Laurence Heinen
The Roughnecks battled hard in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 10,536 fans at the Rough House, but fell 10-9 to the visiting Oshawa Firewolves on Saturday.
Tanner Cook had a hat-trick and four helpers during the team’s Tiki Party presented by Atco Energy, while Tyler Pace contributed eight points for the Roughnecks (4-12) and captain Eli Salama scooped up eight loose balls, including the 600th of his NLL career.
Tye Kurtz had a hat-trick for the Firewolves (5-11), including the game-winning goal at 12:32 of the final frame. Alex Simmons also had a hat-trick for Oshawa and added four assists.
THE NUMBERS:
Tyler Pace – 8 pts (2G, 6A)
Tanner Cook – 7 pts (3G, 4A)
Haiden Dickson – 2 points (2G)
Aden Walsh – 40/50 saves
Ryan Benesch thought he opened the scoring for Oshawa at eight minutes of the first quarter, but the goal was disallowed due to a crease violation.
Pace finally broke the scoreless deadlock thanks to a powerplay goal with 39.4 seconds remaining in the opening frame when he took a pass from Cook and wired a shot from the slot into the top corner over Oshawa goalie Doug Jamieson’s right shoulder.
Just nine seconds later, Bennett Smith scored his first goal of the season. After Justin Inacio won the faceoff the ball went to Riley Isaacs, who quickly passed it up to Smith for a breakaway goal.
Benny leaps into his first of the season 😤 pic.twitter.com/WtIfEEVQAm
— Calgary Roughnecks (@NLLRoughnecks) April 5, 2026
The Firewolves fought back with four goals in the second quarter to take a 4-2 lead into the halftime intermission.
The Riggers then responded with a pair of power-play goals by Cook and Brayden Mayea early in the third quarter to pull into a 4-4 tie.
The pass, the finish 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/JyXbKmX0Nd
— Calgary Roughnecks (@NLLRoughnecks) April 5, 2026
Cook scored 51 seconds into the second half when he fought for position in the slot before bouncing a shot past Jamieson. Mayea added another at 2:40 when he drove hard to the net before going airborne and bouncing a shot through Jamieson’s legs.
After three straight goals by the Firewolves, Mayea appeared to get the Riggers back on the board, but the goal was disallowed due to a crease violation.
Pace scored another powerplay goal at 13:31 of the third before assisting on back-to-back goals by Dickson at 14:00 and then 12 seconds later to pull the Riggers even once again, this time at 7-7.
Cook added two more for the Riggers in the fourth quarter, the second one of which tied the game at 9-9.
NEXT UP:
The Roughnecks will head to Oshawa to face the Firewolves in a rematch next Saturday, April 11 (5 p.m.).
