Another slow start was a killer in the end Friday for the Calgary Roughnecks.
They fell behind the Edmonton Rush early in Game 1 of the National Lacrosse League West Division final, made an impressive comeback, but couldn't hold off the Rush in the last two minutes, losing 10-8.
For Jeff Moleski of Prince George, the 33-year-old veteran on the Calgary defence, there was no denying his team will have to play a lot better from the opening face-off to have a chance at playing for the Champions Cup.
"We kept battling back but they made some plays at the end that cost us and we ran into some penalty trouble and couldn't recover," said Moleski.
"Both goalies deserve credit tonight, we hit four or five posts right off the start. Their goalie (Aaron) Bold was guessing on shots that were low and doing spins and they just weren't going in. We didn't get bounces, but give credit to them, they played well."
Ben McIntosh fired the winner with 2:10 left, a 30-foot shot that found the range high over Calgary goalie Frankie Scigliano. Zack Greer added some insurance with 1:33 left after he stepped into the crease undetected to pick up a loose ball and shoot it in from a sharp angle.
Mike Matthews was the difference-maker for Edmonton with three goals and four assists. The six-foot-five forward made use of his large body, diving to get the ball around Scigliano for his second goal of the game which made it 4-0 with three minutes left in the second quarter. The Rush outworked Calgary in the first half, beating the Roughnecks to loose balls on offence, and with Matthews feeding passes to open teammates Edmonton built a 6-3 lead after 30 minutes.
Scigliano got stronger as the game went on and kept his team in the game with a series of terrific saves. He was especially good while his team was on the penalty kill.
Greer picked up a loose ball and scored 28 seconds into the second half, but Calgary used that as a wake-up call and shut down Edmonton's offence for the next 22 minutes, scoring three unanswered goals to get within a goal, down 7-6.
The Roughnecks were killing a penalty seven minutes into the fourth quarter when Moleski scooped a loose ball and took off on a breakaway as NLL scoring champion Shawn Evans jumped onto the floor to join him on the rush. Moleski gave Evans the ball but Bold stopped the shot. The Rush then took the ball back down the floor and set up on the power play and Riley Loewen slipped one in just inside the post to make it an 8-6 game.
"Credit to Bold, nine times out of 10 Evans scores that," said Moleski. "Honestly, I thought that was the turning point of the game because that would have tied it and they came back to make it a two-goal spread."
Less than a minute after Loewen's goal, Roughnecks' Curtis Dickson scored his third of the game and Dane Dobbie ripped a shot to tie it 8-8 with 3:12 to play. But McIntosh and Greer ended the suspense with their late goals.
"(McIntosh) made a great shot but we have too have a better effort, especially at that time of the game," said Moleski. "The goal at the end, (Greer) ran through the crease and the referee even told us that at the end of the game they missed that call. They weren't allowed to review it because he wasn't in the crease when he shot it but he ran through the crease to get the ball and you're not allowed to do that."
Edmonton won the special teams battles, going 3-for-6 on the power play while Calgary's top-ranked power play finished at 1-for-3.
Roughnecks video coach Shawn Cable, a Prince George native who viewed the game from the pressbox in Edmonton, knows he'll have lots of video clips from Friday's first half which won't be pretty for the Roughnecks to watch.
"It would be nice if we could give ourselves a better start so we don't have to crawl back so far," Cable said. "It's good to know we're right in it and we'll be better prepared next weekend. Frankie gave us a chance to win and we were right there with a couple minutes left."
The Rush was denied a chance to play for the Champions Cup last year in the West Division final when Calgary beat them in the mini-game 2-1 to decide the best-of-three series. Calgary barely made the playoffs this year, overcoming an 0-6 start. The Roughnecks beat Colorado 11-5 last weekend in Denver to open the playoffs while the West Division regular season champion Rush drew a bye.
The series now shifts to Calgary for Game 2 next Saturday. If the series is tied after that game, a 10-minute mini-game will decide who gets to the NLL final.
"The nice thing is we know we've got another life and with the way things worked out with us getting the home floor advantage in the end, hopefully it works to our advantage," said Cable.
The East Division final starts tonight in Rochester with three-time defending champion Nighthawks hosting the Toronto Rock.
