THE CANADIAN PRESS
CALGARY — By Matt King’s estimation, his last goal was 20 years ago. Safe to say his goal Saturday night in the National Lacrosse League West Division final was little more dramatic.
Not only did the Calgary Roughnecks goaltender pull of the rare feat of scoring a goal, he also took a shutout into the fourth quarter as the Calgary Roughnecks booked a spot in NLL Champion’s Cup with a 17-5 drubbing of the San Jose Stealth on Saturday.
Calgary will host the New York Titans in the Champion’s Cup next Friday. New York beat Buffalo 9-3 earlier Saturday night to advance to the final.
It’s rare when player scores five goals in the first half and doesn’t end up the star of the game, but Roughnecks captain Tracey Kelusky’s performance still couldn’t match King’s night.
King’s goal at the very end of the first quarter capped off a sensational opening 15 minutes for the home side in which they staked themselves to a 6-0 lead.
San Jose pulled its goalie for the final seconds of the quarter to get an extra player on the floor and attempt to set up a dangerous scoring chance for a shot at the buzzer.
Instead, King was able to cover up a loose ball at the side of the net and, with two seconds remaining, quickly stood up and hurled the ball the length of the floor with the 175 foot shot going straight into the centre of the net.
"Luck – that shot was luck. I haven’t scored a goal since I was eight," said King. "I thought the ball was way too high, I thought I’d thrown it into the stands. I was as shocked as anybody when it went in."
The crowd broke out into an immediate roar and the Roughnecks mobbed King in front of the Calgary net.
The Roughnecks extended their lead to 9-0 at half-time and were up by the stunning margin of 15-0 when San Jose rookie Rhys Duch finally got a shot behind King on the Stealth’s 30th shot of the game 0:24 into the fourth quarter. The goal broke King’s shutout streak at 54:19.
"Disgusting… gross… I don’t know what else to say. Our offence was just brutal, we couldn’t get anything going," said San Jose’s Jeff Zywicki.
Back when the game was still up for grabs, Zywicki was thwarted a couple of times on close-in chances.
"(King) played well, you shut out a team for three quarters, you’ve obviously played a hell of a game," Zywicki said.
"I had a couple chances early but didn’t quite hit the spot that I needed to put them in but you have to give him the credit, he made the saves and they were tough saves."
Also scoring for Calgary was Dane Dobbie with three goals, Scott Ranger and Kaleb Toth with a pair each, Jeff Moleski, Josh Sanderson, Curt Malawsky and Nolan Heavenor.
Sanderson added nine assists for a game-high 10 points while Ranger chipped in seven helpers for a nine-point night.
Frank Resetarits and Eric Martin also scored for San Jose.
It was an tough way to bow out for the Stealth, who had played well since former Roughnecks coach Chris Hall took over the head coaching duties in late March.
With a 3-7 record at the time, San Jose won four of their final six games to finish 7-9 and make the playoffs as the West Division’s third seed. San Jose then upset the Portland LumberJax 20-16 last Friday in a West semifinal.
"It was one of those games that’s difficult to explain," said Hall. "We did a ton of preparation. They weren’t doing anything that we didn’t know they were going to do. They were perfect and we were horrible."
.Prior to King’s dramatic goal, Kelusky scored three goals in less than six minutes to stretch a 2-0 to 5-0.
The third goal in that stretch at 13:41 came on a gritty individual effort as the five-foot-eight dynamo fended off three Stealth defenders before firing a shot past rookie San Jose goaltender Tyler Richards.
"I can’t say enough about Tracey," said Toth. "He came out and played huge for us. That’s the ultimate captain. When he does that, it motivates the rest of the guys and right from the get go, that’s why our team was so successful tonight. He was a man on a mission out there and we jumped on his back."
Notes: It will be Calgary’s second trip to the final. In 2004, Calgary beat the Buffalo Bandits 14-11… Hall was Calgary’s coach when they won the Champion’s Cup in 2004.