The Calgary Roughnecks came up about five minutes short of winning their third Champion’s Cup in franchise history. ln the tie-breaking mini-game for all the marbles, the Roughnecks built up a 2-0 lead, then gave up three straight goals in the dying moments to see the Rochester Knighthawks take the trophy.
Still, in a season that saw a number of ups and downs, it’s hard to call the season a failure after coming so close.
Things got off to a spotty start when the Roughnecks dropped their season opener and went 2-3 in their first month of play. But after the early rough patch, the team began to find their rhythm, winning four straight to vault themselves upward in the standings.
After another rough patch in the middle of March when Calgary dropped two in a row, they got hot again in the home stretch, winning six of their last seven.
Over the course of the regular season the Roughnecks struggled with the Edmonton Rush and Colorado Mammoth. The Roughnecks dropped two of their three contests against the Mammoth and, like the rest of the NLL, were beaten up the the Rush for most of the season, losing their first three matchups to Edmonton before finally beating them in overtime in their second-last game of the season.
For the second year in a row Shawn Evans led the offensive parade for the Roughnecks, notching 105 points (second best in the NLL). Dane Dobbie led the league in goals scored with 51 and, after a slow start, Curtis Dickson scored 44 times.
Geoff Snider came within a whisker of breaking the single-season record for faceoff wins, with 317 (the record is 319, held by his brother Bob) but he did become the all-time faceoff wins king in NLL history, with 2,212 on his career.
Rookie transition Karsen Leung made his presence felt with 29 points and 93 loose balls (second-most on the Roughnecks) while veteran defenseman Dan McRae took his game to the next level by collecting 73 loosies while forcing a team-best 21 turnovers.
Goaltender Mike Poulin got better and better as the season wore on, finishing with a 11.45 goals against average and a .770 save percentage.
After finishing the season in second place in the West Division behind the Rush with a 12-6 record, Calgary’s playoff run was exciting for the fans and very nearly continued the team tradition of winning the championship every five years.
They squeaked past the Mammoth in the first round, earning a 16-15 overtime victory, but the win came at a price. In the third quarter Snider went down with a knee injury that would keep him out of the remainder of the postseason, taking away Calgary’s usual possession advantage.
But the team would persevere. In the second round they once again went to overtime in Game 1 and took the win over the Rush by a 12-11 score. The following week the Rush would earn a 15-13 Game 2 win, but the Roughnecks took the momentum late in the game and carried it over to the mini-game, winning that game by a 2-1 score.
In the Champion’s Cup series, Calgary again jumped out to the early lead, beating the Knighthawks 10-7 in front of 16,541 fans, their best crowd of the season. But Rochester would not be denied their shot at making league history. The Knighthawks took back the momentum in the series once they were back on their home turf, winning Game 2 16-10 and coming back in the mini-game to win 3-2.
Again, Evans led all Calgary scorers with 31 playoff points while Dickson scored 14 goals. Mike Poulin was at times utterly dominant in the postseason, giving his team their best chance to win. His 12.34 goals against in the playoffs does not reflect the quality of his play.
For the second year in a row, Calgary led the NLL in goals for, scoring 237 times, 17 more than the next best team (the Rush, with 220). Where they consistently got themselves in trouble was penalties; they wound up with the second-most penalty kill situations in the league (96) which frequently short-circuited their momentum and made it difficult for their offense to stay on the attack. This was especially the case early in the season when the team was struggling, but it also proved to be their undoing in the playoffs—after getting the early 2-0 lead in the championship-deciding mini-game against Rochester, an untimely penalty gave Rochester the chance to regain their composure and go on a three-goal run to take the victory.
There are no doubt some very disappointed people in the organization after coming so close and falling just short, but the good news is that most of the team are in the prime of their careers while youngsters like Leung continue to mature. Chances are good that this team will be right back in the mix next season—don’t be surprised to see them back in the Champion’s Cup again next spring.
