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I took a detour off the Interstate 5 North from Los Angeles on Friday to take in the Stealth/Roughnecks match at the HP Pavilion in San Jose on Saturday afternoon. It was well worth the side trip.

It was a pivotal game for positioning in the West division, especially for those important home playoff dates. The Stealth needed a win to keep pace with the Colorado Mammoth in the race for the division title and the Roughnecks needed a win to keep hopes of a potential home playoff date realistic.

There was some interesting pre-game news regarding Calgary in that Steve Dietrich was slated to make his return to the Roughnecks after suffering a concussion in Game 3 of the ‘Necks season. But the more startling revelation came via the NLL’s transactions site that noted Calgary’s Tracey Kelusky had been placed on the Injured Reserve list to make room for a roster spot for Dietrich. No mention had been made of the move on the Wednesday league media call and Kelusky had played the previous two games for the Roughies after getting medical clearance from his earlier concussion issues. Reportedly, the Calgary captain is having some re-occurrences of his post concussion syndrome issues. Placing him on the IR means he won’t be eligible to play for at least three weeks now – not a good sign for Tracey or the Roughnecks.

The game itself was really a tale of three games in one. The Stealth started strong, building a 4-1 lead by the end of the first quarter. They stretched that to 6-1 by the 6-minute mark of the second and looked as if they were going to run roughshod over a listless looking Calgary squad. Then the game started to get a bit chippy, which seemed to spark the Roughnecks, who suddenly came alive to trigger the second phase of the game.

Lewis Ratcliff scored his second at the 7:17 mark of the second quarter to halt the Stealth run and flip the game’s momentum. It was San Jose’s turn to look sluggish while the Roughies tromped all over them. Calgary went on an incredible 11-3 run from there. This momentum thing in the NLL is tough to figure out. It’s not just the NLL, either, where you see huge runs made by one team or the other. The NBA has similar big swings and so do individual sports like tennis. I had a first-hand look at that this past week while watching the likes of Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova go through those momentum issues at the Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells. When someone finally figures out the dynamics of momentum, they’re going to get rich.

Just when it looked like Calgary had rebounded from the potential of a sound thrashing, game three of this event unfolded. At 12-9 and with only 6:14 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Roughnecks seemed in control of the two points when Nolan Heavenor was called for holding a Stealth defender’s stick. It might not have been so bad if the normally wiser Andrew McBride hadn’t compounded the problem by also getting two minutes for chirping about the call. Calgary had already given up a power play marker to the Stealth earlier in the game while sitting out a minor for bench chirping so the precedent had been set around the parameters of questioning calls.

The Stealth pounced, scoring two power play goals to get it back to 12-11 with still 5 minutes to go. Cam Sedgewick continued the run with an even up marker with 4:47 to go and the stage was set for the final dramatics. And it should be noted that Sedgewick had a goal and three assists in the Stealth’s four goal run to victory. Sedgewick is an often forgotten key cog in the San Jose offence.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the floor, Aaron Bold had spent the last 22 minutes creating his own environment for the comeback bid. He had replaced starter Anthony Cosmo twice in the game (the first time for a brief few seconds) and was once again spectacular, stopping 12 of 14 shots for a .816 save percentage. Cosmo and Bold is a tough tandem. It’s got to be comforting to know your young backup goalie can perform that well when your superstar starter is struggling a bit as Coz was on Saturday afternoon.

Who else should put the final stamp on this game but another superstar - Colin Doyle. I was having a post game beverage with Stealth head coach Walt Christianson who told me it was Doyle himself who drew up the winning play. Walt had drawn up the first two power play goals during the run and was about to draw up the third but Popeye said he felt good about what he thought he could do. So Christianson gave him the board to draw it up. It worked. When you’re feelin’ it, everything’s goin’ in!

So, as I said at the outset, it was more or less three different games within a game: 6-1 Stealth; 11-3 Roughnecks; 4-0 Stealth. The BIG M played a big role in the outcome. You can point to some obvious momentum shifters, but it’s difficult to resolve how long the shifts last. I’m going to keep thinking about it though because I wouldn’t mind reaping the benefits of figuring it out.

Other notes: San Jose’s Sean Morris made his NLL debut on Saturday and what a debut it was. The UMass grad tallied two goals and two assists. It wasn’t so much the points performance that caught my eye as it was his electrifying quickness and howitzer of a shot. He rifled at least one other off the post and had a great dive goal called back for a crease violation. He was next to impossible to defend. A little more two-man-game experience and this guy could add another huge dimension to an already potent attack. Very impressive.

Look no further in your analysis of the Shamrox upset of Rochester than the goaltending of Matt Roik. I know I’ve been harping a bit lately about goalie save percentage but the Knighthawks out shot Chicago by a considerable margin on Saturday and Roik’s save percentage was .803. That’s two huge games he’s played already. Not bad for a guy who hadn’t played a minute in the league this season until last week.

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