By: Laurence Heinen – 05.04.24

The Roughnecks showed off some creative goal-scoring prowess en route to a 12-10 win over the Saskatchewan Rush on Saturday.

Whether it was Harrison Matsuoka scoring on a partial breakaway in the first quarter while getting checked hard to the floor by Rush defender Adam Jay or captain Jesse King flying through the crease to deposit the ball into the net behind netminder Frank Scigliano, the Roughnecks (7-8) gave the 10,993 fans in attendance at the Scotiabank Saddledome their money’s worth.

Thomas Hoggarth also got in on the action with a beauty of a goal in the third quarter when he shot the ball one handed, backwards and through his legs into the net past Scigliano without looking.

Tyler Pace celebrated his 29th birthday in style by scoring a pair of goals and adding three assists to lead the ’Necks to their second straight win on WestJet Field, while Haiden Dickson had a hat trick and a helper.

King finished with two goals and four assists, while Tanner Cook tied a career high in points with seven as he scored once and added seven helpers.

His usual steady self in net, Christian Del Bianco made 52 saves to pick up the win.

Pace opened the scoring at 3:37 of the first quarter when he took a pass from King and wired a long-range shot past Scigliano.

Just 13 seconds later, Cook fired a shot into the top corner behind the Saskatchewan netminder to give the Riggers an early 2-0 lead.

King and Cook helped set up Dickson for another goal at 11:58 before Matsuoka added another at 13:35.

Dickson scored the lone goal of the second quarter for the ’Necks, who led 5-2 heading into the halftime intermission.

The Riggers outscored the Rush by a 4-2 margin in the third quarter to take a 9-4 lead into the final frame.

Although the visitors outscored the homeside 6-3 down the stretch, the Riggers were able to hang on for the victory. Dickson completed his hat trick in the final quarter, while Currier and King also scored.

COACH’S COMMENT

“I’m just really happy with everybody. Obviously, Delbs was really good in net there, especially the first half (when it was) 5-2. We came in the second half and played pretty decent lacrosse. Obviously a bit of sloppiness at the end that we’re going to try to clean up a few things for tomorrow night. It was such an important result. I thought our guys coming off a bye were pretty sharp. It wasn’t too sloppy. I thought we protected the ball a little bit better. Saskatchewan’s a very good team and very athletic. There’s a few things that obviously we’ll try to different tomorrow night.”

Re Matsuoka’s goal providing a boost for the team: “It did because it was such a tough play. Obviously a great pass by 35, but Harry didn’t have a lot of room to catch that and get it on net before he gets in the crease or gets crushed. Harry was really, really good. Credit to all the guys here. We knew how big the game was. We needed the result before we went to their barn. Are we going to have to be better tomorrow night and clean up a couple things. We do, but to get this win all the guys were focused and just prepared starting at practice shootaround and I thought it led into our start tonight.”

SAY WHAT:

“I don’t even know honestly. Delbs is like QB1. He just put it in a spot and I guess it worked out. The guys in the box when I got my penalty were saying I used to be an O guy so maybe it’s wore off, but I think that was back in bantam. It’s been a while since something like that. Great pass by Delbs. He kind of put it in the only spot he could and it worked out alright for us.” – Harrison Matsuoka

“The first half, I thought I was seeing it pretty good. The second half, not as much, but that’s expected. They’re a good team. You know they’re going to get goals. I think just as a whole, we didn’t let them push us too far. We always scored those equalizer goals bringing us back to the same three-goal lead or whatever it was, so I think it was good.” – Christian Del Bianco

NEXT UP:

The same two teams will go head-to-head on Saturday night (7 p.m.) at SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon.

STAT PACK:

Haiden Dickson 3g, 1a

Jesse King: 2g, 4a

Tyler Pace: 2g, 3a

Tanner Cook: 1g, 7a

Josh Currier 1g, 3a

Dan Taylor 1g, 1a

Thomas Hoggarth 1g

Harrison Matsuoka 1g

Christian Del Bianco: 52 saves, 1a

Back to News

Related Posts