Roughnecks come up short against Mammoth
Close, hard-fought, could have gone either way and yet in the end, talking points describing a loss.
The Calgary Roughnecks went into Denver hoping to cut into the distance between them and the second-place Colorado Mammoth in the National Lacrosse League’s West Division.
Instead, by virtue of their narrow 8-7 loss on Saturday night, the Roughnecks’ record fell to 4-7, still in third spot but now four games behind the Mammoth, 8-3.
Visions of a home playoff date are all but snuffed out, with seven games remaining in the regular season. Rochester Knighthawks are next up with Calgary playing host on Saturday.
“We just have to get better,” said head coach Curt Malawsky. “We have to find a way to put the ball in the net. Just continue to do what we do. We could have won that game 8-7, instead, we lost it 8-7. We’re not pushing a panic button. But we have areas that need to be better,’’ said the coach.
“We just have to execute a bit better, couple of shots didn’t fall. But it wasn’t for a lack of effort. It was a physical game, a good hard-fought game, but we have to find a way to end up on the right side of it.”
The ’Necks had a chance to tie the Mammoth in the hectic dying seconds but couldn’t find the range. Defences were in tough early in this game, as goals came freely in the first quarter. Calgary took the lead just over a minute in with Holden Cattoni notching his 18th of the season. But the Mammoth went on a run immediately afterward, making it 3-1 not even five minutes into the game.
The clubs traded markers through to the end of the quarter, in which the Mammoth emerged with a 5-3 lead. Colorado was the only side to get a power play opportunity in the first 15 minutes. They scored on one of their two opportunities.
Things tightened up considerably in the second quarter, with each team scoring once. Calgary ’s Mitch Wilde collected his fifth of the year on a pump fake on transition at the 9:43 mark and the Mammoth got that one back on a two-man advantage at 13:09, as Ryan Benesch bagged his 25th.
Both Calgary goaltender Christian Del Bianco and his counterpart Dillon Ward were extremely busy and on top of their games, making goals harder to come by for the rest of the game.
“Christian’s been outstanding for us,” Malawsky said of his young starter, who faced 50 shots. “He’s given us a shot to win. The other goalie makes a good save and they come back and he makes one for us. He’s been the backbone.”
Starting the second half on a power play, Calgary ’s Wesley Berg made no mistake 29 seconds in and the tenuous battle of the divisional rivals continued. But a two-goal difference seemed to be a popular refrain and so it was again when Eli McLaughlin tallied on a delayed penalty call. A goal by Dane Dobbie and another by Curtis Dickson, a behind the back beauty, tied the game at 3:32 of the fourth quarter.
Joey Cupido’s tally at the 5:30 mark of the final quarter proved to be the margin of victory for the Mammoth as his shot sailed over Del Bianco’s shoulder.
Dickson finished the game with 15 shots on Ward, one of a frustrated Calgary offence that saw a number of shots ring off the post.
“It’s always hard when you run into a hot goalie and a defence like that,” Dickson noted. “We hit probably 10-plus posts tonight. It’s the way it goes. I’m not going to stop shooting because the ball’s not going in. Unfortunately tonight wasn’t my night and the offence as a whole, the ball hasn’t been dropping for us the last couple of weeks.”