THE CANADIAN PRESS
CALGARY — The first ever playoff appearance for the Edmonton Rush will last at least one more week thanks to a sensational goaltending performance from Matt Disher.
The 33-year-old veteran made 60 saves Saturday as Edmonton won 11-7 over the defending National Lacrosse League champion Calgary Roughnecks in a West Division semifinal.
When Disher wasn’t repelling shots from every angle, he was intercepting Calgary passes, aggressively charging out of his crease to jump on a loose ball, or getting bowled over by an opponent in the spirited game between the two provincial rivals.
Edmonton will play in the West final next weekend against division champion Washington, which defeated Minnesota 14-10.
Edmonton head coach and general manager Derek Keenan had to pause when asked the last time he had witnessed a goaltending performance that good.
"It’s certainly been quite a while, Matt was spectacular, no doubt about that," said Keenan. "They threw a lot at us and a lot at Dish, but our ‘D’ was good also. They paid the price out there, we blocked a lot of shots, knocked a lot of balls down, and that’s what it takes to win, guys have to sacrifice."
It was one of the better nights Edmonton’s Andy Secore recalls seeing.
"Five years I’ve been in this league and I haven’t seen anything better than that in a long time, that was phenomenal," said Secore, who scored twice.
Calgary outshot Edmonton 67-37.
"The Calgary guys are probably wishing they shot a lot better," said Disher, who stands six-foot-four and weighs 240 pounds. "There were some shots where they had good looks but they were shooting and hitting me in the chest."
Disher refused to take credit, instead complimenting the entire team.
"The guys in front of me, we all did the job together — as a team. It’s cliche but at the same time, you look at that game. We scored goals when we needed to, I stopped the ball when I needed to, and the guys never wavered in feeling that we were going to win the game."
Calgary never led in the game trailing 3-0, 5-2, and 7-4 at the quarter breaks.
"There was never really any sense of urgency on this side," said Calgary captain Tracey Kelusky. "We never really pushed that panic button, which we should have. Panic and urgency is a little bit different and we weren’t even close to either and that was the difference."
Ryan Ward paced the Rush offence with a goal and eight assists. Dean Hill scored three times while Gavin Prout, Andy Secore and Corey Small added two goals apiece. Jimmy Quinlan also scored.
Dane Dobbie scored three times to lead the offence for Calgary, who entered the playoffs as the NLL’s hottest team reeling off four consecutive victories to close the regular season. Tracey Kelusky, Kaleb Toth, Nolan Heavenor and Scott Ranger each scored once.
From a sombre Roughnecks dressing room where players sat slumped in their lockers long after the game ended, Kelusky reflected back on the season.
"We were able to get that 10-6 record based on us having a good team. But unfortunately, we did not build those good habits throughout the course of the year that we needed in order to have success in the post-season and it was evident tonight," said Kelusky. "We never built that culture throughout the course of the year to take the steps necessary to do anything in the post-season."
Josh Sanderson, the NLL’s regular season leading scorer with 104 points, shared Kelusky’s opinion that the urgency was missing all season.
"It was all year, it wasn’t just tonight," said Sanderson, who was limited to three assists. "We thought we could just step up because it’s playoff time but obviously you can’t, not in this league."
It was an intriguing match-up. The Roughnecks were making their eighth straight post-season appearance while Edmonton was playing its first playoff game after failing to make the playoffs once in the franchise’s first four years.
Trailing the entire game, Calgary’s biggest push to get back in the game began with Kelusky’s goal with four seconds left in the third quarter converting a behind-the-back pass from Sanderson to reduce Edmonton’s lead to 7-4.
Heavenor scored 12 seconds into the fourth quarter and when Dobbie notched his third of the night 46 seconds later, the crowd of 10,388 was rocking the Pengrowth Saddledome with the home side within a goal.
Like they did all night, however, Edmonton answered right back.
Secore beat goaltender Mike Poulin on the power play to make it 8-6 and after Toth made it 8-7, Secore scored again.
"Yes, this is our first time in the playoffs but you look down our roster and how many guys have been in this situation — a lot of them, so it was just about maintaining our composure," Keenan said.
Notes: Quinlan is one of three original Edmonton Rush still with the team. The others are Rory Glaves and Chris McElroy. McElroy did not play due to an injury… Calgary goalie Matt King, who was the team’s goalie throughout its playoff run a year ago, watched from the bench before getting in with five minutes left. King was relegated to back-up duty after having been pulled in his final two regular season starts… In 16 career regular season meetings between the two teams, Calgary is 12-4.