Spurred by hat tricks from Blaine Manning and Steve Toll, the Toronto Rock defeated the Calgary Roughnecks, 15-12, at the Pengrowth Saddledome Saturday afternoon before a crowd of 9,428.

The Roughnecks hosted the Rock by wearing their road reds for the first time at home. The game started exactly how management would want it for a nationally-televised broadcast, with John Kilbride scoring 1:06 into the first quarter, but things soon took a downturn for the hometown crowd with the Rock going on a four-goal run, starting with Manning's first tally of the game. Helping out with the runaway lead was Ken Millin with two and Darryl Gibson with a solo effort. Kilbride bookended the run with his second goal of the night and Ben Prepchuk added one eight seconds later to cut the lead to one. Then, with Jason Wulder in the sin bin for a five-minute major, Toll slotted one home to extend the lead to a comfortable state. With only seven-tenths left on the clock, Dan Ladouceur scored to end the quarter at 6-3, Rock.

The second quarter ended Kyle Goundrey's frustration. After hitting at least three posts in the first quarter, Goundrey finally got one to go past Toronto netminder Bob Watson after a great passing play. But for everything Calgary came up with in the first half, Toronto had an answer or two. Or, sometimes, three. First, it was Colin Doyle finishing a pick-and-roll play with Kim Squire, then Blaine Manning scoring his second, and finally Jim Veltman taking Steve Toll's third assist of the game and putting it in the net. The Veltman tally came with Darryl Gibson in the box. During this run, the Rock were helped out by two mysterious shot clock resets that even surprized the players once. Neither resulted in goals themselves but added to the Matt King save count. When the halftime buzzer rang, it was 9-4 in favor of Toronto and the shots were 28-27, again in favor of the eastern team.

The third quarter was the special teams quarter of the game. Five goals were scored, four on the power play. When Calgary needed an offensive push, the Roughnecks looked to Kilbride and he delivered on the first Roughneck power play of the second half. Then Manning scored the oddball goal of the quarter, coming at even strength twenty-one seconds after the Kilbride tally. But the Roughies got a break and Drew Candy headed to the box for five minutes. Chris Panos awoke suddenly and in 62 seconds, scored twice to bring the Roughies back to within three. But the Rock just as they did in the first two quarters had the last laugh as Jim Veltman scored his second special teams goal, this time while the Rock was a man up.

Calgary coach Chris Hall must've given a great speech at the end of the third as the Roughnecks came out on fire in the fourth. After throwing everything at Watson for almost five minutes, finally the wall cracked and Benny Prepchuk had his second goal of the game. Then it was Goundrey's turn, finishing a passing play from Kilbride and Prepchuk. Prepchuk was on his way to being the Roughnecks' MVP, scoring again to cut the Rock lead to just one. After a wild scramble at the crease which saw Matt King make three amazing stops, Kim Squire backhanded a rocket into the net. King didn't get up after the goal and had the trainers work on his leg for a couple minutes before deciding to stick it out. With only five minutes and ten seconds to go, the tough goaltender wanted to stay in the game.

Only six seconds after play resumed, Steve Toll scored and then it was Danny Stroup's turn to put one past King. Panos tried to revive the Roughneck comeback story with his hat trick goal, coming just over three minutes from the end of the quarter. Then, with King making runs to and from the bench to add the extra attacker, Watson scooped up a loose ball and sent a long ball pass to Toll. King couldn't cut off the Rock attacker coming off the bench and Toll scored a relatively easy goal into the unguarded net. Calgary wouldn't roll over and die though, and came back with their own goal 26 seconds after Toll's tally. But it left them three goals down and Bobby Watson wouldn't give them any more chances after that.

In total, Watson came up with 35 saves while King made 36 for the night. The win was the first for the Rock this season on the road and stopped the two-game home winning streak of the Roughnecks.

BOX SUMMARY
                                      1  2  3  4     TOT
Toronto Rock (3-2)                    6  3  2  4  --  15
Calgary Roughnecks (4-5)              3  1  3  5  --  12

TORONTO ROCK                  CALGARY ROUGHNECKS
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS
Toll           3 - 4     7    Kilbride       3 - 5     8
Doyle          1 - 4     5    Prepchuk       4 - 2     6
Manning        3 - 1     4    Wulder         0 - 6     6
K Squire       1 - 3     4    K Goundrey     2 - 2     4
Stroup         1 - 3     4    Panos          3 - 0     3
Millin         2 - 0     2    Berthiaume     0 - 2     2
Veltman        2 - 0     2    Desormeaux     0 - 2     2
Gibson         1 - 0     1    Hillier        0 - 1     1
D Ladouceur    1 - 0     1    Olson          0 - 1     1
Burke          0 - 1     1    J Phillips     0 - 1     1
Rubel          0 - 1     1    Sundher        0 - 1     1
Watson         0 - 1     1    Toth           0 - 1     1

Shots on goal           51    Shots on goal           47
Saves made by           35    Saves made by           36
   Watson            35          King              36
Penalties                6    Penalties                4
Penalty Minutes         18    Penalty Minutes         11
Power Play Chances       4    Power Play Chances       6
Power Play Goals         2    Power Play Goals         3
   Toll               1          Panos              2
   Veltman            1          Kilbride           1
Shortanded Goals         1    Shortanded Goals         0
   Veltman            1          (None)
Loose Balls             51    Loose Balls             59
   Veltman            8          King              11
   Manning            6          Hillier            6
   Watson             6          J Phillips         6
Faceoffs Won            16    Faceoffs Won            13
   Millin       (11- 6)          Sundher      (13-16)
   Toll         ( 5- 7)          

*** STATS OFFICIAL BY VERIFY WITH CALGARY ROUGHNECKS ***