CALGARY — The Roughnecks faced off against the Saskatchewan Rush in a battle for first place in the West Saturday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome. Unfortunately, instead of pulling away from the pack, the Roughnecks dropped the contest and are now tied with the Rush atop the West Division.
Here’s five things we took from the game:
1) YES, WE CALL HIM SUPERMAN
The Saskatchewan fans — in particular, Grandma Rush — decided to leave Curtis ‘Superman’ Dickson a nice message in the Calgary Sun prior to the game. Along with a fun picture, there was a message reading, ‘Seriously? You call this guy Superman?’.
It probably wasn’t a good idea to poke the bear.
Dickson had himself another spectacular night, this time torching the Rush for a hat-trick and four assists. Although he couldn’t will his team to victory, Superman most certainly took flight in the contest.
2) ON THE DRAW
Rush draw-man Jeremy Thompson has been one of the league’s finest in the face-off circle for a number of years. So it was a tall task for Tyler Burton to battle him.
But Burton lived up to the challenge and managed to win a majority of the draws (17 for 29). With that strong performance, Burton has raised his face-off winning percentage to 52.17% on the year. That’s well above his 42.95% rate over the course of his career (396 for 922).
3) MAN ADVANTAGE
After taking 149 penalty minutes and giving up 29 short-handed opportunities in their first four games, the Riggers did a tremendous job avoiding the penalty box against the Rush.
Calgary afforded Saskatchewan just a single powerplay and that came early in the first quarter. The Rush did score just eight seconds into the extra-man situation, but were limited to just that one.
On the flip side, the Riggers got five powerplay chances and were able to convert on 80% of those opportunities. The Roughnecks PP unit is playing extremely well right now and can continue to torment opponents if they’re given enough time on the turf.
4) MOVING ON UP
The Roughnecks have had their share of major milestones already this season. On Saturday night, Jeff Shattler and Curtis Dickson continued to rewrite the record book.
With three goals on the night, Dickson surpassed Kaleb Toth for second on the Roughnecks all-time goal scoring list with 276. The offensive dynamo trails only Dane Dobbie (307 career goals) and will look to catch him in coming seasons.
Shatter managed just a single goal on the evening, but that was enough for him to tie Tracey Kelusky for fourth on the Roughnecks all-time goal scoring list with 256.
5) BIG MAN IN NET
The score sheet shows that goaltender Frank Scigliano allowed the Rush to score 15 goals on the weekend, but that doesn’t tell the full story.
Throughout the first three quarters of the game, he was fantastic and his defence allowed him to get very comfortable in his crease. That continually led to great save like this:
In the fourth quarter, things kind of fell apart for the Riggers and although Scigliano allowed six goals, there were numerous breakdowns and breakaways where he made huge saves to keep the team within range of a comeback.
By all means, it wasn’t the ideal ending for the him, but he played extremely well between the pipes and should be proud of the effort he put out.
