It was a tight game on the road for the captain-less Roughnecks Saturday night, ending with the Colorado Mammoth taking a 14-10 victory at Ball Arena.
The Mammoth netted the first two goals of the night and Jesse King scored the first for the Roughnecks minutes later. Calgary would only see one more from Zach Herreweyers and head into the second quarter down 5-2.
The next 15 minutes were Christian Del Bianco’s minutes. He held off the Mammoth until the final seconds of the 2nd quarter. Dan Taylor shifted the momentum scoring two early in the second, followed by goals from Haiden Dickson, Jesse King and Carter Mackenzie – who scored his first in the NLL.
Tyler Burton made history when he won the first face-off of the second quarter, officially passing Rodney Tapp who sat in 10th place on the all-time list with 1,119 face off wins.
The Riggers went into the second half with the lead but couldn’t hold on to it. The Mammoth went on a run in the third and added two more in the fourth to end the game 14-10.
The Roughnecks did outshoot Colorado 52-46 and Christian Del Bianco ended the night with 32 stops.
COACH’S CORNER:
“We’re the youngest team in the National Lacrosse League, so we’re going to go through some ups and downs and the biggest thing is that we have to learn from our mistakes and right now I can’t say we’re making the same mistakes over and over, we’re making different mistakes every game and it’s ending up in the back of our net.”
“I have nothing but trust with the guys in that room that they’ll pull it together and as coaches, we’ll keep working as hard as we can and give these guys the best opportunity to be successful. We’re all in it together and you know what? We’re not playing like we’re hoping we’re going to play, but if everybody does a little bit more, if everybody gives an extra ten percent, I think we’ll be on the right side of the scoreboard.”
BY THE NUMBERS:
Jesse King, 2g, 4a
Dan Taylor, 2g, 4a
Zach Herreweyers, 2g, 2a
Haiden Dickson, 1g, 3a
Kyle Waters, 2g
Carter Mackenzie, 1g
SAY WHAT:
“We were able to put a couple of strings of goals together and play some good defense together in five minute segments, but we’ve got to be able to play a full 60 minutes if we want to win in this league.” – Jesse King
“I think it was a good way to boost everyone’s moral, you know you’re playing for a guy who wants to be out on the floor and he can’t be there so I think that the energy was there and the effort was there.” – King, on guys stepping up with Curtis Dickson out.
NEXT UP:
The roles will reverse as the Roughnecks play host to the Colorado Mammoth on Friday, February 11th at the Scotiabank Saddledome. It will be Calgary’s Valentine’s Game and their second of three matchups against Colorado. Ball drop is at 7:00 PM.
