The Calgary Roughnecks used a balanced offense to defeat the Vancouver Ravens, 13-12, Friday night at the Saddledome, in the first game of a weekend home-and-home series.

Last year, a series sweep by the Ravens over the Roughnecks propelled Vancouver into the playoffs. This year, with the series in the middle of the season, it will take longer for these games to have that type of meaning but the make-or-break mentality of the games is there for both clubs.

The Northern Division is a tight race and these two teams just don't like each other much to start with. Spending Friday night with 11,659 of your closest friends sounds like a great way to do things, though, and that hometown crowd erupted when Kaleb Toth put a power play goal past Ravens goaltender Dwight Maetche to open things up.

Jason Wulder and Bruce Murray had a meeting of the minds that resulted in each picking up seven minutes in penalties, all for unneccesary roughness. Shortly after that, Chad Wittman came down to the game on a circus shot, falling backwards with one hand on the stick. Peter Morgan then used his supersized reach to give the Ravens their first lead of the game, but with nine seconds left and Grant Hamilton in the box, Lewis Ratcliff swung over to his off-wing to blast a shot past Maetche, sending the teams to the mini-break even at two.

The second quarter didn't take long to blast off, as Mike Law and Chris Gill both scored in the first minute. Law waited three minutes to score his second, giving the Ravens a three-goal cushion.

Jesse Phillips was the Roughnecks' run stopper and just fifteen seconds after seeing the coastal cousins score, he put a Toth pass in the goal. A pair of former Ravens followed suit, as Craig Stevenson took a Tyson Leies pass to get the home team within one. However, Chris Prat restored the two-goal lead for the Black Birds a few minutes later.

Calgary's first-quarter scorers (Toth and Ratcliff) quickly got back in the groove, scoring one each to send the teams into the dressing room locked at six. The Ravens' power play just could not connect as the Roughies killed off two man-down situations with the Ravens giving the ball away three times on over-and-back violations.

Thirty-nine seconds into the third quarter, Roughnecks goaltender Curtis Palidwor sent a long ball down to Wulder, who converted it to put the Roughies back in the lead for the first time since the first quarter. The Ravens had an answer for that, though, as Prat scored his second, followed by a power play blast from Cam Sedgwick standing directly in front of the crease.

The Ravens got caught again sending the mystery pass back and then seeing the ball roll the entire way down the floor. Stevenson tied things up once again before yet another Wittman circus shot restored the Ravens' lead.

Neil Doddridge hadn't scored at all this season, but with both teams a man down following a Tracey Kelusky-Grant Hamilton run in, he found the floor space to get one past Maetche and tie things up. Doddridge didn't take long to find twine again, as his second goal of the quarter gave the Roughies the lead again. In the final minute of play, though, Rob Williams converted a Maetche pass to end the third quarter with things knotted at ten.

Wittman opened the fourth quarter with his hat trick goal, taking a Morgan pass and finding a hole in the Palidwor defense. That put the Ravens up one last time. Kelusky, playing his first game back from a broken orbital bone, shook off the rust and scored to tie things up. Then Kyle Goundrey scored with Matt Dwane in the sin bin to give the Roughies the lead again.

Kelusky picked up his third point of the fourth quarter by sending a nifty pass to Jason Wulder, who made a quick step inside and potted a goal right along the post. With just over five minutes remaining in the game, Sedgwick blasted another shot from up top to get the visitors back to within one, but the Roughneck defense locked down in the final minutes, not giving the Ravens anything at the offensive end.

Calgary's offense didn't say die, either, as it kept the pressure on to tire out Vancouver's transition players, knowing that the Ravens would be trying to get any offensive advantage they could, including trying to catch the breaks on the line changes. Didn't work, and the score stayed 13-12.

The teams meet again Sunday afternoon at GM Place in Vancouver.

BOX SUMMARY
                                      1  2  3  4     TOT
Vancouver Ravens (2-2)                2  4  4  2  --  12
Calgary Roughnecks (3-3)              2  4  4  3  --  13

VANCOUVER RAVENS              CALGARY ROUGHNECKS
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS
Prat           2 - 6     8    Wulder         2 - 4     6
Law            2 - 4     6    Toth           2 - 2     4
Wittman        3 - 0     3    K Goundrey     1 - 3     4
Stroup         0 - 3     3    Kelusky        1 - 3     4
Sedgwick       2 - 0     2    Doddridge      2 - 1     3
Gill           1 - 1     2    Ratcliff       2 - 1     3
Morgan         1 - 1     2    Stevenson      2 - 0     2
R Williams     1 - 0     1    J Phillips     1 - 0     1
B Alexander    0 - 1     1    Desormeaux     0 - 1     1
Maetche        0 - 1     1    Leies          0 - 1     1
                              Palidwor       0 - 1     1

Shots on goal           63    Shots on goal           61
Saves made by           48    Saves made by           51
   Maetche           48          Palidwor          51
Penalties                7    Penalties                9
Penalty Minutes         17    Penalty Minutes         21
Power Play Chances       6    Power Play Chances       4
Power Play Goals         1    Power Play Goals         3
   Sedgwick           1          K Goundery         1
                                 Ratcliff           1
                                 Toth               1
Shorthanded Goals        0    Shorthanded Goals        0
Loose Balls             49    Loose Balls             41
   Law                8          K Goundrey         8
   B Alexander        6          J Phillips         6
   Maetche            4          Desormeaux         5
   R Williams         4          
Faceoffs Won            14    Faceoffs Won            15
   Reisig       (11-14)          Kirkby       ( 8- 7)
   R Williams   ( 3- 1)          Stevenson    ( 5- 1)
                                 MacArthur    ( 2- 6)

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