Game #6: Roughecks get Rocked
The pattern has reared its ugly head again–this time to the disappointment of many fans. What pattern am I talking about? This season’s record goes as follows—win, loss, win, loss, win, loss. That’s the pattern I’m talking about. Anyway, back to the game.
Being the first game since last years regular season closer against the Toronto Rock (1-4)—a game in which we trampled the Rock on the scoreboard and in the fights–everyone knew it was going to be a good game. Here’s how it broke down.
Starting off the scoring for the game was Kaleb Toth one minute and 14 seconds into the first quarter. Unfortunately this would be the last Calgary Roughneck goal for the quarter. Toronto answered back with three goals that quarter securing a decent lead.
Our boys came back a little at the start of the second quarter with a goal by captain Tracey Kelusky. The excitement was short lived though. The Rock continued to increase their lead by 5 with goals by Manning (2), Doyle, and Wilson. This was a particularly bitter moment because the Roughnecks failed to capitalize the entire time we had a 2–man advantage. To our credit, Matt Green did whip Scott Campbell in a fight 12 minutes into the quarter.
In the second half the boys started to show more attitude and energy than they had in the first half. Although the Rock were first to score in the third, Jesse Phillips, Lewis Ratcliff, and Toth answered back for Calgary. Manning (2), and Wilson each scored for Toronto—ending the quarter at 10–6 in the Rock’s favor.
The final quarter of the game was definitely where my leg started bouncing uncontrollably—it’s a nervous thing I have. I’ve seen the Roughnecks comeback from similar situations and I had hoped this would be one of them. Unfortunately it wasn’t. The Roughies did impress me with some fantastic fights during this quarter—Jeff Moleski against Tim O’Brien and Ryan McNish against J.J. Dickie—both of which I would score in our favor, although not by a large margin.
Toronto stuck with their game–plan and managed to add another 4 goals—Campbell, Manning, Sanderson, and Wilson—to solidify their lead. A valiant attempt to close the gap by Kelusky (3) and Ratcliff was made but ended up being too little too late. On the up side, the Roughnecks kept the game going right until the last seconds of the game. Kelusky’s final goal was clocked at 14:51 of the final quarter.
While Curtis Palidwor finished out the game he was replaced early in the second quarter by Andrew Leyshon. Each net-minder ended up playing roughly half the game. Palidwor made 21 saves, letting 7 goals through, and Leyshon made 18 saves, letting 6 through.
Sorry to hear about the loss.
Written by Colin D. Devroe on February 7th, 2006
Yeah, it was hard to take. The fact that the only other team Toronto had beaten until this game was the dead last Edmonton Rush didn’t make it any easier.
Written by Mike on February 7th, 2006