Their record at the Scotiabank Saddledome may not be perfect, but the Calgary Roughnecks feel home at the ‘Dome.
All year, the team’s preached they wanted the home playoff date, and last weekend’s 15-10 win over the Colorado Mammoth showed why.
In the second half, the near 9,000 fans were a rowdy bunch wreaking havoc on the Mammoth’s psyche.
“When the crowd gets rocking here, you can see the other team’s body language kind of sag down and we really need that for momentum,” says captain Andrew McBride.
That game was for the West Division Semi-Final.
This weekend it’s the West Division Final with a berth in the NLL Champion’s Cup on the line against the Washington Stealth.
McBride and the rest of the Roughnecks want to see fans pack the ‘Dome.
“Hopefully next week we’re going to get another great crowd and we can use that to get us going again,” he added.
The Roughnecks and Stealth owned identical season records, with Washington winning two out of three games against Calgary this year.
The history runs deep between the two squads, and there shouldn’t be any surprises come game time.
“We’ve had a lot of tough battles with those guys,” McBride noted. “They’ve got a prolific offence and they’re going to be ready to go. They’ve got a big, pounding, bruising defence and (goalie) Tyler Richards can get hot. He’s had some good games in the ’Dome. We’re going to watch film like we did (for) this game. Everybody’s got to rise to the occasion to play their role.”
Forward Scott Ranger added, “They are a great team. They have a potent offence just like us and a big defence. We will just have to look at film and draw some stuff up and get ready for them.”
Game time is 4:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Scotiabank Saddledome, with tickets available online or at all Ticketmaster locations.
