Fourth Quarter Surge Lifts Sting to Champions' Cup Final
by Andrew Nordmeier
Published on May 1, 2005 under National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Arizona Sting
When Calgary's Tracey Kelusky scored 44 seconds into the fourth quarter to put his Roughnecks up 13-10, several things became evident. The young Arizona Sting had their work cut out for them. They had never won in Canada and that streak was about to continue. They didn't want their season to end one game away from the title game.
That's when the Sting (11-7) took over and scored nine of the game's final 11 goals to wipe out that three-goal deficit and advance to the Champions' Cup Final with a 19-15 win over the Roughnecks (10-7) Saturday night at the Pengrowth Saddledome.
Arizona faces the 13-4 Toronto Rock on May 14 at the Air Canada Centre at 3:30 pm Eastern on NBC in a one-game, winner-take-all showdown for the title. These two teams met once during the regular season and Toronto stomped Arizona 18-10 on March 18th. Toronto advanced to the final by downing Rochester 12-10 Friday night.
The Sting accomplished their fourth-quarter frenzy in two parts. First a 6-0 run put Calgary on the short end of a 16-13 score before a couple of quick strikes late took away any Roughneck momentum.
The run started with a great hustle play by forward Jason Clark. He outhustled everyone to the rebound of a Scott Self shot, dove headlong, and poked the ball past Calgary netminder Curtis Palidwor at 3:08 to bring Arizona back to within two.
Three minutes later, Pat Maddalena went five-hole on Palidwor to make it 13-12. Self again was the play's catalyst as he dished out a heavy hit that jarred the ball loose from a Roughneck forward and started the Sting in transition.
Jonas Derks scored his lone goal at 8:34 when the Sting caught Calgary in transition and Craig Conn's bomb from long range 31 seconds later put Arizona ahead 14-13. Dan Dawson lit the lamp at 10:20 when he powered around a Roughneck defender and snuck one just inside the post.
Mark Cochrane broke in on Palidwor as part of a two-on-none rush and used a stick fake to freeze the netminder before hitting the target top left at 10:57 to put the Sting up 16-13. It forced Calgary to take its timeout and rethink strategy.
Calgary responded with a couple of goals 64 seconds apart from Kelusky and Lewis Ratcliff to shave the difference to 16-15 with 2:47 left but that's when Arizona put on its final push.
Maddalena and Peter Veltman scored 10 seconds apart to put the Sting back up 18-15 with 2:23 left before Bruce Codd's empty netter with two second left sealed the win.
While the Arizona offense stole the show in the fourth quarter, the Sting wouldn't have won without the strong goaltending of Mike Miron. "Tiny Mike" as he's known came up with several huge saves as the Roughnecks tried to go low on the 5-foot-10, 265-pound goaltender. Miron's saves combined with the Sting's hustle to scoop up loose balls in the fourth quarter played key roles in the win.
Early on, it looked like it would be a game of three-goal runs. With the score tied at 3-3, Calgary ripped off three in a row to go up 6-3 early in the second quarter. Arizona responded with three in a 2:08 span to knot the game at 6-6 with just under four minutes left in the half.
The Roughnecks lit the lamp three times in 50 seconds to take a 9-6 edge before a Dawson goal made it 9-7 just before the half. Ratcliff struck twice in a minute to make it 11-7 before another Sting three-goal burst kept it close.
For the winners, Conn and Dawson led the way with four goals each while Maddalena and Clark each chipped in a pair. Peter Lough added four assists while Codd, Clark, Cory Bomberry and Darryl Gibson each rang up three helpers. Miron stopped 40 of Calgary's 55 shots in the win.
Ratcliff led all scorers with seven points (3g,4a) in the losing effort while Kelusky added four goals and an assist. Kaleb Toth and Jason Wulder each picked up four points (2g,2a) for the Roughnecks. Palidwor turned aside 25 of the Sting's 44 shots on goal.
Notes:Gibson missed a signifcant amount of playing time after being struck in the head by the ball at the end of the first half. Gibson inadvertently used his head to block a missile from the point as the half ticked down. He laid on the floor for a minute before getting off of the turf under his own power. He came back in the fourth quarter...Arizona finished 1-of-7 on the power play while Calgary was held to 1-of-4...The win is the Sting's first-ever in Canada (1-5) and first in four trips to Calgary...Conn leads all Sting scorers with 14 points (9g, 5a) in two playoff games while Dawson (8g,3a) and Maddalena (4g,7a) are tied for second with 11 points each. Lindsay Plunkett is fourth with 10 points (4g,6a).
National Lacrosse League Stories from May 1, 2005
- Fourth Quarter Surge Lifts Sting to Champions' Cup Final - OSC Original by Andrew Nordmeier
- Sting down Roughnecks 19-15 - Calgary Roughnecks
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