The Calgary Roughnecks were 5-0 with captain Tracey Kelusky in the lineup. The Colorado Mammoth was 4-0 at Pepsi Center.

When they met Friday night in Denver, something had to give.

What gave was Colorado's home perfection, as well as a chance to reach the midpoint of the season with a winning record, as the Roughnecks rallied three times to post a 14-13 overtime victory.

The Mammoth falls to 4-4 on the season, including a 4-1 record at the Soda Can, but still leads the woeful Eastern Division by one game. Calgary, meanwhile, improves to 6-3, remaining a half-game behind Toronto in the Northern Division.

The teams wasted little time in starting what many expected to be a fantastic Wild West shootout. Kaleb Toth scored for Calgary after just 22 seconds, but Gary Gait had flipped the lead the other way by the end of the second minute.

The Roughnecks took a 3-2 lead on goals by Jason Wulder and Tyson Leies, scored five minutes apart, but the Mammoth had the last laugh in the period, as Ted Dowling, Ben Prepchuk and Kevin Stewardson all scored in the final minute and a quarter.

Kyle Goundrey pushed the Roughies back to within one, at 5-4, on an opening-minute goal. However, Gait took it back a few minutes later, on a bomb from goaltender Erik Miller.

The aforementioned good luck charm, Mr. Kelusky, scored his first of the game a short time later, and Toth tied the contest at six a couple minutes after that. That's where it stayed for almost the rest of the period, before Wulder parked one behind Miller for a 7-6 halftime lead.

Calgary kept up the pressure in the third quarter, expanding its lead to three goals in the opening minutes, courtesy of Toth and Jesse Phillips.

After having not scored for almost seventeen minutes, the Mammoth exploded with a fury the rest of the quarter, using goals from Dowling, Gait, Brian Langtry and Prepchuk to take a 10-9 lead.

Lewis Ratcliff, though, scored a power play goal in the closing seconds, and the teams headed to final fifteen minutes of play tied at ten.

The so-called "decisive" fourth quarter actually decided very little tonight, except that the two sides were incapable of withstanding the other. Dowling scored twice in the first 3:16 of the period, but Calgary roared back for a 13-12 lead with five to play.

After four tense minutes of scoreless lacrosse, Brian Langtry tied the game with just 39 seconds remaining.

"Brian had [two] circus goals," Dowling said. "He jumps up and the goalie has no way to recover and he flips it over his shoulder. It's a classic Langtry goal."

13-13 after sixty minutes... Bonus lacrosse!

When the Mammoth is involved, overtime never seems to be a short affair. In its last game as the Washington Power, a semifinal last season in Toronto, it took the Rock deep into double overtime. This year, in its home opener, Colorado and Toronto played nearly nine minutes of sudden death.

This one would be long by NLL standards, but not nearly as long as the Rock game in January. Four minutes and forty-three seconds of stomach-churning sudden death came to an end when Leies took the loose ball off a Dowling shot all the way home for the game-winner, fighting off two checks to beat Miller.

"I didn't even see the ball go in," Leies said. "I turned around and saw everyone running toward me. They were surrounding me saying 'great shot,' and I was trying to clear them out of the way so I could catch my breath and look at the Jumbotron."

Wulder, the game's MVP, and Toth both scored three goals for the Roughnecks, who next play at Toronto on 28 February. Gait and Dowling scored four apiece for the Mammoth, which visits Albany a week from tonight.

BOX SUMMARY
                                   1  2  3  4 OT     TOT
Calgary Roughnecks (6-3)           3  4  3  3  1  --  14
Colorado Mammoth (4-4)             5  1  4  3  0  --  13

CALGARY ROUGHNECKS            COLORADO MAMMOTH
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS
Wulder         3 - 2     5    Gait           4 - 2     6
Kelusky        2 - 3     5    Dowling        4 - 1     5
Ratcliff       1 - 4     5    Prepchuk       2 - 3     5
Goundrey       1 - 3     4    Langtry        2 - 2     4
Toth           3 - 0     3    Sims           0 - 4     4
Leies          2 - 0     2    Stewardson     1 - 1     2
Doddridge      1 - 0     1    Halladay       0 - 2     2
J Phillips     1 - 0     1    E Miller       0 - 2     2
Cable          0 - 1     1    Donovan        0 - 1     1
Kirkby         0 - 1     1    Hanford        0 - 1     1
Stevenson      0 - 1     1    F Jenner       0 - 1     1

Shots on goal           68    Shots on goal           53
Saves made by           40    Saves made by           54
   Palidwor          40          E Miller          54
Penalties                9    Penalties               11
Penalty Minutes         18    Penalty Minutes         22
Power Play Chances       7    Power Play Chances       5
Power Play Goals         4    Power Play Goals         3
   Goundrey           1          Gait               2
   Kelusky            1          Dowling            1
   Ratcliffe          1
   Toth               1
Shorthanded Goals        0    Shorthanded Goals        1
   (None)                        Prepchuk           1
Loose Balls             93    Loose Balls             87
   Palidwor          12          E Miller          20
   J Phillips        11          Gait              10
   Kelusky           10          Sims               8
Faceoffs Won            14    Faceoffs Won            17
   Kirkby       ( 9-13)          Hanford      (17-13)
   MacArthur    ( 3- 1)          Phair        ( 0- 1)
   Stevenson    ( 2- 2)          
   Goundrey     ( 0- 1)

 *** STATS OFFICIAL BY VERIFY WITH COLORADO MAMMOTH ***