Calgary Roughnecks capture lacrosse championship
Last Updated: Saturday, May 16, 2009 | 10:18 AM MT
The Canadian Press
The Calgary Roughnecks and their families celebrate the franchise's championship win on Friday. (Cory Shannon/Calgary Roughnecks) The Calgary Roughnecks won their second National Lacrosse League championship Friday night and captain Tracey Kelusky hopes the team also finally won some respect.
Josh Sanderson, Dane Dobbie, and Bruce Codd each scored twice as Calgary captured the Champion's Cup with a 12-10 victory over the New York Titans.
"Maybe now we'll get some respect that we are the No. 1 team," said Kelusky after his team's win. "When we played Colorado (15-8 win in West semifinal) and we beat them so bad, people said, 'Oh Colorado just never showed up.' When we played San Jose (17-5 win in West final), it was the same thing, 'Oh San Jose, did they really play that bad?'
"Not ever credit to the way the Calgary Roughnecks played."
The championship game marked the first time in NLL history the top seeds from both the West and East Divisions had made it to the final. The marquee matchup did not disappoint.
The entertaining back-and-forth game featured a mix of spectacular goals, acrobatic goaltending, and an intensity that left the Pengrowth Saddledome crowd of 13,042 entertained.
"These kinds of games, they're great to sell. Any potential owner, fans that came out and see what us and the New York Titans put on tonight, how can you not be a fan the game after watching that? It was just unreal," said Kaleb Toth, who had a goal and five assists.
Both teams rallied
Four times New York rallied from a deficit to tie the game. Four times Calgary responded with the next goal.
Scott Ranger gave the Roughnecks the lead for good at 1:13 of the fourth quarter.
Then stay-at-home defender Codd scooped up a loose ball, ran the length of the floor, and while fending off two defenders put a shot past New York goalie Matt Vinc. With just one goal in 16 regular season games, Codd was an unlikely hero.
"I had a terrible first half defensively, but it was one of those things where I didn't get down on myself, there was still lots of game, we were still in control and sure enough, I got a chance to make up for it a little bit," said Codd.
Sanderson fired his second at 7:25 as the Roughnecks built a 10-7 lead, their largest of the night.
Sanderson game's MVP
"We knew we were going to have to fight through some adversity. We thought we got a little spoiled there 17-5, 15-8 [scores in Calgary's first two playoff games]. We knew that wasn't going to be the case tonight, they have too many weapons," said Sanderson, who also had three assists and was named the game's most valuable player.
Calgary's only other championship appearance was in 2004 when, in the same building, they defeated the Buffalo Bandits 14-11.
Curt Malawsky, Kelusky, Jeff Shattler, and Mike Carnegie also scored for Calgary, who outshot New York 50-42 with Matt King getting the win in goal for the Roughnecks.
Casey Powell scored four goals for the Titans. New York's other goals came from Brendan Mundorf with a pair, Matt Alrich, Ryan Boyle, Pat Maddalena, and Jordan Hall. In just its third season in the NLL, New York was making its first championship game appearance.
