Calgary Roughnecks forward Dane Dobbie (right) scored one goal and four assists as Calgary defeated the Philadelphia Wings 15-7 Saturday night at Pengrowth Saddledome..
ROUGHNECKS HANDLE WINGS IN CALGARY, 15-7
Calgary wins fourth straight to imrpove to 5-3
03/06/2010
By Josh Chalmers for NLL.com
The Calgary Roughnecks (5-3) moved to within half a game of the West Divison lead with a 15-7 win over the Philadelphia Wings (2-7) at the Pengrowth Saddledome in front of 11,007 fans. The win was Calgary's fourth win in a row.
For the second time in as many games Kaleb Toth opened the scoring early, breaking past the Philadelphia defense on the Roughnecks' first possession of the game, 24 seconds in.
"I thought we were really complacent in warm-ups, but we addressed that just prior to the game," said Roughnecks captain Tracey Kelusky.
Slipping past the defense was a recurring theme in the first quarter for the Riggers, scoring two more goals the same way. Kelusky didn't think that was a problem with the Wings defense.
"They have a big, athletic defense and we know that they are a good defense," said Kelusky.
"It wasn't in our gameplan to have their forwards get behind our defense," said Wings Head Coach Dave Huntley. "I don't understand why that happened. It's certainly not a technique that we coach and it really isn't how we've played all year."
The Wings responded with two powerplay goals, and were one second away from heading into the second quarter down by one. However, at 14:59 of the frame Kelusky extended the Roughnecks' lead back to two.
In the second quarter, two goals by Scott Ranger, the second of which gave him a hat-trick half way through the frame, and one by Kaleb Toth put the Roughnecks up 7-2. During a one minute span the Wings brought the lead to within four twice, but the Roughnecks responded quickly both times and held a 9-4 lead after the first half.
The 9-4 lead looked similar to the 10-1 lead that the Riggers took into half time in their last game, a 13-9 win over the Washington Stealth. However, Pym was happier with the second half effort this time around.
"It's getting closer (to a full 60 minutes)," said Pym. "We still had a couple of breakdowns that we would like to eliminate but the boys should be really proud of that effort. They did step it up in the second half and continued on with that momentum."
The third quarter saw a continuation of the Riggers domination, with the Calgary squad outscoring the Wings 4-1 in the frame. The Roughnecks second of the quarter was a particularly beautiful passing display that saw the ball whipped behind the back twice from Kelusky to Sanderson and finally to Jeff Shatler who whipped it in on the short side.
"We got outplayed," said Huntley. "I think the score was pretty indicative of the way the game went."
A Wings powerplay that was hot to start ended the game with no goals in its last four attempts.
The Roughnecks were led by Kelusky (3g, 5a), Scott Ranger (4g, 1a), Toth (2g, 3a) and Sanderson (1g, 6a). Leading the way for the Wings were Kyle Wailes (3g) and Drew Westervelt (1g, 3a).
Next up the Roughnecks will take on the West Division leading Washington Stealth (6-3) at the Pengrowth Saddledome next Saturday at 9:30pm ET, in a battle for top spot in the West. The Wings will head to Orlando's Amway Arena next Friday for a 7:30pm ET start time.
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