For the third time in franchise history the Calgary Roughnecks are headed to the Champion’s Cup after coming back from a massive deficit to eliminate the Edmonton Rush.
The Rush, who finished the regular season with the NLL’s best record at 16-2, won the early game on Saturday night by a 15-13 margin, but the Roughnecks dominated the mini-game that followed, taking a 2-1 win and the series.
Things didn’t start out quite so rosy for the Roughnecks on this night, however.
Edmonton drew first blood on a Mark Matthews goal at the 4:37 mark. Less than 30 seconds later Zack Greer made it 2-0. Over the next four minutes, the Roughnecks would reduce the lead to one on two occasions but then the Rush would go on a tear. Exploding for five goals in a minute-and-a-half, followed by three more unanswered goals to start the second quarter, it was looking like the hometown Rush were going to run away and hide.
Cue the comeback.
With starting goaltender MikePoulin on the bench and Frankie Scigliano on in relief, the Roughnecks were able to stop the bleeding and go on a four-goal run of their own. Still, Edmonton went to the locker room with a comfortable 12-6 lead and control of the game.
The third quarter began the same way as the first two, with the Rush scoring first at the 2:23 mark when Riley Loewen beat Poulin who was returned to the net to start the second half. But just 15 seconds later Shawn Evans of the Roughnecks cut the lead back down to six, starting a three-goal run to chip away at the lead. The Rush and Roughnecks would exchange goals at the end of the quarter, leaving Calgary down by a 14-10 score going into the final frame.
Two Roughnecks goals in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter brought them to within two and another goal at 9:37 brought them to within a single goal. With the clock ticking down, Calgary was able to earn several more dangerous scoring chances, but Edmonton was able to weather the storm. With Calgary’s net empty, Nik Bilic was finally able to spring loose and score Edmonton’s only goal of the last quarter, sealing the win in Game 2.
The Rush win forced a winner-take-all mini-game immediately following the end of Game 2. With the Rush still reeling from Calgary’s strong second-half showing, the Roughnecks got right back to work with Evans scoring at 1:55 into the mini-game and then notching a second goal 1:04 later, building a lead that would prove to be insurmountable. Greer would bring Edmonton to within one at the 8:21 mark, with their net empty, but they would not be able to pick up the tying goal.
The life seemed to drain out of the Edmonton offense as Calgary fought back into the game. Players crashing the net became less and less frequent, players settled for log, low percentage shots and the transition game sputtered. As the Roughnecks gained more and more momentum, it began to seem inevitable that they would take the series. Surrendering just two goals in the final 25 minutes of play while scoring five of their own, Calgary looked like a team possessed late in the evening.
Evans had a huge night for Calgary, picking up six points in the first game (3 G, 3 A) and scoring both Calgary goals in the mini-game. For Edmonton, Greer had two goals and two assists in the early game and scored the lone Rush marker in the late contest.
In net, Poulin recovered from an ugly first half to become almost unbeatable as the night wore on. By the end of the evening, he had stopped 40 shots while Scigliano made four saves on five shots in 9:39 of game time in the relief of Poulin during the first half of the early game.
For the Rush, Aaron Bold stopped 35 shots over the course of the evening.
Calgary now moves on to the Champion’s Cup series beginning next weekend against either the Rochester Knighthawks or Buffalo Bandits. If the Knighthawks win the East, Calgary will host Game 1 next weekend while Rochester will retain home field advantage for Game 2 and, if necessary, another mini-game to decide the series; if Buffalo wins tomorrow night, they will host Game 1 and Calgary will host Game 2 the following week.
