Home opener vs. the Stealth
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.
A bit of drama popped up in the second when the Stealth’s goalie Anthony Cosmo got into a heated debate with the ref over Kyle Goundrey’s behind the net goal. The spat ended in an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for the Stealth and a game misconduct for Cosmo. Kudos to Goundrey for capitalizing on the NLL’s decision to allow scoring from behind the net this season.
The perfect combination for a great start to the season right? Well not quite. I was stressing a lot during the first and second quarters. Passes were sloppy resulting in a bunch of turnovers, our defense seemed to be playing it a little too safe and the guys couldn’t quite get it under control. Maybe it was Cosmo getting tossed or the rallying cries of the fans but the team started to pull it together mid way through the second and momentum started to shift. Unfortunately it wasn’t ever enough to completely over power the Stealth. Neither team was able to fully dominate the other which made for a real nail biter.
A few flashbacks to our heartbreaking loss against the Rush last season made my heart skip a few beats but thankfully only one of the shots managed to trickle past Andrew Leyshon. Overall Leyshon had a solid game stopping 35 of the Stealth’s 52 shots on net. The ‘Necks carried on to out-shoot the Stealth 67 to 52 so it wasn’t from lack of effort that we lost. Going into OT it was anyone’s game. The guys battled hard but not hard enough and with only 3:18 left in overtime the Stealth scored the game winner. Final score San Jose 17 Calgary 16.
Even though it was a hard loss to swallow I am confident that we are heading for a playoff season. As per Coach Hall’s predictions the team is gaining back the speed and energy that carried us to the cup in ‘04. And, as with every team that goes through a major roster change, it can only get better as the season continues.