STEALTH REMATCH ON TAP: The Calgary Roughnecks (3-3) have a chance to climb above the .500 mark with a win over the Vancouver Stealth (2-6) at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday (7 p.m.). “We’re looking forward to getting back on the floor and continuing where we left off from last weekend,” said Calgary coach Curt Malawsky, whose squad evened its record last Saturday by virtue of a 15-13 road win over the Minnesota Swarm. “We’ve got the Stealth coming in this weekend and they’ll have a full gamut of their players. That’ll be the best lineup that we’re going to see thus far in the season comparative to the one time we played them earlier in the year. We expect their best.” The Riggers can build off of the fact that they beat the Stealth 15-12 at the ’Dome a month earlier on Jan. 18. “Obviously, we’ve played Calgary before and we know each other well,” said Vancouver coach Chris Hall, whose team will have a busy weekend as the Stealth also play a road game against the Colorado Mammoth on Friday night. “It’s going to be another battle. Depending on how things go for us on Friday night, it’ll set a stage for us on Saturday.”

SWARM STUNG: A strong second half led the Roughnecks to a 15-13 win over the Swarm at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, MN, last Saturday night. “We came out with a lot of energy,” said Calgary forward Curtis Dickson, who notched five goals and added an assist. “They were running a lot in transition and getting tired playing both ends of the floor. We came out hot and they had the goalie change at half that we took advantage of. We put a few quick ones by the cold goalie and we kept it rolling from there.” Shawn Evans had a strong game for Calgary with eight assists, while Daryl Veltman also got in on the action with two goals and four helpers. Dane Dobbie had a hat trick to go with an assist, while Karsen Leung (2g), Jeff Shattler (1g, 2a), Geoff Snider (1g, 1a) and Dan MacRae (1g) also scored. Led by a natural hat trick by Shayne Jackson, the Swarm pulled within one goal late in the fourth quarter. However, the comeback hopes were dashed when Dickson scored his fifth of the night on a penalty shot in the final minute. Jackson also had two assists for a five-point night. Jordan MacIntosh also had a hat trick to go with three assists, while Alex Crepinsek, Mike Hobbins, Cam Flint, Logan Schuss, Andrew Suitor, Callum Crawford and Kiel Matisz also scored. Goalie Mike Poulin stood tall in the Calgary net, stopping 33 of 46 shots, while Tyler Carlson and Zach Higgins combined for 28 saves on 43 shots for Minnesota.

STRONG SHOWING: The last time the two teams met on Jan. 18, Evans and Dobbie had big nights to lead Calgary to a 15-12 win over Vancouver in front of 8,957 fans at the ’Dome. Evans had a hat trick to go with six assists, while Dobbie scored five times and set up another. “We needed a breakout game for our offence to get us going,” Evans said. “Hopefully this leads us in the right direction.” Veltman also had a hat trick to go with two helpers for the ’Necks, while Shattler had two goals and three assists. Dickson (1g, 2a), Mike Carnegie (1g) and Scott Ranger (4a) also had multiple-point performances. Poulin finished with 28 saves to backstop Calgary to the bounce-back victory. Rhys Duch led the Stealth attack with a hat trick and two assists, while Lewis Ratcliff scored twice and set up another. Jeff Moleski, Cliff Smith, Tyler Digby, Mike Grimes, Billy Hostrawser, Nick Weiss and Tyler Garrison also scored for Vancouver, while goalie Tyler Richards finished the game with 45 saves in the Stealth net.

ROUGHNECKS VS. STEALTH: The Roughnecks went 1-2 against the Washington Stealth in the 2013 regular season before losing 14-13 to the Everett-based squad at home in the NLL’s West Final. In the off-season, the Stealth relocated to the Greater Vancouver area, where they’ll play their home games out of the Langley Events Centre. After suffering a 16-14 setback to Washington at Everett’s Comcast Arena to start the 2013 season on Feb. 23, the Riggers responded with a 13-11 road win over the Stealth on March 30. The Stealth then edged the ’Necks 12-11 at the ’Dome on April 6 to win the season series. Evans paced the Roughnecks in scoring during the three-game set with four goals and 14 assists, while Dickson led all players with 10 goals to go with one assist. Dobbie scored seven goals to go with eight assists in the three games against Washington, while Shattler (7g, 6a), Ranger (2g, 8a) and Snider (3g, 4a) were also dangerous. Duch led the Stealth attack against Calgary in the regular season with seven goals and added 15 assists, while Ratcliff scored six times and set up 11 others. Brett Bucktooth also performed well for Washington against Calgary with five goals and eight assists, while Dean Hill and Athan Iannucci counted four goals and three assists each. The Roughnecks have compiled an all-time regular-season record of 7-5 (1-4 at home, 6-1 on the road) against the Washington Stealth. Over the previous six seasons before the Stealth relocated to Everett from San Jose, the ’Necks had compiled a 9-7 record in the regular season against the San Jose Stealth (3-4 at home, 6-3 on the road).

MOUSE’S MUSINGS: Nicknamed ‘Mouse’, Curt Malawsky is in his second season as head coach for the Roughnecks. Malawsky, who is also the assistant general manager, praised Dickson for his break-out performance against the Swarm last weekend. “The one thing that a lot of people don’t know about Dickson is he’s a very, very proud guy,” Malawsky said. “The start of his season really upset him and he took it to heart. That just shows the kind of character that he has. Even though he’s a young guy, he’s got a lot of heart and a lot of determination and he wasn’t going to be held down.” Malawsky will be assisted once again this season by Bob McMahon as offence coordinator and Bruce Codd as defence coordinator. It’s the fourth season for McMahon on the Calgary coaching staff, while Codd is in his second season with the ’Necks.

DID YOU KNOW?: Dickson made history last Saturday when he scored while the Riggers were playing a man down in the third quarter of Calgary’s 15-13 road win over Minnesota. Dickson is now the franchise leader in all-time short-handed goals during the regular season with 13, one more than Roughnecks legend Tracey Kelusky.

MILESTONES WITHIN REACH
– By scooping up just one loose ball, Dan MacRae will reach 200 in his fourth NLL season.
– Daryl Veltman is just two assists away from 200.
– Mike Carnegie is six points shy of 50.
– Shawn Evans needs 10 points to reach 600.
– Dane Dobbie is 11 points away from 400 and 13 assists shy of 200.
– Curtis Dickson needs 13 points to reach 200.

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