By: Laurence Heinen – 04.04.025
Curtis Dickson scored three goals, including his 500th as a member of the Roughnecks, to lead his team to a thrilling 10-6 road win over the Saskatchewan Rush on Friday night.
Dickson also chipped in with two assists for the Roughnecks (8-8), who moved themselves back into playoff contention with the clutch victory.
Captain Jesse King scored once and set up five others, while Dane Dobbie, Brayden Mayea, Haiden Dickson, Riley Isaacs, Griffin Hall and Matt Sykes also scored.
For Isaacs and Hall, it was their first-ever NLL goals, while Skyes scored for the first time as a member of the Roughnecks.
Goalie Nick Rose made 57 saves in between the pipes to record his second win as a Roughneck since being acquired from the Toronto Rock.
After Robert Church opened the scoring for the Rush at 4:16 of the first quarter, Dobbie responded with a power-play goal for the Riggers 16 seconds later.
Isaacs then scored in transition at 6:01 to put the visitors up by a goal before Saskatchewan bounced back with a pair of goals to take a 3-2 lead.
Curtis Dickson fired a submarine shot at past Rush goalie Frank Scigliano with 1:53 to play in the opening frame to pull the ’Necks even.
With the Riggers trailing 5-3 late in the first half, Dickson scored his second of the contest when he wired a low shot from long range past Scigliano for his 500th goal for the Roughnecks.
The defensive battle continued deep into the third quarter until King finally scored from in tight while falling to the floor at 7:44.
Mayea then took a sneaky behind-the-back pass from King before depositing the ball into the net behind Scigliano at 9:19 to put Calgary up 6-5.
The Rush replied with a power-play goal 46 seconds later to knot up the score once again, setting up a thrilling final quarter.
After Curtis Dickson completed his hat trick 54 seconds into the final frame, Haiden Dickson scored an insurance marker during a man-up situation at 12:31. Hall and Sykes then added empty-net tallies to secure the win for the Riggers.
NEXT UP:
After a bye week, the Roughnecks will wrap up the regular season with a double-header weekend, travelling to Las Vegas to play the Desert Dogs on April 18 before returning home to Calgary to host the Colorado Mammoth one night later.
STAT PACK:
Curtis Dickson: 3g, 2a
Jesse King: 1g, 5a
Brayden Mayea: 1g, 2a
Dane Dobbie: 1g, 1a
Haiden Dickson: 1g, 1a
Riley Isaacs: 1g
Griffin Hall 1g
Matt Sykes 1g
Eli Salama: 1a
Tanner Cook: 1a
Nick Rose: 57 saves
COACH’S COMMENT
“Saskatchewan’s really good, so we knew it was going to be a tough 60-minute game. They’re leading the league in wins with Buffalo, so we knew we were going to have to play 60 and I thought our guys did it. We stuck with it. It was a defensive battle that we’re not used to doing … so it was nice that we showed composure and just worried about what’s next and we seemed to do that all night and it paid off in the fourth.”
“I’m just happy for the whole group because we knew what was on the line. We wanted to keep our destiny in our own hands and I feel we did that here. Bye week (next week) but then obviously that huge double header coming up, so it was really nice to get that win.”
“Rosey was awesome … that many saves. I don’t think he was ecstatic with his last game along with everybody else, so we knew Nicky was going to step up for us and he was great all night – just a great game.”
SAY WHAT
“I think the bye week did us wonders to kind of reset and understand what it’s going to take from the back end to get wins in this league and to hopefully get into the playoffs over the next few weeks, so the grit was there tonight.” – Nick Rose to TSN after game
“I don’t think too many teams are trying to look at the standings too closely right now, but obviously that’s going to go a long ways for us to hopefully have a chance to clinch a playoff spot in a couple weeks, but we’ve got to rest up and get to work over the bye and come back even stronger.” – Rose
