Roughnecks rebound to win home opener
Cattoni scores natural hat trick as Calgary squad gets off to fast start
It’s never too early to dig yourself a hole in the National Lacrosse League and the Calgary Roughnecks, very aware of that fact, came out with guns blazing on Friday night.
“I think these guys beat us a couple of times on our home floor, and as cheesy as it sounds, we were calling this a must-win,” said forward Curtis Dickson. “Coming off that last game, we knew we needed a better effort and clearly we had that.”
The Roughnecks showed the cohesion they sorely lacked in their season-opening 17-6 loss in Rochester, jumping on the Vancouver Stealth early and often in posting a 15-12 win in Friday night’s NLL home debut at the Scotiabank Saddledome, in front of 9,708 fans.
“If you get some stops early, then you can get rolling on the offensive side,” said Calgary head coach Curt Malawsky. “I’ve always said it’s directly proportional. One side goes, the other side feeds off it.”
The victory evened Calgary’s record at 1-1, while Vancouver dropped to 0-2.
The Roughnecks don’t play again until Dec. 29, when they’ll entertain the Colorado Mammoth.
Goalie Frankie Scigliano, appearing in his 100th NLL game, faced 63 shots and was sharp.
“It wasn’t brought to my attention until I rolled up to the rink and a couple of people texted me, saying, hey, this is your 100th game,” said Scigliano. “I’m more happy with the win than anything. Last week, I was fighting the ball and I wasn’t doing myself any favours. I need to be patient and track the ball. It bothered me all week. My family notices it, my girlfriend notices it. It’s not something you want to dwell on, but you want to do better than that.”
“For Frank, he’s such a competitor, such a warrior,” said Malawsky. “He just wants to win for the team.”
Knowing that a fast start is necessary to win in this league, the Roughnecks were fired up as they took to the floor.
Riley Loewen scored just 1:24 in, and a beauty behind-the-back shot by Dane Dobbie made it 2-0.
Dobbie must have been particularly pleased to see the ball go in the net. He directed 13 shots at Rochester’s Matt Vinc in Game 1, with nothing to show for it.
After Long Schuss trimmed the deficit, second-year forward Holden Cattoni went to work, scoring a natural hat trick. After the Riggers’ fourth tally, the Stealth replaced starting goalie Tye Belanger with Brodie MacDonald. Loewen, Cattoni and Dickson each counted hat tricks.
“Tonight we spread the ball around and did well,” said Loewen. “Obviously, everyone is pretty ticked off (about last week), but also playing at home in front of our fans, no one wants to lose here ever.”
The Riggers found themselves in a pickle early in the second quarter, when they were short two men for 1:29. But they not only killed off the two-man disadvantage, Dickson scored on a nice individual effort when he ragged the ball, ran around in circles in a dizzying fashion and fired the ball past a befuddled MacDonald.
“Anytime you’re down two guys, you have the green light,” he said with a shrug. “You can go to the net and you won’t get in trouble if you lose the ball, because you’re not expected to really do much.”
Calgary had its own 5-on-3 in the second quarter, when two Stealth players took separate penalties at 9:59. But despite a number of highquality shots, Vancouver held fast.
Calgary rookie Zach Currier showed off his speed in the third quarter when he whipped around to the back of the Stealth net and banked the ball off MacDonald for his second goal of the season.
Wes Berg, who missed training camp because of a contract impasse, scored his first of the campaign when he was Johnny-onthe-spot, batting in the rebound of a Dobbie shot. That made it 12-9 for the Roughnecks.
Loewen, meanwhile, is sometimes the forgotten man on this high-octane offence, but he had a stellar game, scoring his third goal of the game when he pirouetted in front of the Stealth goal and put it nicely by MacDonald.
Calgary’s manpower took a beating when the team lost a couple of players in the first half. Defenceman/transition man Bob Snider and defender Greg Harnett suffered injuries.