EDMONTON – The Calgary Roughnecks not only locked down top spot in the National Lacrosse League on Saturday night, they earned a first-round opponent they have historically dominated in the Edmonton Rush.
Shawn Evans had four goals and added an assist as the Roughnecks clinched first place in the NLL and home dates throughout the playoffs with a 9-6 victory over the Rush on Saturday.
Jeff Shattler and Nolan Heavenor each had two goals and Dane Dobbie also scored for the Roughnecks (12-4), who closed out the regular season with seven wins in their last eight games.
Coming off a disappointing 14-12 loss in Rochester where they also had a chance to clinch first overall, Calgary head coach Dave Pym was happy to see how his team responded in their second chance.
“Any time you drop a game in this league it is important to rebound to show that you can still play with confidence,” he said. “I thought our guys did a great job of regrouping and focusing on the task at hand. I thought we played our defensive game as well as we have all year. Offensively we kept on battling until we were finally able to capitalize when it mattered most. We got some huge goals.”
Evans feels home field advantage through the playoffs is a huge deal.
“It’s huge for our fans and for our city to earn that home playoff berth,” he said. “It was a tough loss for us last weekend but we pulled together and won the game as a unit. I think we just tired them out in the fourth and were able to come out with the win.”
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Kyle Rubisch, Aaron Wilson, Tom Johnson, Brett Mydske, Shawn Williams and Ryan Ward replied for the Rush (6-9), who had a two-game winning streak snapped but had already secured a playoff spot on Friday night with a victory over Colorado.
“I felt we had a good effort,” said Rush head coach Derek Keenan. “At times we played too fast, other times we played too slow, which equals poor execution. Without (injured forward Zack Greer), he’s one guy who can break down defences, but we’ve got other good players too. He was missed and hopefully we get him back next week.”
The two Alberta-based teams will meet next meet in the first round of the playoffs, a strong scenario for the Roughnecks who have swept their four-game series with Edmonton each of the last two seasons.
“Despite whatever record the Rush have, they are a very, very good team,” Pym said. “They are going to be a handful in the first round of the playoffs. We are going to have to play better than we did tonight.”
Some very strong goaltending to start the game from both Calgary’s Frankie Scigliano and Edmonton’s Aaron Bold almost resulted in a scoreless first quarter – unheard of in the NLL. But with less than a second remaining Rubisch intercepted a pass and fired it the length of the field, catching the Roughneck’s gambling with an extra man on the field and an empty net.
It was the latest opening goal in league history.
Calgary bounced back with a pair of quick power-play goals by Evans early in the second quarter to lead 2-1.
Wilson tied the game up for the Rush with just over five minutes to play in the second frame before Dobbie made it 3-2 for Calgary to make for a still rather scant 3-2 score at the half.
It took nearly 10 minutes into the third before another goal came in the low-scoring affair as Johnson scored for Edmonton, surprisingly followed mere seconds later by a response from Calgary’s Shattler to make it 4-3 Riggers.
Calgary went up by two goals on a scoring strike by Heavenor with just over a minute left in the third, but Williams responded with just three seconds left for the Rush to make it 5-4 heading into the final 15 minutes.
The Roughnecks got a beautiful goal four minutes into the fourth as Heavenor grabbed a ball in mid-leap and put it past Bold before hitting the ground. However, Edmonton quickly responded on a two-man power play goal by Ward.
Calgary started to take over the game midway through the fourth with a pair of power play goals – Shattler’s second of the game, followed by Evans’ hat-trick goal to make it 8-5.
The Roughnecks gave themselves some extra padding with their third goal in just over two minutes when Evans scored his fourth of the game.
Edmonton got one back off of the stick of Mydske with three minutes remaining to close out the scoring.
Calgary is off until the playoffs, when they will host of the Western semifinal game against Edmonton on May 5. Edmonton still has one regular season contest to play, hosting the Toronto Rock next Saturday.
Notes: The lacrosse version of the Battle of Alberta has gone in Calgary’s favour since Edmonton joined the NLL. Calgary now has a 20-4 all-time record over the Rush … The Rush were without leading scorer Zack Greer after taking a cross-check to the head near the end of Friday’s victory over the Colorado Mammoth… Calgary G Mike Poulin missed his second game with a lower body injury. Greer has 27 goals in 14 games this season… Edmonton head coach Derek Keenan was ejected from Friday’s game in Denver but was allowed to return to the bench for Saturday’s tilt… NLL commissioner George Daniel was in attendance for the game.
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