Omran Wahidy
Setting The Scene:
It starts with one.
The Roughnecks (0-1) are looking to grab their first win of the season when they travel to TD Coliseum to take on the Toronto Rock at 5 p.m. on TSN+ and NLL+.
The Riggers opened up the season on the road against the Saskatchewan Rush in Week 2, where they came up short in a 16-13 battle, but rallied to erase a five-goal deficit in the fourth quarter. Rookie first-round picks Noah Manning (9th overall) and Kyle Pepper (11th overall) both scored their first NLL goals in the tilt.
Toronto (0-1) enters the contest in a similar spot as they dropped their first game of the season to Oshawa 8-7 and will look to get off the schneid this week.
Roughnecks captain Eli Salama enters Week 3 just two goals shy of 50 in his NLL career. Prior to Week 3 games, Roughnecks forwards Haiden Dickson and Tyler Pace are both tied for fifth in the NLL in points with seven each.
Head-To-Head:
These two teams only had one game against each other last season which saw the Riggers lose by a score of 14-9. Mathieu Gautier had a strong three-goal night while on the opposing side, Josh Dawick led the charge with a six-point performance. This will be the only matchup between these two teams this season.
Players To Watch:
Roughnecks: F Tyler Pace: Pacer is red hot to start the season, after posting seven points (3G, 4A) in his first game in Week 2 against the Rush. Pace has put up 30 points (11G, 19A) in eight career games against the Rock.
Rock: F CJ Kirst: The 2025 1st-overall pick wasted no time getting on the scoresheet, posting four points (2G, 2A) against Oshawa in Week 1 and will look to build off of that game heading into Week 3 against the Roughnecks.
2025-26 Scoring Leaders:
Roughnecks:
Haiden Dickson – 7 pts (3G, 4A)
Tyler Pace – 7 pts (3G, 4A)
Tanner Cook – 5 pts (2G, 3A)
Rock:
CJ Kirst – 4 pts (2G, 2A)
Challen Rogers – 3 pts (2G, 1A)
Mark Matthews – 3 pts (3A)
