Evans fills net for Rush
Scores six goals against Roughnecks in losing cause
With multiple promotions and gimmicks on the field on Friday night, there was plenty of activity for fans of the National Lacrosse League Edmonton Rush.
Reality TV personality Terry Grant, of Mantracker fame, was on hand at Rexall Place to drop the ball in a ceremonial faceoff and judge a halftime lassoing contest. It was country music night, too, so the Rush appeared wearing white cowboy hats. The visiting Calgary Roughnecks entered to the strains of
Duelling Banjos, perhaps in an effort to conjure up images of the movie
Deliverance. The Rush also played in alternate jerseys with their Twitter handles instead of surnames on the back.
The game turned out to be entertaining too.
The Roughnecks (6-3) held off a late Rush (2-5) comeback that was spearheaded by forward Scott Evans’ monstrous six-goal night, for a 1310 win. Aaron Bold made 33 saves in net for Edmonton, with Calgary netminder Mike Poulin turning aside 42 shots in the win.
The Rush complete the home-andhome series with the Roughnecks on Saturday night at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary.
Bold put the team’s loss on his shoulders.
“We tied it up late in the game but we had mental lapses I think tonight that were solely on me,” he said. “I’m going to try my best (on Saturday) to try and perform a little better,” Bold said.
Rush coach and general manager Derek Keenan was quick to defend his goaltender.
“Not at all,” he said, disagreeing with Bold’s comments. “Are you kidding? He’s been great all year. (Calgary has) got a very skilled group. They’re going to get chances and he stopped most of them. We just had lapses.”
Edmonton came into Friday’s tilt hoping to get its offence on the same impressive level as its defence. It appeared to be headed that way early, as Rush forward Zack Greer’s bullet from the right wing beat Poulin and put the Rush in front 3-2 at 6:58 of the first quarter.
The fast-paced, offensively minded game shifted in Calgary’s favour in the second quarter, as Calgary forwards Curtis Dickson and Jeff Shattler spurred their team. The two struck back-to-back to go up 4-3, as Calgary netted three power-play goals in the first half. The special teams’ low point came late in the half, when the Rush blew a two-man advantage and allowed Shattler to spin his way to the net and rifle a shot past Bold at 12:26. The Roughnecks took a 6-3 lead into the locker-room at halftime.
“First half with special teams they were better,” Keenan said. “We’ve got to play 60 minutes.”
Trailing 8-4 in the fourth quarter, the Rush got a burst of offence. Evans caught fire and buried four goals in the final stanza.
After Evans assisted on Aaron Wilson’s game- tying effort at 6:57, Keenan noticed something discouraging in his team.
“We played so well the first 10 minutes of the fourth quarter,” he said. “I thought we took it to them in every aspect and then we played to not lose the game, rather than to play to win the game,” Keenan said.
Becoming tentative after fighting to even the score, the Rush watched as the Roughnecks struck three times in 1:34. Dane Dobbie, Scott Ranger and Shattler all piled goals in on the Rush, who didn’t have enough time in the game to climb another mountain, despite Evans’ best efforts. His fifth and sixth goals got Edmonton within one once again, but Dickson scored with 24 seconds to play and added an empty-netter with 11 seconds on the clock.
Keenan was at a loss to explain his team’s struggles.
“I don’t know why,” he said. “We’ve done that three times this year: Against these guys in Calgary (on Feb. 19), against Colorado (Feb. 4) and against Minnesota (Feb. 10), same thing. We played not to lose rather than playing to win.”
Evans, who tied a franchise record for most goals in a game by one player, said the loss was bittersweet.
“We’re still struggling to put four quarters together,” he said. “We look great at times and we look terrible at times. We’re in growing pains, and right now we’re 2-5 and we’ve got to get back in this playoff race.”