Go! ‘Necks! Go!

It could have been so sweet… Captain Kelusky opened up the 2007 season scoring for the Roughnecks with his goal about 2 minutes into the first quarter. Finishing the game with 3 goals and 4 assists Tracey had a stellar performance as usual. Lewis Ratcliff proved again why he is quickly becoming my favourite Roughneck by topping the scoring with 4 goals and 4 assists. Kaleb Toth rounded out the top scorers with 2 goals and 3 assists. Kaleb’s slow start to last season was disappointing but it seems that he is planning against a repeat this season which is fine by me! The newbies even had strong starts. Susheski, whom we all hated last season, shone with his first hat-trick as a Roughneck. (more…)

As found online, the Calgary Roughnecks will be playing an exhibition game against their provincial rivals the Edmonton Rush. The game will take place on December 30th, 2006 and be played in the Enmax Center in Lethbridge. Game time is 7:30pm.

The original press announcement:
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Now that the playoffs are over and the champion has been crowned it might be time to revisit the playoff format. Last year and the year before (aka, the 2004 and 2005 seasons) there where only a total of three playoff games — one division title game for each division, East and West, and the Champions Cup game.

This year, the 2006 season, since there were more teams the playoff format differed. There were two division playoff games for each division and the Champions Cup game. The format was similar to a hockey style playoff where the top ranked team played the fourth place team and the second and third placed teams played each other. Winners from those games would meet for the division title game. The division champions would then be off to the Champions Cup.
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Yesterday the Colorado Mammoth took on the Arizona Sting for the West Division title. In the East Division, the Buffalo Bandits faced the Rochester Knighthawks to determine their champion. The winners of these games are going on to the 2006 NLL Champions Cup on May 13th, 2006.

In the case of the East Division, the Buffalo Bandits completely dominated the Knighthawks to win their title 15–10. The game, held in the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, saw John Tavares and Cory Bomberry lead the Bandits to their victory. Of course, some great goaltending by Dietrich helped fend off the Knighthawks fourth quarter push.

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For the last three years, the National Lacrosse League has had a television contract with The Score — a sports broadcasting network. For some reason The Score wanted out of the deal early and it seems they left the NLL in a bit of a bind. Then, Rogers Sportsnet picked up a very miniscule amount of the slack.

While Sportsnet did broadcast some of the Canadian NLL teams it was a hit or miss as to which games were shown. This most likely had to do with hockey being back. Some also speculate — and I agree with it — that the executives at Sportsnet chose not to show more games because there were no Canadian teams playing. Certainly a sound decision right?

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In what seems to be an extremely exciting game in Denver tonight, the Calgary Roughnecks fought valiantly but come out on the bottom in overtime. The Mammoth will be moving on to the West Division final against either the Portland Lumberjax or the Arizona Sting — current score is 12–10 for Arizona the Arizona Sting — who beat the Portland Lumberjax 14–11.

Interestingly enough, the Roughnecks managed to score the first two goals in each quarter of the game, until overtime. During the first quarter scoring was even with both teams at 4 ending the frame. The next quarter is where Calgary fell behind, by a lot. At one point falling behind by 5 goals. Due to some hard work by the Roughnecks they managed to close the gap to one.

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In a bit of late breaking news, as much as this site reports news ;^), it seems that Roughneck forward Jason Wulder will be playing tonight. There was a lot discussion as to whether his suspension would stand, be rescinded or be put on hold during the appeals process.

According to the team roster on pointstreak.com, Wulder will be at the game and he will be dressed to play. Also, the third goaltender, Ryan Avery, is noticeably absent from the lineup. Unfortunately, on the same lines, Calgarian Jeremy Cheyne doesn’t seem to be dressing for tonight’s game. Of course, this is not the official news on the subject and details are sparse but it’s exciting regardless.

Go necks go!!

Even though Sportsnet has been broadcasting some of the regular season lacrosse games, it seems that there contract does not include the playoffs. Based on some correspondence between friends and Sportsnet representatives, it also seems that the network doesn’t have much enthusiasm towards the sport — but I could be reading too much between the lines.

Since that’s the case, the only options available to catch tonight’s Calgary Roughnecks at Colorado Mammoth game in Denver are on the b2 network or LacrosseTV. Unfortunately for anyone currently not subscribing to LacrosseTV that option is out since you need a set-top box to watch. b2 on the otherhand, is live coverage of lacrosse games via the web. The network — b2 — charges $6, most likely US, per game and requires a machine with Windows and Windows Media Player (click here to watch the game).

Go ‘necks go!!

The teams have been set for a few days now, all we were waiting for was the schedule and now we’ve got it. Almost all of the division semi final games will be played on Saturday, April 22nd, 2006. The only dark horse is the Minnesota Swarm at Buffalo Bandits due to NHL playoffs — the Buffalo Sabers first playoff game is the same weekend which means the lacrosse match could be on either Saturday or Sunday.

Our Roughnecks will be playing in the Pepsi Center and the ball drops at 9:00pm EST — which, of course, is 7:00pm local time for both Calgary and Colorado. Other start times include a 10:30pm EST/7:30pm MST start for Arizona Sting at Portland Lumberjax and a 7:35pm EST/5:35pm MST start for the Toronto Rock at Rochester Knighthawks.

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It’s a sad day for Roughnecks fans around the world. In a home-and-home series against the Colorado Mammoth to finish off the regular season — and set the scene for the playoffs — the Roughnecks lost both games. The expansion Portland Lumberjax clinched the West Division title with an 11–5 record. Second place Colorado Mammoth closed out the season with a record of 10–6.

Losing 8–11 on Friday night in Colorado, in comparison, wasn’t too bad. The scoring started off evenly but the second quarter is where the Mammoth took a three goal lead and kept it throughout the rest of the game. Looking at the scoring stats the second frame is the only one in which both teams did not score an equal amount of goals.

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