Edmonton splits home-and-away Battle of Alberta series

Calgary,AB-- The Edmonton Rush had their three-game win streak snapped Friday night in Calgary as the Roughnecks parlayed a five-goal second quarter run into a 13-8 victory before 10,724 fans at Pengrowth Saddledome.

Calgary halted their three-game losing skid in the return matchup of the home-and-away Battle of Alberta series between the two clubs, after the Rush defeated Calgary 14-11 Jan. 30 in Edmonton.

With Friday's loss, the Rush fell to 3-2 on the season and Calgary, the defending Champion's Cup winners, improved to 2-3.

Three Calgary special teams goals in the second quarter, including two shorthanded tallies, carried the five-goal run, as Calgary lead 8-2 at halftime. Edmonton outscored Calgary 6-5 in the second half.

"They had more jump than us tonight," said Rush head coach/GM Derek Keenan. "We knew they were going to be prepared because they were a pretty desperate team coming in at 1-3."

Gavin Prout (2G, 3A) led the Rush with five points, while Ryan Powell (2G, 1A), Dean Hill (1G, 2A), Ryan Ward (2G) and Scott Stewart (1G, 1A) also scored for Edmonton. Brodie Merrill had three assists, 14 loose balls and five PIMS for the Rush. Josh Sanderson (3G, 3A) led the Roughnecks with six points.

Calgary outshot Edmonton 54-41 in the feisty contest that featured three fights and 59 minutes in penalties.

Matt Disher, despite a 40-save performance, was tagged with the loss for Edmonton.

The Rush power play went 2-7 and Calgary went 3-7 on the night, while Edmonton gave up two shorthanded tallies and Calgary allowed one shorty.

"The two shorthanded goals scored were key for them tonight," Keenan said. "It was kind of a mirror image of last week when we scored two. They're a real good team. Give them full value for the win tonight."

In the loss, though, Keenan was impressed with how his club battled back in the second half.

"We just didn't give up," he said. "We have a lot of character on this team and we did what we could to get back into the game. It just didn't happen, though."

Calgary stormed out to a 3-0 lead on first quarter goals by Kelusky, Sanderson and Ranger before the Rush hit the board with Powell's first tally off a sweet spin move at 11:10 during four-on-four play.

Powell then found net again at 12:29 of the quarter on the power-play as he picked up a loose ball in front and fired it past King making the score 3-2.

Calgary's Ranger opened the second frame with his second of the game at 3:33 before Sanderson scored on the power-play at 6:47 moving the Riggers ahead 5-2.

The Roughnecks continued the run with consecutive shorthanded goals by Kelusky and Shattler making the score 7-2 and Craig Conn closed the scoring in the half with 68-seconds remaining to give Calgary a six-goal lead at the break.

Calgary outshot Edmonton 27-16 at the half and the Rush had a hard time staying out of the box in the first half with 13 PIMs.

The teams traded goals early in the third quarter as Shattler hit for the Roughnecks and Edmonton's Stewart answered back at 6:01, before Hill found net at 10:10 biting into the 9-4 lead.

After a low-scoring third frame, the teams came out firing in the fourth quarter as Ward's shorthanded marker at 1:19 closed the gap to four goals before Calgary's Sanderson fired his hat-trick goal at 2:34 and then Mike Carnegie picked up a tally off a ball scramble moving the Roughnecks ahead 11-5.

Friction then spilled over in the stanza'with two scraps -- Derek Suddons against Jeff Moleski and later with after a one-sided scrap between Merrill and Calgary's Mike Kilby, Ward tallied again for Edmonton at 5:29, before Dobbie doubled the Roughnecks' lead to 12-6.

The Rush power-play went back to work as Prout notched his fourth on the campaign at 10:01 before Curtis Manning found an empty netter making the score 13-7.

Prout tallied again for Edmonton closing the scoring out, before one last bout of the evening between Calgary's Scott Carnegie and Edmonton's Jimmy Quinlan.

The Rush travels to Toronto next weekend for a Fri. Feb. 12 matchup against the Rock at Air Canada Centre and then return home the following weekend for a Feb. 21 matinee at 1:30 at Rexall Place in the back-half of the club's home-and-home series against Toronto.