Go! ‘Necks! Go!

A short while ago, I met Kent Ridley on an online forum. We exchanged a few messages and he mentioned he was writing a history of the Calgary Roughnecks. The website he was going to post these articles on unfortunately ended up shutting down. Rids, as he’s more commonly known, asked if I would like to publish them on GoNecksGo.com and I was more than happy to oblige. Now, on with “A brief history of the Calgary Roughnecks”.

How it all began

Saturday November 24th, 2001 will always be remembered as a thrilling day for lacrosse fans in Calgary. This was the first time the local faithful had a chance to see their new club in action without traveling to Prince George or Vernon to see one of the pre-season tilts with the Ravens. The first pre-season game was used as a rallying cry against the NLL for making the nets 3 inches wider (from 4’6” to 4’9”) as there were 45 goals scored that night in Prince George. Little did those folks know what would take place only three weeks later.

With any expansion team the first game is special. The night of the 24th was doubly special as it was the first game for the Montreal Express franchise too. This game featured many names that would become icons in the Calgary lacrosse community. Players like Kaleb Toth, Jason Wulder, Tracey Kelusky, Curtis Palidwor, Ted Dowling, and Matt King would be on that floor that night. The arena had over 12,000 in the seats and media row was overflowing with first time viewers of this new sport in town. The Roughnecks came out on the floor with their home whites wearing silver numbers which made it nearly impossible to see who was who if you were more than 5 feet away.

Things got off to a right foot for the Roughnecks as John Kilbride scored the first goal in franchise history on his way to an 11-point night that has held up as a Roughneck record to this day. Then the black cloud descended. On his first shift in a Roughneck uniform Scott Frizzel twisted his knee on a bad bump in the turf, falling awkwardly to the ground. His first shift became a career ending injury for the defenseman.

Then the Montreal high powered offense got rolling. By the end of the first quarter it was 10-3 Express, to the half the lead continued to 16-6. The wild ride didn’t stop there. By the time the time expired on the third quarter the Express had extended the lead to 23-9. The fourth was home to the penalty minute explosion as a couple incidents ignited the Roughnecks and their fans especially the now famous footage of Kaleb Toth with his arm locked and loaded but holding off on the finishing shot of a poor defenseless Express player stuck along the boards. When it was all said and done there were a few NLL records broken that night. The 32-17 final score set and still holds the record for most goals in a game at 49, 155 minutes in penalties (plus a suspension following the game to Ryan Campbell) puts this up with famous battles between the Wings and Turbos and Wings and Bandits.

John Kilbride finished with 4 goals and 7 assists for his team record 11 points. Kaleb Toth had a goal and 7 assists to tie Kilbride for the Roughneck single game record for assists (since tied two more times). Chris Prat still holds the Roughnecks record for most penalty minutes in a single game with 22 from that night. Jason Wulder still holds the Roughnecks record with 4 power play goals in that game and Todd Katanchik still has the single game face off record with 24 wins. Derek Collins gave up 20 goals on 46 shots and Matt King, a rookie on in relief, gave up 12 goals on 22 shots. On an interesting note future Roughneck stars like Tracey Kelusky (11 points), Ted Dowling (9 points), Brad MacArthur (23 face off wins), Curtis Palidwor (6 assists, 45 saves on 62 shots) and Scott Forbes (19 minutes in penalties) all had career nights against the red, white and black.