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Tough ending to NLL season for Moleski and Calgary Roughnecks |
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Written by TED CLARKE, Citizen staff
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Sunday, 11 May 2008 |
Considering they were ranked 12th out of 13 teams in the National Lacrosse League pre-season rankings, Jeff Moleski and the Calgary Roughnecks had to be the league’s biggest overachievers.
The Roughnecks’ season came to an end Saturday in the West Division final in Calgary, where the visiting Portland LumberJax scored six unanswered goals in the fourth quarter on the way to a 16-12 win over the Roughnecks, with 9,327 watching at the Pengrowth Saddledome.
Portland will play the Buffalo Bandits in the Champions Cup final, Saturday in Buffalo. The Bandits won the East final 19-12 Saturday over the New York Titans.
Getting within a game of the NLL championship with a young team, a new coaching staff and revamped game strategies went beyond expectations in Calgary, where Moleski has been employed as a fly-in defenceman from Prince George for four seasons.
“No one expected us to get that far, we turned a few heads,” said Moleski. “We had a tough five-minute stretch at the end of the game there where they scored six goals in a row that put the final nail in the coffin.
“We had two wins and one loss (in the regular season) against Portland and maybe we looked past them a little bit. We weren’t prepared enough. Obviously the outcome wasn’t exactly what we wanted, but to make it to the Western final was still an accomplishment.”
Working with head coach Troy Cordingley and assistant Terry Sanderson, who oversees the defence, Moleski said it took the better part of a season to learn the new goal-prevention systems the Roughnecks implemented. After a rough start, the team caught fire and played its best lacrosse at the end of the season, including a 15-13 playoff win over Colorado. The Roughnecks went 8-9 in the regular season, finishing third, ahead of fourth-place (6-10) Portland.
“I think I started off a little slower but by the end of the year I started picking it up,” said Moleski, who had two goals and an assist in 13 games. “This year was a big learning curve with a new coaching staff and new defensive system.”
Moleski, 27, plans to take the rest of the summer off to recharge his lacrosse batteries. That will no doubt come as bad news to the New Westminster Salmonbellies of the WLA senior A league, and the local BX Pub Bandits, who had hoped to have Moleski in the lineup for their games this season.
“It’ll be nice to take some time off, my knees are getting tired,” he said. “The travel time is too much for me to play in New West this year.”
Moleski missed three of Calgary’s 16 regular season games due to work commitments. A former forestry worker, he now works in Prince George for Terasen Gas as a distribution apprentice.
Shawn Cable, 28, another Prince George minor lacrosse product, played seven games for Calgary, totaling a goal and four assists. He did not dress for the two playoff games.
Justin Norbraten of Prince George, the first-round pick of the Minnesota Swarm in the 2008 draft, played his first NLL season. In six games as a forward the 24-year-old had five assists, 21 loose-ball pickups and went 20-for-50 on faceoffs. After a 10-6 regular season that left them in a four-team logjam atop the East Division standings, the Swarm were eliminated in the quarterfinal playoffs with an 11-8 loss to New York.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 11 May 2008 )
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