Shawn Cable scored four goals, leading the Calgary Roughnecks to the brink of the playoffs with a 16-14 win over the Buffalo Bandits.

This was a must-win game for both the Roughnecks, to have a shot at reaching the playoffs, and the Bandits, to grab home floor advantage throughout the NLL playoffs.

Once again, the Bandit to watch was John Tavares, who opened up the scoring at 3:55 of the first quarter. Tracey Kelusky had a quick answer for him, though, scoring only sixteen seconds later.

The action went end-to-end for a while, with Buffalo's Steve Dietrich and Calgary's Curtis Palidwor stopping many scoring chances until Aime Caines broke the seal at 9:26, putting the Bandits up by one.

The next minute, Chris Seller turned a quick transition to extend the Buffalo lead to 3-1. With Calgary on its third power play of the quarter, Kyle Goundrey completed a passing play that went around the floor in a hurry and put the Roughneck faithful back on their feet. The score at the end of fifteen minutes was 3-2 in favor of the visitors, but Dietrich was the busier of the two goaltenders, making twelve first-quarter saves.

Buffalo picked up even more steam in the second quarter, as Mike Accursi took a fast transition off a Dietrich save, followed by a Pat McCready romp up the floor, and slipped one past Palidwor.

The Bandit transition game showed up on the score sheet again a minute later when Seller intercepted an errant Roughneck pass and, before things could get settled again, scored an unassisted marker to put the Bandits up 5-2.

At 4:29, Kelusky took a Neil Doddridge pass across the floor and worked his way in to score on Chugger, then Tyson "Spiderman" Leies scored to get the crowd back into the thick of things.

Before the Roughneck run could gain too much momentum, Jason Crosbie finished a cross-crease pass for a 6-4 lead. Four seconds after play restarted, Andrew McBride and Kerry Susheski dropped the mitts for a spirited fight that went back and forth before Susheski spun his Roughneck foe to the turf.

Calgary just wouldn't fold up and die, though, as Kaleb Toth and Cable scored to knot things up at six. Tavares wanted this win, too, and scored his second of the night before a Caines power play marker gave the Bandits a two-goal lead again.

However, Cable was only warming up, scoring his second of the evening less than a minute later. Accursi scored on a last shot play, and the Bandits led by two, 9-7, at the half.

All season long, the Roughnecks have been known as a second half performer. It must be something in the dressing room pep talks, but this game was absolutely no different. A full minute into the third quarter, Lewis Ratcliff put his mark on the game, followed by Cable's hat trick goal, tying things up again.

After some fantastic goaltending at both ends, Rob Kirkby scored to give the Roughies their first lead of the game. With Jamie Hackel in the box serving a bench minor for too many men on the floor, Goundrey popped in his second power play goal of the night to finish off the third quarter scoring. Palidwor faced nineteen shots in the quarter, turning all nineteen away for a goose egg quarter.

Tavares, who hadn't scored since the second quarter, isn't a guy you can keep off the score sheet for long. In their last home game, the Roughies had to deal with the best goal scorer of all time (Gary Gait), and tonight's assignment wasn't too far behind. A mere 1:11 into the fourth quarter, Tavares showed his stuff, making a couple of strong moves and potting his third goal of the night.

Calgary's offense soon came back, with Cable snagging his fourth of the game to start a four-goal run, with a controversial incident right in the middle.

Pursuing a loose ball behind the net, Leies collided with Dietrich, and the Bandit goaltender fell awkwardly. Ogilvie and Rich Kilgour came for Tyson's head and the chaos began -- with "Chugger" still on his back in the crease.

Dietrich stayed down on the floor for what seemed like hours, although it was more like twenty minutes, with trainers from both teams taking care of him before slowly walking him off the floor, down the Calgary corridor and into the first aid room there.

Into the Buffalo crease came a cold Corey Quinn, who was met by quick goals from Ratcliff and Kelusky, ending a five-minute power play the Roughies were enjoying.

With McBride off the floor for holding, Jonas Derks got a chance to complete a crease pass and he buried it behind Palidwor, then the Buffalo transition, which had been quiet all of the second half, got back into the swing of things as Duane Jacobs blasted a shot from about ten feet out.

The Bandits soon got caught with six runners and a goalie on the floor at the same time, and Jason Wulder took advantage of the resulting power play, making it a four-goal game.

Derks wasn't done in the scoring column, though, coming back down the floor to score his second of the night a minute later. Tavares scored with 2:28 left, but that rounded out the night's scoring a couple shot for the visitors.

Kelusky (three goals, two assists) and Goundrey (two goals, five assists) each had seven points and Palidwor came up with 45 saves in the winning effort.

Tavares has six points (four goals, two assists) for the Bandits, while the pairing of Dietrich and Quinn finished with 35 saves.

Calgary is all but in the playoffs with tonight's win, needing just one of four games the rest of the weekend to go its way. Buffalo clinched a playoff spot long ago, but by losing tonight, the Bandits opened to door for Rochester to pass them and win the Central Division title.

If that happens, a rematch of tonight's game could be in store next Saturday at HSBC Arena.

BOX SUMMARY
                                      1  2  3  4     TOT
Buffalo Bandits (12-4)                3  6  0  5  --  14
Calgary Roughnecks (9-7)              2  5  4  5  --  16

BUFFALO BANDITS               CALGARY ROUGHNECKS
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS
J Tavares      4 - 2     6    Kelusky        3 - 4     7
Plunkett       0 - 5     5    Goundrey       2 - 5     7
Derks          2 - 2     4    Cable          4 - 1     5
McCready       0 - 4     4    Ratcliff       2 - 3     5
Accursi        2 - 1     3    Doddridge      1 - 3     4
Caines         2 - 1     3    Toth           1 - 3     4
Crosbie        1 - 2     3    Wulder         1 - 2     3
Seller         2 - 0     2    Palidwor       0 - 2     2
D Jacobs       1 - 0     1    J Phillips     0 - 2     2
Couling        0 - 1     1    Leies          1 - 0     1
Dietrich       0 - 1     1    Kirkby         1 - 0     1
R Kilgour      0 - 1     1    Dennett        0 - 1     1

Shots on goal           59    Shots on goal           51
Saves made by (GA)      35    Saves made by (GA)      45
   Dietrich (13)     32          Palidwor (14)     45
   Quinn (3)          3
Penalties               17    Penalties               14
Penalty Minutes         51    Penalty Minutes         34
Power Play Chances       5    Power Play Chances       8
Power Play Goals         3    Power Play Goals         5
   Caines             1          Goundrey           2
   Derks              1          Kelusky            1
   J Tavares          1          Ratcliff           1
                                 Wulder             1
Shorthanded Goals        0    Shorthanded Goals        0
Loose Balls             78    Loose Balls             88
   Seller            14          J Phillips        11
   McCready           9          Goundrey          10
   J Tavares          8          Palidwor          10
Faceoffs Won            10    Faceoffs Won            24
   Accursi      ( 5- 7)          MacArthur    (17- 9)
   R Kilgour    ( 5-13)          Kirkby       ( 7- 1)
   Hackel       ( 0- 4)          

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