Calgary Roughnecks clipped by Wings in bid to rise above .500 in NLL

Article content

A 60-minute effort and 60 shots should be enough to get a win any day in the National Lacrosse League.

Guess Saturday just wasn’t their day for the Calgary Roughnecks.

Article content

In an effort to climb above .500 for the first time on the 2023-24 NLL schedule, the Roughnecks were shot down by the host Philadelphia Wings in an 11-9 decision.

“We definitely worked and competed all 60,” said Roughnecks head coach Josh Sanderson. “It wasn’t a lack of work ethic or compete or anything like that.

Article content

“We started not valuing the ball a little bit,” continued the bench boss. “We’re big on discipline, and then we take a penalty late. And our ball team gives up one at the start of the fourth. It’s just kind of a bunch of little mistakes that kind of came back to bite us, because we had a pretty good game going there for a good chunk of it.”

Indeed, the visiting Roughnecks proved strong for the first 45 of the contest, building leads of 5-2 through the opening quarter and 9-6 through three frames at Philly’s Wells Fargo Center.

But the bid to win a fourth straight contest fell short in the fourth, when they allowed five goals without finding one of their own.

NLL star goaltender Zach Higgins stopped 50 in helping the Riggers drop their first game in a full month.

“I think it’s probably a little bit of both,” said Roughnecks captain Jesse King, when asked if it was poor shot choices or the Wings goalie that kept them off the board in crunch time. “I don’t think we shot the ball spectacularly well. But did ‘Higgy’ make some good saves? Absolutely.

“But, you know, I think the positive on that is that we’re getting 55 shots, and that’s something that we kind of want to strive towards moving forward.”

Article content

Article content

On this afternoon, King & Co. actually put up 59, but Higgins was there to help the Wings exact revenge a week after the Roughnecks clipped them 14-11 at the Rough House in Calgary.

The Wings needed the win, as well, lifting them to 4-6 and just one ‘W’ behind the Roughnecks, who are now 5-6 and teetering on the edge of falling from the top eight — the playoff spots — of the NLL standings.

It looked like the Riggers were going to leave the Wings well behind in those standings early on first-quarter tallies by Tanner Cook — twice — Tyler Pace — also twice, including one on the power play — and Liam LeClair.

“There’s been a lot of games actually Philly has played where they’ve given up a big lead and come back late, so getting up 5-2 on them — believe me — we weren’t comfortable,” Sanderson said. “We know they can score in bunches.”

The hosts got four — within a span of 107 seconds — to roar back and take a late 6-5 lead early in the second stanza before King and Pace sniped goals for the Roughnecks to put them back on top 7-6 at halftime.

Article content

And then in the third, the visitors netted the only two goals — off the sticks of Thomas Hoggarth and Dan Taylor to own a three-goal lead.

But the Wings rose again with five unanswered in the final 15 minutes, including two from Joe Resetarits, who enjoyed a game-high five points.

It seemed like a case of the Roughnecks’ offence running low on production and the defence running low on gas in front of goalie Christian Del Bianco, who made 36 stops on the day.

“I think we just need to have a little bit of discipline as far as like on the offensive side of the ball. I think we’ve taken a lot of offensive penalties,” King said. “And then, you know, we’re wondering why the defence isn’t making stops, and it’s because they’re short-handed because of us. So our discipline needs to be much better.

“And then on the reverse side of that, we’re running the ball up so well. And I think there’s some times where we can maybe look to push that transition but then also have that discipline to not push that transition and make a good possession out of it, and then that way, our defence is getting the rest that they need.

Article content

“But it’s a hard balance. Especially as a defensive player, that’s a tough thing to do. And it’s a lot to ask out of them. And I think so far this year, they’ve done a pretty good job.”

It didn’t help the defence that it lost Justin Inacio during the contest.

Even worse is that Inacio has become the club’s primary faceoff man.

“When that person goes out and then we’re down a faceoff guy, it’s tough,” King said. “It’s a lot to ask out of a defensive players, especially for someone who needs to go take a draw that doesn’t usually take draws. It’s a lot to ask from them on an effort level.

“Do I think the guys that went in (for Inacio to take draws) did a spectacular job? Yeah … (Reece) Callies and Zach (Currier) did a really good job, but I think to the extent we’re now we’re having to sacrifice one of them at the draw where we don’t have one of them on the line. Zach is one of best loose-ball guys in the world, and we don’t have him on the line for those balls then.”

“Obviously, it wasn’t good, but that wasn’t the reason we lost,” said Sanderson of injury issue. “It was a tough battle. We worked hard, they worked hard, and then they executed a bit better in the second half. A couple of our principles that we like to have locked in our game plan started going by the wayside, and they took advantage of it in the fourth quarter.

Article content

“Again, I just thought we made a few mistakes that killed us.”

They’ll want to rectify those ahead of the Week 15 visit to play the host Georgia Swarm on Friday at suburban Atlanta’s Gas South Arena (5:30 p.m. MT, TSN+).

“I think we’re always in that work throughout the week,” added King. “And obviously now that we’ve put ourselves in the position that we have, we’re gonna go back and watch our film, do the exercise and the work that we need to do during the week and come out on a short week here and play in Georgia on a Friday.”

LOOSE PUCKS

King’s goal Saturday was the 20th of the season and the 150th of his productive NLL career … Roughnecks defender D Seth Van Schepen (upper body) returned to the lineup after missing a few games … Defender Eli Salama and veteran forward Logan Schuss (MCL/ACL) remained out for the Riggers.

tsaelhof@postmedia.com

http://www.x.com/ToddSaelhofPM

Article content