CALGARY ROUGHNECKS (4-7) at GEORGIA SWARM (7-3)
WHEN: Friday, March 17 at 5:35 p.m. MT
WHERE: Infinite Energy Arena (Duluth, GA)
TV/RADIO: NLLTV.com
SERIES: Calgary leads 1-0
LAST MEETING: Calgary won, 18-11, at the Scotiabank Saddledome on March 4
When the Roughnecks and Swarm faced off on March 4, Calgary was in the midst of a five-game losing streak and coming off of a tough 18-9 loss to the Colorado Mammoth. They turned their frustrations on the Swarm, sending them home with an 18-11 loss to their record.
Now, the Riggers are once again going into battle against Georgia after a big loss, as Calgary was beat 16-10 by the Toronto Rock last weekend. The Roughnecks will be looking for similar results to their first meeting, as they try to climb out of the basement.
“I think we’re going to see a different Georgia team. I think [Mike] Poulin is going to play a lot better at home,” said defender Scott Carnegie. “It’s about getting back to simple. Let’s just play our game.”
After a loss in Calgary and most recently in New England by a score of 13-8, the Swarm are mired in their longest losing streak of the 2017 season. With that in mind, the young, talented squad will be looking to get back into the win column at home on St. Patrick’s Day.
SCOTT CARNEGIE QUOTABLES:
On STARS donation: “It’s pretty awesome to be here and represent the team and the players and to donate the cheque. It’s great to be able to do that and donate what we did. Hopefully we can do this for years to come and keep donating to STARS, which is a great organization.”
On the losing: “We’ve lost a bunch recently and we need to get back to what’s made us successful early in the year. Keep it simple, work hard, play for each other, and play with that emotion. Just grind, really. There’s six game left and we need to grind it out and make playoffs.”
On the road trip: “It’s going to be a long road trip. We’ve had a few of those recently, so we’re starting to get used to those. We generally play a bit better on the road, so hopefully we have that going for us. We’ll have a good practice and shoot-around and stick to the game plan.”
On fast starts: “I think starting is key,” Carnegie noted. “. talk and enough we need to do this or that, it just comes down to getting it done. The starts have to be better, it’s just that simple. When we have good starts, we win games. We’re going to focus on the start this weekend and hopefully the result takes care of itself.”
On Greg Harnett & Mitch Wilde’s return: “Those are two guys that are great defenders and can give us a spark in transition. Gregg scored and Mitch is a great transition player. Just play to our strengths and keep those guys going and hopefully we can get everyone going and get a win this weekend.”
STATISTICS:
ROUGHNECKS
SWARM
Leading Scorer
Curtis Dickson, 33g, 30a
Lyle Thompson, 27g, 38a
Leading Goaltender
Frank Scigliano, .751 SV%, 12.01 GAA
Mike Poulin, .780 SV%, 12.31 GAA
Powerplay
30/56, 53.57%
31/58, 53.45%
Penalty Kill
26/55, 52.73%
21/49, 57.14%
KEY PLAYERS TO WATCH:
CGY – Dane Dobbie
When Calgary took a beating in Denver a couple weekends ago, Dobbie lead the charge for the Roughnecks in their search for redemption. He scored seven of the team’s 18 goals against the Swarm and added another 4 assists in the contest. Dobbie now sits fifth in the NLL in goals scoring and has been a force, especially on the powerplay, tallying eight goals with the extra attacker.
GEO – Lyle Thompson
With fellow star Randy Staats out of the line-up, Thompson has stepped up his game and become the driving force behind Georgia’s offence. The second-year player has 65 points (27g, 38a), which puts him among the top five of all runners in the league. In his last game versus Calgary, he was the Swarm’s top scorer with a pair of goals and a trio of assists.
FUN FACT:
The Roughnecks are 14-5 all-time against the Swarm and have not lost since March 3, 2012.
KEYS TO THE GAME:
The key to this game will be a quick start for the Roughnecks, just like they were able to do the first time around against the Swarm. On March 4, Calgary jumped out to a 7-2 lead in first quarter and extended that to 13-3 at halftime. While it’s not likely the Riggers get ahead by double-digits after 30 minutes, it is important to have a lead of any size at this point. This season, when the Riggers are trailing after two quarters of play, they have an 0-5 record. However, when holding a lead at the same juncture, the team is 4-2.
