Edmonton wraps up regular season Saturday

Edmonton, AB, -- The Calgary Roughnecks spoiled the party Friday night as they edged the Edmonton Rush 15-14 in overtime before 9,423 fans at Rexall Place in National Lacrosse League action.

Calgary's Josh Sanderson fired a long-range shot 54-seconds into extra time to give the Roughnecks the hard-fought 15-14 victory and create a two-way tie in second place in the West Division as both Edmonton and Calgary sport identical 9-6 records, to trail Washington (10-4).

Edmonton concluded their home portion of the regular season schedule against their provincial rivals Friday and a Rush win could've locked up at least second place in the West, however the Calgary victory gave the Riggers the tiebreaker against Edmonton after taking the season series two games to one.

Corey Small sniped three goals and three assists to lead the Rush with six points and Ryan Ward (2G, 4A) also tallied six points, while Brodie Merrill (3G, 1A), Gavin Prout (2G, 2A), Ryan Powell (2G, 1A), Dane Stevens (1G, 3A), and Andy Secore (1G, 2A) also scored for Edmonton as the club suffered their first OT loss of the year.

Sanderson (3G, 3A), Dane Dobbie (3G, 2A) and Kaleb Toth (2G, 2A) lead the Calgary attack.

Matt Disher (7-5) took the loss in net for Edmonton, while Mike Poulin earned the win for Calgary in relief of starter Matt King.

The back and forth Battle of Alberta contest Friday featured nine scoring ties as neither team was able to grab a lead larger than two goals in the contest. "It was a hard-fought game, very even and back and forth," said Edmonton's Merrill. "It was obviously disappointing the way it ended, but they have a good team over there.

"They seemed to answer every time we seemed to get up on them."

"I think it was a very even game and it probably deserved to go into overtime and they got a break there in OT and got the winner," said Rush head coach/GM Derek Keenan. "We've been fortunate this year, we've won three overtime games so the odds were that we were going to lose one eventually."

After combining for four goals the first quarter, the club's exploded for 14-goals in the second quarter and then went on to combine for 12-more tallies before Sanderson's heroics in overtime.

"It was a good lacrosse game," added Keenan. "It was well played by both teams and some unfortunate circumstances at the end that didn't really go our way."

The Rush struck first on the power-play at 3:56 of the first quarter as Small converted Ward's crossing pass and the rookie's one bounder eluded King.

Edmonton's transition game then connected after Scott Stewart sprinted up the carpet and dished off to Merrill, who fired his 14th of the year, at 7:04 to put the Rush up 2-0.

The Rush held the defending champs off the scoreboard until the final two minutes of the first frame then Craig Conn and Rob Van Beek each found mesh for Calgary to lock the score at 2-2.

Calgary then continued their run in the second quarter as Sanderson scored on the power-play and then Dobbie tallied off a hidden-ball trick, before the Rush answered back at 3:51 as rookies Brett Mydske and Stevens combined on transition as Stevens fired from in close to make the score 3-2 for Calgary.

Edmonton's power-play went back to work with Calgary's Mike Kilby in the box for a major as Ward's sidewinder found the mark at 6:48 and then Prout scored on the doorstep at 7:15 to put Edmonton up 5-4.

The ol' western shootout continued as the club's combined for three more goals in the next 77-seconds as Manning hit for Calgary before Small, with his second of the night, at 7:59 and Powell's diving effort at 8:49, as Edmonton took a 7-5 lead chasing King from the Roughnecks' net.

Calgary then went on a three-goal run over 92-seconds to pull ahead 8-7 and then the Rush equalized on the power-play as Small's crease dunk at 14:48 closed the scoring in the half with the game tied 8-8.

Edmonton started the scoring in the second half as Ward fired his second of the night and sixth point 2:27 into the quarter and then Secore's behind the back shot at 4:38 put the Rush up 10-8, before Calgary answered back with two goals within 92-seconds to lock the score at 10-10.

The Rush power-play then connected for the fifth time of the contest at 12:32 as Powell fired from atop the crease to put Edmonton up 11-10, however that lead only carried 2:49 into the fourth quarter as Calgary's Kelusky found an open cage to knot the score again.

Edmonton then went on a two-goal run as Prout notched his second of the game at 3:35 and Merrill extended the lead with a breakaway tally at 5:25 to put Edmonton up 13-11.

Calgary then answered back with two goals in 25-seconds to tie the game for the eighth time and then Edmonton went up 14-13 as Merrill sniped his third of the contest just 11-seconds later.

The defending champs then tied the score with just over three minutes remaining and then the Rush penalty-kill unit held Calgary off the board in the final two minutes to keep the score tied 14-14 after regulation.

Sanderson then ended the game with his blast 54-seconds into overtime.

Edmonton concludes the regular season Saturday, April 17 at the Washington Stealth

Rush mush: The Rush handled out the 2010 season players awards: Rookie of the year - Brett Mydske; Defender of the year - Rory Glaves; Transition player - Brodie Merrill; Community service award - Andy Secore; Unsung hero award - Jimmy Quinlan and Most Valuable Player - Brodie Merrill ... The Rush are 4-12 all-time versus Calgary ... Ryan Ward broke the franchise record for points in a season with 70 to better Dan Teat's 69 points (2009) ... Edmonton finished with a 5-3 record at home ... Edmonton's power-play went 5-8 and Calgary 3-6 ... Edmonton outshot Calgary 53-50 ... Pat Jones went 11-33 in face-offs ... Chris McElroy, Bruce Alexander, Dean Hill, Scott Tinning and John Lintz did not dress ... Edmonton and Calgary split the two games against each other earlier this season as the Rush took a 14-11 win at Rexall Place Jan. 30th and the Roughnecks grabbed the rematch 13-8 Feb. 5th at the Pengrowth Saddledome.

Story by Bruce Rakoczy