RUSH ROUGHED UP BY CALGARY 

Roughnecks blast Edmonton 22-10

Edmonton Rush post-game report
Friday, March 13, 2009
By Bruce Rakoczy

EDMONTON, AB – The Calgary Roughnecks offensive fireworks turned the Battle of Alberta into a one-sided rout as a fast flurry of goals paced Calgary to a 22-10 win over the Edmonton Rush in National Lacrosse League action Mar. 13 at Edmonton’s Rexall Place. 

  In the second of three meetings between the provincial rivals this season and the last match of a three-game homestand for Edmonton, Calgary scored five goals on the first seven shots on net and then put together another run of five goals later in the frame for a 10-1 lead after one quarter of play to set the tone early in the win.

  Although the scoring cooled in the second quarter, the Roughnecks led 14-3 at halftime, however, the fireworks didn’t end there.

  Just one-second into the third quarter, a line-brawl broke out as all five runners on each team squared off on the carpet, resulting in nine fighting majors and nine unsportsmanlike conduct majors. Ejected for Edmonton were Ryan McNish, Chris McElroy, Jamie Floris, Jimmy Quinlan, Shayne Bennett and Rush head coach and manager Bob Hamley, while Calgary’s Jeff Shattler, Mike Kilby, Scott Carnegie and Kyle Couling earned an early shower. Devan Wray left the scirmish not penalized.

  “We asked the guys at half-time to compete as we weren’t competing in the first half,” said Hamley. “We competed in the second half, but, it’s just not good enough and it’s not acceptable to have that type of start.”

  Hamley was ejected after the fight as the officials determined the Rush bench boss was responsible for the fracas.

  “They (officials) said the start of the third quarter was premediatated by me,” Hamley said. “Which is wrong, I had two offensive guys on the floor and just asked the guys to compete.” 

  With the road victory, Calgary improved to 7-2 on the season, while the Rush fell to 3-7 in the club’s most lopsided loss. Calagry is unbeaten in two games against Edmonton thus season after edgeing the Rush 11-10 victory at the Saddledome Jan. 10.

  Friday in Edmonton, Dane Dobbie led all Calgary scorers with 11 points (7G, 4A), while Scott Ranger (4G, 6A), Josh Sanderson (3G, 6A) and Tracey Kelusky (1G, 7A) all had big nights on the scoresheet.

  Dan Teat (4G, 1A) lead the Rush scorers while Mike Hominuck (2G, 3A) chipped in with five points and Andy Secore (4A) had four points.

  Neither Rush netminders Steve Deitrich or Chris Levis had a stellar night Friday, surrendering a club record total 22 goals-against from 60 shots. 

  The Calgary power play went 7-8 on the evening, while Edmonton was 3-4 with the man advantage.  

  The Roughnecks hit the scoreboard early with two goals in the first 2:10 of play as Ranger’s marker at 1:17 made it 1-0 before Edmonton’s Rory Glaves misplaced a ballscoop that trickled past Dietrich at 2:10.

  Calgary next made it three goals on four shots as Kelusky‘s shot found twine at 3:20 and Ranger then made it 4-0 with his high shot over Dietrich’s right shoulder at 5:35. Dobbie added to the run, with a long-range shot that found the mark at 6:08 to end Dietrich’s first stay between the pipes.

  Edmonton responded as Mike Hominuck’s one-bouncer beat Campbell at 6:46 before Calgary answered back with two more goals - Jeff Shattler at at 8:09 and Kaleb Toth at 8:44, making the score 7-1.

  The first-quarter rout continued as Calgary’s Sanderson beat Levis stickside at 13:01 and Dobbie added his second of the night 52-seconds later, for a 9-1 lead and an exit for Levis.

  Ranger then earned the first-quarter hat-trick as his power-play marker at 14:57 eluded Dietrich to close the scoring the quarter.

  The Rush allowed 10 goals on 16 shots in the first quarter.

  Calgary continued the scoring power in the second frame as Toth netted his second goal of the night 1:12 into the quarter before4 Callum Crawford found twine at 5:10, from Secore and Hominuck.

  The Roughnecks would score the next three goals as Ranger, Dobbie and Sanderson padded the lead to 14-2 midway through the quarter, before Dan Teat scored his first goal in three games, at 19:43 from Hominuck to close the quarter scoring with Calgary up 14-3.

  At the half, Calgary outshot Edmonton 33-19.  

  Seconds into third quarter, the Rush faithful finally had something to cheer about as the line brawl brought the fans to their feet, resulting in the ejections of nine players and Hamley. 

  The Roughnecks went on to score five of their six goals in the quarter on the power play, while Edmonton produced four goals in the quarter to end the scoring  20-7 after three quarters.

  In the final frame, the Rush added three goals, including two power play markers, while Calgary added a duece make the final a 22-10 Roughnecks win.

  The Rush next travel to Minnesota for a Mar. 21 battle against the Swarm before a Mar. 28 home tilt against the Toronto Rock.