DENVER — It may be a rivalry thanks to the bad blood and the close games, but the final results are completely and utterly one-sided in the post-season.
The Colorado Mammoth were hoping to flip the script on the Rocky Mountain Rivalry on Saturday inside the Pepsi Center, but it was Dane Dobbie penning another fairytale ending for the Calgary Roughnecks.
Dobbie scored at the 10:17 mark of overtime to cap the 11-10 win and send the Roughnecks into the West Division final against the Saskatchewan Rush.
“About time,” an exhausted Dobbie said from the bowels of the Pepsi Center after the game. “I was battling all game and I was taking a lot of shots tonight and I needed to try and get a big goal for the team. I thought I owed the team for the season I had — I didn’t think I had the best season — but the new season started this morning and now we’re going on to next week.”
At 70 minutes and 17 seconds, the instant classic is the longest playoff game in NLL history.
The Roughnecks also sent the Mammoth packing in the first round of the NLL playoffs for the fourth straight year.
“Uhhh … thank God,” Roughnecks’ Curtis Dickson said when asked what his thoughts were when Dobbie’s shot beat Mammoth goaltender Dillon Ward. “It was, obviously, a little tense in overtime there, but we battled and that’s a heck of a game. A full 60-plus minutes and that’s a great team over there.”
Captain Mike Carnegie painted a picture of an emotional and tired group of Roughnecks strewn about the locker-room that usually houses the NBA’s visiting team.
“Guys are dying in that room, banged up and bloody,” Carnegie said in between gulps of a sports drink. “It was just an unbelievable lacrosse game.”
The old adage that your stars have to be your best players in big games rang true on this night.
Adam Jones and Jeremy Noble paced the Mammoth with four goals apiece, but it was Dickson providing a sensational five-goal effort, including scoring with 24.9 seconds left to force overtime.
He left the heroics to Dobbie.
Mike Poulin was the reason the Roughnecks were in positing to break the Mammoth’s hearts once again, making a number of key stops in extra time and finishing with 56 on the night to out-duel Ward, who made 47 saves.
“They had thought their goaltender was better and that’s something we had in the back of our mind and I don’t think their goaltender was better by the look of it tonight,” Roughnecks head coach Curt Malawsky said. “(Poulin) made some huge saves. When the game’s on the line, he shut them down and gave us an opportunity to go back the other way.”
No one can really pinpoint a reason for all the success against the Mammoth in the playoffs.
“It’s unexplainable,” Dobbie said. “Bounces go our way and our team comes to work. I’m proud of every guy in that room. We came to work and we left it on the floor.
“Did anyone expect anything different coming down here? Every time we play these guys, it’s a tight game.”
It pretty much went by the book.
The Mammoth fed off their home crowd and jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but Tyler Digby answered with a pair for the Roughnecks to even things up. Digby finished with an important hat-trick, while Dobbie finished with a pair.
That kickstarted a four-goal run for the visitors, but the Mammoth scored three of the next four to close out the half to knot the game at 5-5, and the second half was essentially a carbon copy.
The West Division final against the Rush will start next Saturday at the Saddledome.
SMitchell@postmedia.com
@ScottMitchellPM
Three stars
1. F Curtis Dickson, Roughnecks — Most dangerous player all night.
2. F Adam Jones, Mammoth — Huge effort with four key goals.
3. F Dane Dobbie, Roughnecks — Scored the biggest one of the night.
Report card
Offence: B
Defence: B
Goaltending: A
Special teams: C
Why the Riggers won
Mike Poulin kept them in the game, Curtis Dickson was great again, and Dane Dobbie stepped up to be the hero in OT.
Goal of the game
Down by one midway through the fourth quarter, G Mike Poulin hit Dickson with a deep pass over the top of the Mammoth defence, and Superman did the rest with a dirty move to beat G Dillon Ward.
Save of the game
Moments after Dickson gave the Roughnecks a third-quarter lead, Poulin stood tall and flashed his right arm to stone Mammoth F Chris Wardle just outside the paint.
Riggers transactions
Rookie D Kellen LeClair and third-string G Christian Del Bianco were the scratches. F Dane Dobbie (lower body) and D Mike Carnegie were both activated from IR and returned to the lineup. D Garrett McIntosh was moved to the practice roster.
Up next
SATURDAY: Saskatchewan Rush at Calgary Roughnecks, Game 1 of best-of-three West Division Final, 7 p.m., Saddledome, NLLTV.com
— Scott Mitchell