CALGARY, AB — The Calgary Roughnecks were at the Rough House for the final week of the NLL season, taking on Rob Hellyer and the Toronto Rock. The Roughnecks and Rock went back and forth in the contest, but rookie Wesley Berg stole the show with six goals, including the game-winner.
Here are five things we noticed in the game:
1) LET THEM FLY
It was a banner night for Roughnecks rookie Wesley Berg. Not only did he record his first ever sock-trick in the NLL, he also scored the game-winning goal in overtime. Berg opened the scoring within the game’s first two minutes, but wouldn’t score again in the first half. He scored three goals in the first seven minutes of the third quarter and added one at the start of the fourth quarter. Then in OT, Berg did this….
Berg has been a steady offensive force for the Riggers all season and if this is a sign of him breaking out even more, the Necks offence becomes much more dangerous.
2) FINALLY
When Rob Hellyer scored a late goal to tie the game at 17-17 to send the game to overtime, it was not the ideal situation for the Roughnecks. On the season, they had seen the extra frame three times, with each one ending unfavourably for Calgary.
They weren’t about to let this one slip away.
“This time I think we weren’t going to take no for an answer,” Berg said. “We needed to get hot going into the playoffs here and it was good for us to pull out the win.”
With the huge overtime win, the Roughnecks confidence is soaring heading into Colorado on Saturday.
3) PLAYOFFS
Speaking of heading to Denver, the Riggers will once again be playing at the Pepsi Centre for Round 1 of the NLL Playoffs. At 7:00p.m. MT on May 7, both the Mammoth and the Roughnecks will be fighting for a chance to battle the Saskatchewan Rush in theWest Final. Last season, the Roughnecks went into Colorado and emerged victorious despite a long delay due to a power outage that was caused by a snow storm. Despite a lot of change on the Roughnecks bench, the team will be looking for a similar outcome this weekend.
4) PENALTY TROUBLE
Even with the Rock already eliminated from playoff contention, they were ready to do whatever it would take to win on Saturday. That desire to win was seen early and often and lead to many scrums and plenty of pushing and shoving after a lot of plays. It eventually came to a head when Scott Carnegie and Billy Hostrawser decided to drop the mitts. The game did not cool down and the players were fired up. Unfortunately, this aggressive, emotional style of play led to a large number of penalties. The Roughnecks ended the game with 42 penalty minutes, which resulted in six power play goals for the Rock – a perfect conversion rate. Against a very disciplined Colorado Mammoth team, the Roughnecks can’t afford to spend so much time in the sin bin.
5) COMBINED EFFORT
They say it takes a full team effort from everyone to win a game. The Roughnecks proved that point on Saturday.
The goaltenders split time and while they weren’t extremely effective, they continually made huge saves – especially in big time moments. The defence was solid at times and were putting pressure on the Rock offence the entire game. They did quite a bit in the transition game to help out their offence, with Karsen Leung, Peter McFetridge, and Garrett McIntosh scoring goals.
The offence was great on Saturday, scoring 18 goals on Nick Rose – one of the hottest goaltenders in the league right now. With eight players registering four or more points in the contest, it shows how balanced the Riggers offence was in the game.
BONUS: With four goals in the game, Curtis ‘Superman’ Dickson recorded his 61st goal of the season – setting a new Roughnecks single-season franchise record. Most years, Dickson’s goal total would top the league, but Buffalo’s Dhane Smith has gone on a rampage and set a new NLL single-season record with 72 goals.
Friday, October 20, 2017 | 3:23:28 PM
MACRAE TO WEAR THE ‘C’
Friday, October 20, 2017 | 1:54:44 PM
CALMING INFLUENCE
Tuesday, October 17, 2017 | 2:05:42 PM
THERE AND BACK AGAIN
Thursday, October 12, 2017 | 9:36:10 AM
DRAFT DAY SURPRISE
Wednesday, October 11, 2017 | 1:55:00 PM
PRE-SEASON PARTY
Friday, October 06, 2017 | 1:50:15 PM
CHANGE OF PACE
Thursday, October 05, 2017 | 11:52:51 AM
DRAFT PICKS SIGNED
Monday, September 25, 2017 | 1:01:05 PM
THE NEW RECRUITS
ALL HEADLINES
WHICH ROUGHNECKS DRAFT PICK ARE YOU MOST EXCITED TO SEE THIS SEASON?
ZACH CURRIER
TYLER PACE
RYAN MARTEL
ANTHONY KALINICH
COLE SHAFER
OTHER
