Tremendous effort spoiled by Rock, knocking Riggers right down to 2-5 on NLL season
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The Calgary Roughnecks desperately wanted a hero or two.
They wanted somebody to step up on the Superhero Occasion night time and assist save their Nationwide Lacrosse League season.
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However strive as they may — they usually did so bravely to their credit score — that didn’t occur sufficient Saturday for the house aspect in opposition to a super-good super-villain squad at Scotiabank Saddledome.
A 9-7 loss to the visiting Toronto Rock grounded them for the second time on this weekend’s residence motion, knocking the wind out of an in any other case mighty effort in making an attempt to rebound from Friday’s 11-10 Dome defeat on the dastardly fingers of the New York Riptide.
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“Clearly 0-2 sucks — there’s no approach to sugar-coat that,” mentioned Roughnecks alternate captain Eli Salama, acknowledging a second-straight residence loss on consecutive nights isn’t any approach to repay the 9,971 trustworthy followers available for the NLL tilt on the Dome.
“That sucks — that sucks out loud,” continued Salama. “I’m not going to spin that or something. That’s robust. Clearly, we’ve dug ourselves a gap (with three straight losses total).
“However the sky’s not falling. All hope isn’t misplaced. We’ll discover it.”
Certainly, all isn’t misplaced but.
There’s nonetheless loads of lacrosse left to play within the hunt for the NLL Cup.
Hassle is the league’s new format — with unified standings involving all 15 groups vying for eight playoff berths — makes all of it that a lot harder to claw again into the race.
After Saturday’s loss dropped them to 2-5 on the marketing campaign, they’ve three groups between them and a post-season slot and 7 of the top-eight sides have a minimum of 4 victories already.
Included amongst that up-top group are the first-place Rock (6-1), who the Riggers rematch subsequent Saturday at Hamilton’s FirstOntario Centre (5 p.m., TSN).
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And, in fact, that one gained’t be any simpler than this weekend’s match-up.
“If we play like we did (Saturday), we’ve an opportunity to beat anyone,” Sanderson mentioned. “I betcha they’re higher subsequent week than they have been (Saturday), so we’re going to must be even higher.”
The Rock goaltender couldn’t be significantly better, may he?
Tremendous-human Nick Rose was highly effective, thwarting too many top-shelf probabilities by the Roughnecks for 38 stops on the night time — most of the rock-star selection.
“Toronto’s obtained an actual good staff, and Nicky performed rather well,” mentioned Roughnecks head coach Josh Sanderson. “They’re one of many high groups for the previous few years. We knew it was going to be a battle.
“That was our greatest recreation of the yr, to be trustworthy,” continued the coach. “I believed we performed higher than we did in a few our wins.
“It’s one thing actually good to construct off.”
Haiden Dickson, Tyler Tempo — on an over-the-back-shoulder magnificence — and Thomas Hoggarth — on an athletic play to scoop up a free ball behind Rose and shovel it residence whereas preserving his toes out of the crease — obtained the first-quarter targets for the Riggers.
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However the residence heroes managed only one objective in every of the next two frames — and it was Dickson with each.
His second-quarter tally got here off a rebound, and his Q3 marker — for the hat-trick — noticed him take a candy feed from Tempo and rating whereas diving cross-crease.
It was a reminder of the best way the opposite Dickson — or Curtis, a.okay.a. ‘Superman’ — used to attain targets and make the Tough Home rock.
Even higher was that it obtained the Riggers off the rug at simply the precise time.
They adopted within the remaining body with what felt like could be a comeback effort.
Targets by Tanner Cook dinner — with a floater over the again shoulder — and captain Jesse King — on a silly-good sidearm shovel shot — fooled Rose and put the Roughnecks inside a objective of the Rock.
“Undoubtedly good targets,” Sanderson mentioned. “Clearly you want seeing them go in. Would similar to to see a pair extra. However Nick made some saves and we hit some bars. It simply wasn’t going our method.”
As an alternative it stayed the best way of the Rock, with one final T.O. tally by Corey Small with 5:01 remaining offering insurance coverage to seal the deal.
For his half, Christian Del Bianco was stable, stopping 32 within the Roughnecks internet as a part of a stronger effort by his squad.
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“The hassle was superior,” Salama mentioned. “The one factor to dislike was the outcome. From (Friday) night time to (Saturday), the bench was totally different, the vitality was totally different, we have been just a bit extra cohesive as a unit, and it was extra enjoyable.
“However clearly profitable is most enjoyable, so I’m not going to attempt to make this scent like roses, as a result of it doesn’t.”
His coach agreed.
“Clearly, we’re pissed off with our file and the losses this weekend,” added Sanderson. “However I believed we took an enormous step with some stuff that we did (from Friday). All people was purchased in and competing and enjoying exhausting. We cleaned up our turnovers. We cleaned up a lot stuff.
“The fellows battled exhausting. If we play like we did (Saturday), we’re going to win a number of video games.”
QUICK STICKS
The Roughnecks made one lineup change from Friday night time, inserting rookie D Bennett Smith into the lineup to switch D Seth Van Schepen … D Robert Hudson was Saturday’s different scratch by the Riggers … F Logan Schuss (MCL/ACL) stays out indefinitely for the Roughnecks.
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