CALGARY — Like a member of the Rebel Alliance, Jeff Shattler was ready to fight against the dark side of the Force on Saturday night.
The dark side – in this case – was the visiting Colorado Mammoth (2-3), which suffered its second straight setback at the hands of the good guys, namely the Calgary Roughnecks (3-1).
One weekend after beating the Mammoth 14-12 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, the Roughnecks hosted a Star Wars Party at the Scotiabank Saddledome and sent the 11,280 fans in attendance home happy by virtue of a 12-8 victory.
All Shattler needed was to either score or set up a goal to surpass Kaleb Toth in all-time points (628) for the franchise. Shattler scored once and set up five others to give him 634 career points in his 11th season in Calgary.
“I’m happy to be part of this organization as long as I have,” said Shattler. “Given the opportunity to play in this league is great. The fans are awesome and I had my dad in town and my wife was here.”
Shattler has stayed in touch with Toth and will most likely talk to his former teammate in the coming days.
“I’m sure I’ll talk to him throughout the week,” said Shattler. “He’s a great player and he’s done great things for this organization. I was happy to be able to break something like that because he’s such a great player. I’m just happy I had the opportunity to do it.”
Calgary coach Curt Malawsky praised Shattler for all of his contributions on and off the field for the Roughnecks over the past decade.
“At the end of the game there, he gets the game ball and he gets the (fireman) helmet from the guys,” said Malawsky. “Guys are coming up to me and saying, ‘Coach, it’s got to be Shattler, it’s got to be Shattler.’
“For guys to do that, it just shows how much of an impression he’s made on them. He’s not only our point leader, he’s such a good guy in our locker room. He’s a really caring, genuine guy and he’s a character guy. He’s a guy that we’re very proud as an organization to say that’s he’s our leading point guy.”
Forward Dane Dobbie also had glowing things to say about Shattler after his milestone moment.
“Tonight was a big night for Jeff and I can’t say enough about the guy,” said Dobbie, who had a hat trick and four helpers. “I’ve played with him for 10 years here. Me and him are like brothers. I’m more proud of him than anything right now.”
Curtis Dickson had four goals and two assists, while Wesley Berg scored twice and set up another.
Riley Loewen and Holden Cattoni also scored, while goalie Frank Scigliano made 29 saves in the Calgary net to record his third straight victory.
Eli McLaughlin had a four goals and a helper for the Mammoth, while Chris Wardle, Jacob Ruest, Jordan Gilles and Zack Greer also scored.
Dillon Ward started in net for Colorado, but was pulled late in the first quarter after giving up five goals on 14 shots. Alex Buque then made 23 saves in a relief appearance.
Berg opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 1:36 of the first quarter before Dickson converted a feed from Shattler 18 seconds later.
After Dobbie put the Riggers up 3-0, Ruest finally got the Mammoth on the board just past the nine-minute mark of the opening frame.
Dobbie and Shattler answered back with goals as the ’Necks built up a 5-1 lead before getting into penalty trouble.
“I liked our start,” said Malawsky. “It was big. You put a team on their heels early, even though they did come back a little bit, it takes a lot out of them. Then they had their run and we went back on our run and then they had a little bit of a push at the end and we were able to sustain it.”
Greer scored on a two-man advantage late in the first before McLaughlin also found the back of the net during another five-on-three early in the second.
McLaughlin then put a rebound past Scigliano for yet another power-play goal at 2:01 of the second to pull Colorado within a goal.
The Riggers then responded with goals by Dickson, Loewen and Berg to take an 8-4 lead into the halftime intermission.
McLaughlin completed his hat trick at 3:12 of the third before Wardle scored at 9:01 to pull the Mammoth within a pair of goals.
Not to be outdone, Dickson completed his hat trick at 11:03 of the third before Dobbie did the same thanks to a power-play goal 55 seconds into the final frame.
Gilles and McLaughlin answered back with a pair of goals for the Mammoth, before Cattoni scored the second goal of his rookie season to put the Riggers up 11-8.
Dickson then rounded out the scoring by scoring on a penalty shot with 1:12 remaining on the clock.
The Roughnecks will continue their four-game homestand next Saturday (7 p.m.) when they host the Saskatchewan Rush.
