added six assists Friday to power Calgary to a franchise record-tying sixth consecutive win, 15-14 over the Rochester Knighthawks.
With the win the Roughnecks moved past the Colorado Mammoth and into first place in both the West Division and the league.
Calgary entered the night as the league’s highest scoring team and they demonstrated that offensive prowess in the first half, building up an 11-5 lead at half-time. Seven of the goals came in a span of less than five minutes in an explosive second quarter.
“It feels great,” said Evans, 25, who spent his first six seasons with Rochester before being acquired by Calgary at the NLL draft in September. “Definitely had mixed emotions going into that game, but thank god we came out with the win because they battled back hard.”
The Roughnecks sent their first-round pick to the Knighthawks in exchange for Evans and Rochester’s first-round pick in 2012. Evans is one of six 20-goal scorers on Calgary.
“The ball was finding the back of the net and when the ball’s moving on offence, I think we’re unstoppable,” Evans said.
Rochester coach Mike Hasen was upset with his how team played in the first half.
“We can’t get down seven goals and then decide to show up and start playing the game,” Hasen said. “They’re a very good team, we know they’re going to go on their runs and we’ve got to make sure that we have our heads out of our butts and expect what’s going to happen and play to what’s expected. Too many guys became passengers tonight in that run and it cost us.”
Dane Dobbie had four goals for Calgary (11-3), while Scott Ranger, Curtis Dickson and Jeff Shattler had two goals each. Travis Cornwall and Darryl Veltman also scored.
Rookies Stephen Keogh and Johnny Powless each scored three times for Rochester (5-8), which has lost three straight. Cody Jamieson, Cory Vitarelli and Mike Accursi added two goals each. Craig Point and Ryan Cousins also scored.
Having reduced its deficit to 13-9 after three quarters, Rochester gave the home side a genuine scare by climbing within one goal on two separate occasions in the fourth.
The best chance to tie it came from Vitarelli in the waning seconds, but he put a shot off the crossbar. A couple more shots followed in a frantic final few seconds, but Calgary goaltender Mike Poulin closed the door.
“Poulie made some huge saves at the end there when he needed to,” said Roughnecks coach Dave Pym. “That series of saves that he made at the end there, that’s just all-star quality.”
Calgary ignited the second quarter offensive explosion with three goals in 36 seconds, which gave the Roughnecks a sudden 7-3 lead and sent the raucous Scotiabank Saddledome crowd of 9,806 into a frenzy.
Desperate to stem the tide, Hasen switched his goalies at that point, bringing in seldom-used Jake Henhawk into the game.
That didn’t work as Henhawk, with less than nine minutes of game action to his credit this season, was beaten by Shattler on a breakaway after a costly turnover.
“We make a goalie change and then we flog a shot from the outside with 25 seconds left on the shot clock. That’s not youth, that’s stupidity and it’s veterans making dumb mistakes,” Hasen said. “They get a transition on the way back on a goalie, who hasn’t seen a shot in two-and-a-half hours. It’s stupid plays that cost us.”
Hasen brought Vinc back in after Powless scored at 9:32. However, Calgary went right back on the attack after that scoring three more times before halftime.
The two teams meet again next weekend in Rochester and Hasen hopes to see the type of effort from the start that he got in the second half.
“Offensively, we weren’t as dumb as we were in the first half and when we’re not dumb and taking stupid shots, we can keep up with teams like this,” Hasen said. “We’ve got to be ready to do that, right from the get go, next week. If we play stupid, we’re not going to win a damn thing.”
Notes: Jamieson, the 2010 first overall draft pick, has scored at least two goals in all 12 of Rochester’s games… Dobbie has scored in each of his last eight games… Calgary D Jon Harnett did not return after getting bowled over on a heavy hit early in the game by Keogh… Eleven goals against in the first half was a high for goals surrendered in a half by Rochester this season…. Calgary F Scott Ranger played in career game No. 100… The Roughnecks made one line-up change from last weekend, inserting veteran Kaleb Toth for Cory Conway…. Rochester and Calgary only played four times in Roughnecks’ first 10 seasons in the league and just once in Calgary (April 4, 2009). The Roughnecks lead the all-time series 3-2.
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