CALGARY – Ryan Ward had two goals and eight assists Saturday as the Edmonton Rush snapped a 12-game regular season losing-streak to Calgary with a resounding 18-13 victory over the Roughnecks in National Lacrosse League action.
On the night Kaleb Toth was honoured as the inaugural recipient of the Forever a Roughneck honour, Calgary played one of its worst home games in recent memory, looking nothing like the vaunted squad they were for much of Toth’s 10 seasons with the team.
A sign of how the night was going to go came in the opening two minutes as Ward set up goals 18 seconds apart by Corey Small and Curtis Knight that staked Edmonton to a quick 2-0 lead.
The Rush would never trail in the game, holding quarter leads of 3-2, 9-6 and 16-8.
Zack Greer and Mark Matthews also had big nights for Edmonton (5-5) with three goals each. Small and Jarrett Davis had two goals apiece while Brett Mydske, Kyle Rubisch, Chris Corbeil, Ryan Dilks and Alex Turner also scored.
Jeff Shattler had three goals and three assists to lead Calgary (5-5), which has lost two in a row and three of its last four. Joe Resetarits, Shawn Evans, Curtis Dickson and Dane Dobbie had two goals apiece. Greg Harnett and Daryl Veltman had one each.
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The Rush have won back-to-back games and four of their last five to pull even with Calgary in the West Division standings. The Washington Stealth (5-4) lead the division.
Edmonton also improves its road record to an impressive 4-1 with three more games to go in its current stretch of five consecutive games away from home.
The Roughnecks continue to struggle in Calgary, dropping to 1-3 on home turf.
Three-goal leads are erased regularly in lacrosse so starting the third quarter ahead 9-6 offered Edmonton no assurances. However, five unanswered goals in a span of just over five minutes turned around the complexion of the game significantly.
Ward’s power-play goal at 1:24 started the onslaught. Four different goal scorers followed him and in the middle of it all Calgary changed its goaltender a second time, as starter Mike Poulin was re-inserted for Frankie Scigliano.
Dickson opened the fourth quarters with consecutive goals to cut the Roughnecks deficit to 16-10. But the momentum was short lived as Matthews and Davis responded with power-play goals 18 seconds apart.
It was a sloppy night defensively for Calgary as Edmonton seemed to penetrate the front of the net with regularity. Five goals on seven shots to begin the second quarter helped the visitors built up an 8-3 lead that temporarily ended the night for Poulin.
In the third of four meetings between the two provincial rivals, tempers flared throughout the evening. In the second quarter in one of three fights and several skirmishes on the night, the team’s two captains squared off with Andrew McBride and Edmonton’s Jimmy Quinlan engaging in a spirited scrap that fired up the crowd of 11,385.
Edmonton took a 3-2 with an empty net goal with one second left in the third quarter. In possession of the ball and looking to wind the clock down to a final shot, Roughnecks pulled their goalie only to turn the ball over and see Rubisch send it the length of the floor and into the vacated net.
Notes: At the conclusion of Toth’s 25-minute pre-game ceremony, a banner with his name, number and photo was raised to the rafters of the Scotiabank Saddledome. Toth was joined by his wife and two kids for the ceremony that included a video tribute. Toth, who is Calgary’s all-time leader in goals (274) and points (628), received an engraved wooden lacrosse stick and a trip… McBride played in career game No. 161, passing Toth and becoming the all-time franchise leader… Edmonton’s next home game isn’t until April 14 when they host Rochester… Calgary was without veteran face-off man Geoff Snider, who served a one-game suspension.
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