Ranger scores 5, Roughnecks beat Bandits
Posted January 8, 2011 7:27 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
THE CANADIAN PRESS
CALGARY — Calgary’s Scott Ranger tied a career high with five goals, but he was more concerned about the Roughneck’s lacklustre second-half effort against the Buffalo Bandits.
Ranger scored once in the first quarter and four more times in the second as the Roughnecks built up an 8-5 lead en route to a 10-9 win over Buffalo on the opening night of National Lacrosse League action on Saturday.
“We’re going to have to pay a lot of attention to the second half,” said Ranger, who also had a five-goal game for Calgary on April 13, 2007 against the Arizona Sting. :We squeaked that one out. It was a good team effort, a good character win for us, but we’re going to have to start playing 60 minutes to compete with the top-level teams in this league.
“That was a good team we beat tonight, but we got lucky towards the end of the game.””
Calgary coach Dave Pym agreed that the Roughnecks will have to concentrate on playing better defensively if they want to compete against the likes of the defending NLL champion Washington Stealth, who they’ll face on Sunday night in Everett, Wash.
“It was nice to get the win, but we made a lot of mistakes fundamentally and we’ve got to clean that up obviously if we want to have success this year,” Pym said. “We’re happy that we got the W, but we’re certainly not satisfied with some of the things that we did out there.”
Rookie Curtis Dickson, who Calgary picked third overall in the 2010 NLL Entry Draft, scored twice for the Roughnecks (1-0), while veteran Kaleb Toth had a goal and three assists. Nolan Heavenor and Geoff Snider also scored, while Dane Dobbie and Jeff Shattler chipped in with three assists.
Roger Vyse led the way for Buffalo (0-1) with two goals and four assists, while Mark Steenhuis scored twice and set up another. Scott Self had a goal and an assist for Buffalo, while Frank Resetarits, Chris Corbeil and Kyle Clancy added singles.
Buffalo coach Darris Kilgour said his team rebounded in the second half after a poor start.
“First half we were terrible and they were pretty good,” Kilgour said. “The second half I thought we outplayed them but didn’t shoot real well. I thought we had our chances to pull that game out in the second half.”
In his return to Calgary, former Roughnecks captain Tracey Kelusky had a goal and three assists.
“It’s disappointing,” Kelusky said. “It’s the start of the season and we can chalk this up to a bad first half, but in this league everyone has to play 60 minutes. We live and learn and we learnt the hard way tonight.”
Calgary goalie Mike Poulin, who compiled a 5-1 record for the Roughnecks last season, stopped 38 of 47 shots he faced.
“At times we got lucky and Poulie saved the day for us early in that second half,” Pym said. “He shut the door and made some real big saves.”
Buffalo netminder Mike Thompson made 27 saves.
The Roughnecks built up a 3-2 lead after the first quarter before Ranger erupted for four goals in the second to build Calgary’s lead up to 8-5 at halftime.
Buffalo then outscored Calgary 3-1 in the third quarter to pull within a goal before Snider notched his first goal as a Roughneck at 4:30 of the final frame.
Snider, who was acquired in a trade from the Philadelphia Wings in the off-season, then got into a spirited fight with Buffalo’s Steve Priolo much to the delight of the 9,590 fans at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
“A goal and a fight and spending some time in the penalty box, I couldn’t be happier than the way that the game went,” said Snider.
Clancy then scored for Buffalo with 17.7 seconds left in regulation to pull the Bandits within a goal, but that’s as close as they would get.
Notes : The contest featured a pre-game ceremony in which Kelusky was honoured for the eight years he played in Calgary prior to being traded in October to Buffalo along with a third round draft pick for a first round pick in the 2011 NLL Entry Draft. … In their 10th anniversary season, the Roughnecks have now compiled a 5-5 record in home openers and a 6-4 mark in their first game of the season. … Calgary went 2-for 6 with the man advantage, while Buffalo converted three of seven power-play opportunities.
