On Super Sunday, the Calgary Roughnecks were anything but great. The Toronto Rock stormed the Saddledome for a 14-10 victory in front of 9,911 fans, some of whom stayed to watch the Super Bowl between Pittsburgh and Seattle.

With the loss, Calgary falls to 3-3, while the previously struggling Rock now have won two in a row to improve to 2-4 on the season.

Calgary forward Kaleb Toth scored the first of his two on the day to open the scoring just 1:14 into game. The Rock roared back, scoring seven of the next eight to take a commanding 7-2 lead in the second quarter.

Roughnecks forward Matt Green did his best to fire up the home side and the strong crowd for a busy Sunday in sports. Green goaded Scott Campbell into a fight, then landed several hard left hands to fire up the Saddledome faithful.

Shortly afterwards, Lewis Ratcliff notched the first of his hat-trick on a play set up by Taylor Wray as the home side started to show some life. Wray picked up the loose ball in his own end and ran the length of the floor, steamrolling Josh Sanderson in the process, before dishing off to Ratcliff for a top-corner blast.

Toronto then took two penalties on the same play to give the Roughnecks a good opportunity to cut into the lead. But Rock goalie Bob Watson shut the door as Toronto killed the entire two-minute two-man advantage to take a four-goal lead into the locker-room at halftime.

CalgaryÕs powerplay let it down once again, going 0-for-5 and also allowing a shorthanded goal. Captain Tracey Kelusky added four goals for the Roughnecks, including a beautiful behind-the-back shot in the fourth quarter that fooled Watson to the short side.

After surrendering three straight goals in the second quarter, head coach Chris Hall pulled starting goalie Curtis Palidwor for backup Andrew Leyshon, who played through the third and most of the fourth before Palidwor was reinserted briefly.

Tempers flared late with the game out of reach as Roughnecks defender Jeff Moleski took on Rock forward Tim OÕBrien and Ryan McNish traded blows with J.J. Dickie. Both tilts gave the crowd something to cheer about as the comeback stalled.

The Rock kept rolling though, building leads of 9-4 and 13-8 and never were in danger of letting the Roughnecks get back into the game. Leading the way for Toronto in scoring was Blaine Manning (5G, 2A), Colin Doyle (2G, 4A) and Josh Sanderson (2G, 6A).

Veteran Rock defender Jim Veltman hit a significant milestone during the game, picking up the 2,000th loose ball of his storied career. Veltman is the all-time NLL leader in that category.

The Roughnecks have two weeks off before their next game when they play host to the expansion Edmonton Rush on Feb. 17 (7:30 p.m., Saddledome).

2006-02-06