Capitalizing on the man-advantage turned the Okotoks Sr. B Raiders’ season opener from potential avalanche to cliffhanger.
The Raiders fought off a four-goal deficit in the third period, but left it too late and dropped their Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League (RMLL) season opener 11-9 to the Calgary Mountaineers May 4 at the Stu Peppard Arena.
“It was pretty bad all around,” said Raiders coach Ryan Avery. “We didn’t run, we didn’t shoot, didn’t play good defence and took way too many penalties.
“It wasn’t what we wanted, it wasn’t what we needed.”
Calgary took early control of the contest with a 3-0 first period as Mountaineers netminder Joe Tallis stood on his head and controlled his rebounds.
Garrett Werschke finally broke the duck for Okotoks with a deft fake shot to evade a defender before finding the back of the net. He would get the Raiders within one on his second powerplay goal of the period.
Sensing a shift in momentum, Calgary responded in kind with three goals in a span of 2:26 to increase the advantage to 6-2.
Raider Dave Grant cut into the lead with a wicked shot from the point, followed shortly by sniper Tyler Farmer’s first goal of the year on a great spin move in the slot.
The Mountaineers added their seventh in the final minute of the period to hold a 7-4 lead after two.
After Calgary added another goal in transition to start the final frame, the elusive Raider Randy Levick slivered his way through the Mountaineers defence for his first of three goals in the period.
Werschke would then complete the hat-trick with a five-hole shot past Tallis. Okotoks captain Josh Sartorelli then made it a one-goal game with a breakaway tally with 12:50 remaining.
Ever the resilient bunch, Calgary answered back with a 3-0 run in four minutes to put the tilt further out of Okotoks’ reach.
“That’s what kills you,” Avery said. “We’ve got to stop those four, five-goal runs and score some goals.”
Okotoks heeded the advice in the late stages of the third period.
Levick buried his second of the game off a rebound with 7:36 remaining and then narrowed the deficit to 11-9 with a 5-on-3 tally to complete the hat-trick five minutes later.
It would be as close as the green-and-white would come to a comeback.
“It’s too bad we lost, but it’s just the start of the season so hopefully we can turn it around here,” Werschke said. “We were pretty physical at the beginning and laid off at the end there. We’ve got to keep being physical.”
Walking the fine line of controlled aggression proved a difficult task for the Sr. Raiders in Calgary.
“We played real aggressive out there we’ve just got to control it,” Avery said. “We were slashing and whacking pretty good and getting some loose balls, but taking those penalties at stupid times hurt us.”
Calgary’s trips to the penalty box were equally costly. Okotoks scored five of its 11 goals on the powerplay using the size of Farmer, Werschke and Scott Cable and ball movement from Levick to keep the contest competitive. Mountaineers head coach John Kilbride echoed the sentiment, noting special teams played a major role in the RMLL icebreaker in Calgary.
“Their special teams kept them in the game whereas our penalty kill struggled a little bit,” Kilbride said. “We’re going to have to pick up that department.
“But overall our team is ahead of where we were at this point last year and I’m pretty happy about that.”
Calgary limped out of the gate in the 2012 regular season before gradually climbing the standings and jumping over the Raiders for the final playoff spot in the South.
“We used to win all the series and now they’re starting to get a little better so it’s making for a more interesting series,” Werschke said. “Hopefully we can keep the bad blood going.”
The Raiders host the defending league champion, Rockyview Knights at 8 p.m. at Pason Centennial Arena Friday.
