By Laurence Heinen – 28.12.24
A four-goal, six-point effort by Curtis “Superman” Dickson wasn’t enough to lead the Roughnecks to victory over the Vancouver Warriors on WestJet Field on Saturday in front of 13,094 fans at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
Captain Jesse King had a goal and five assists, while Dane Dobbie scored twice and set up another, but the Roughnecks (2-1) ultimately dropped a 14-10 decision to the Warriors.
With his team trailing 10-4, Mathieu Gauthier scored late in the first half before the Riggers outscored the Warriors 3-0 in the third to get back in the game.
Unfortunately for the Riggers, they weren’t able to keep that momentum going in the fourth quarter in which they were outscored 4-2.
After falling behind 2-0 in the early going, the ’Necks rallied with a pair of goals by Tyler Pace and Dobbie.
The visitors then built up a 5-2 lead before King cut into the slot and took a pass from Dickson before depositing the ball into the net behind Vancouver goalie Aiden Walsh.
Although Dobbie notched his second goal of the game at 1:23 of the second quarter, the home side had an extended stretch where they struggled and found themselves on the wrong end of a 10-4 score.
Making his ’Dome debut for the Riggers, Gautier converted a feed from Dickson with 1:28 remaining before the halftime intermission.
The ’Necks put their sluggish first half behind them as Bennett Smith made a nice defensive play and then ran down the floor and scored at 2:42 of the third quarter.
Dickson then fired a rising submarine shot past a stunned Walsh at 9:47 to pull Calgary within three goals of their rivals.
The Riggers ran into penalty trouble, but they were able to kill off an extended five-on-three advantage for the Warriors and MacLeod stopped a penalty shot by Vancouver forward Keegan Bal.
Dickson then capped off a great third quarter for the ’Necks by firing another rising shot past Walsh to cut Calgary’s deficit to just two goals.
After everything went their way in the third quarter, the same couldn’t be said for the final frame as the Warriors found a way to hang on for the victory.
COACH’S COMMENT
“I thought we’d have a better start than that. Obviously that’s on me. I’ve got to get our guys ready to go to start the game. I think in the second half we started to play more like we’re used to when we’re playing well, so I’ve just got to do a better job of getting us ready to go.”
Re: strong third quarter for Roughnecks – “That’s how we want to play. We want to be physical. We want to control the ball. We want to have that emotion and I thought we did that really well in the third quarter. Why does it take a team getting up on us by three or four goals for that to happen? That’s something I’ve got to fix.”
NEXT UP:
The Roughnecks will enjoy a bye week before heading east to take on the Philadelphia Wings at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday, Jan. 11 (11 a.m. MT).
STAT PACK:
Curtis Dickson 4g, 2a, 10 loose balls
Dane Dobbie 2g, 1a
Jesse King: 1g, 5a
Tyler Pace: 1g, 1a
Mathieu Gautier 1g
Bennett Smith 1g
Tanner Cook: 2a
Reece Callies 2a
Cameron Macleod 35 saves
SAY WHAT:
“It was cool obviously getting back out here. The fans didn’t disappoint. I wish we just put on a bit of a better show for them.” – Curtis Dickson
“We’ve been fortunate enough to fight back and win the first two (after being down), but we can’t keep doing that to ourselves. It’s too hard to win games like that in this league, Obviously it bit us in the butt tonight, so we’ve got to figure out a way to have better starts and get out and hold some leads.” – Dickson
“We battled back to 10-8 there in the third. Our defence got a stop the first possession in the fourth. We got the ball and couldn’t put it in and they went down and scored. The defence was doing their job in the second half and getting us possessions. A couple squeak through. Lacrosse, it’s a funny game. It’s a game of runs. We went on a bit of a one there and then they came back and kind of kept answering us.” – Dickson
