The Calgary Roughnecks were in another back and forth affair, which time and time again this season they were unfortunately on the losing end extending the team record losing streak to 0-5 to begin the season in front of 10,312 disappointed fans.
With the team struggling early again the Roughnecks took a early penalty—which they did last home game as well—to which Dhane Smith took the opportunity to capitalize early on a quick pass from Ryan Benesch to open the scoring just :28 into the game for an early Bandits lead. After a couple possessions the Roughnecks started to find their game when Shawn Evans kept his hot streak going to feed Daryl Veltman who ripped a shot to tie the game 2:23 in.
Play settled in before the Bandits would go on a short two goal run in which Mark Steenhuis would get his first of the game on a cross floor pass from Ryan Benesch and Dhane Smith before former Roughnecks Joe Resetarits scored just over three minutes later on a setup from Steenhuis and Chad Culp. Calgary would answer with a three goal run of their own with Karsen Leung getting back to back goals, the second of which he went mid-air cross crease quick stick on a pass from Dane Dobbie who was set up by Curtis Dickson.
Veltman got on the scoresheet during the three goal run on passes from Leung and Evans before Buffalo answered with their own three goal run when Chad Culp got a nice feed from Dhane Smith where starting goalie Frankie Scigliano didn’t have a chance. Kevin Brownell would get on the board on a pass from Mitch Wilde and Dhane Smith would get his second goal of the night to finish out the scoring in the first quarter.
Curtis Dickson would score midway through the second quarter on the powerplay with Mike Carnegie getting the assist, but two minutes later Dhane Smith would score back-to-back goals to keep momentum on the Bandits side before Jeff Shattler would get his first of the game on a cross floor pass from Dickson and Dobbie to end the half 8-6 Bandits.
The Roughnecks would start the third quarter the way they ended the second half going on a three goal run on goals from Dickson, Evans and Shattler. Calgary would get into penalty trouble to which Dhane Smith would get his fifth goal of the night before Dobbie would close out third period scoring on the power play as well on a feed from Dickson.
To continue the back and fourth scoring the teams would seem to go shot for shot for the final frame with Buffalo getting two before the five minute mark from Resetarits and Benesch before Calgary would answer with two of their own with Dobbie and Evans getting markers. The Bandits would then go on a three goal run with Culp getting back to back goals and Benesch finding mesh again as well. With the Bandits leading by two late the Roughnecks would get a late goal from Veltman on a nice pass from Evans to bring the team within one and with only eight seconds left Curtis Dickson would feed a streaking Shattler on as the extra attacker to send the game to overtime.
With the Roughnecks starting the extra frame down a man with Geoff Snider taking a late holding penalty the Bandits couldn’t capitalize but came close. Then with Dickson and Smith taking offsetting penalties as well and the teams playing five on five Jerome Thompson would get his only marker of the game on a outside bounce shot to seal the game for the Bandits.
Head coach Malawsky commented after the team’s fifth straight loss, “It’s very hard to grind and be disciplined when there’s urgency. It’s very difficult, the guys just want to run and they don’t know any different and they just want to compete and we’re just trying to tell them hey, do it this way, and for the most part they are doing it and we just make mistakes and it costs us but what a character comeback.”
Geoff Snider commented on the loss and how a veteran team can make these mistakes, “It’s inside and coming in and putting the effort in and working hard, other than that it’s believing in the process and working hard.” When asked about losing five to start the season, Snider said, “They all suck, losing sucks.”
“We’ve got to keep grinding, you know we’ve lost three one goal games and one we’ve been leading by nine so you know what, we just gotta keep going and we got 13 games left.” After asked about the team’s slow start, he added, “we gotta battle, season ain’t over. We got 13 games left and this team isn’t gonna bury their heads.”
“I thought the third quarter was great,” Frankie Scigliano mentioned. “We were communicating and it was great, we were moving around and talking and were battling for each other.”
When commenting on positives Curtis Dickson said, “If there’s any positives it’s perseverance, at the same time we gotta start winning games and these close games aren’t going to cut it, we gotta get some wins going.” To stay successful in the league he said, “We gotta watch the tape but it’s the little things, I think we’re going on lull’s and momentum, we’re letting them go on too many runs and we’re playing catch up and it’s been tough.”
The Roughnecks schedule doesn’t get any easier as the team travels to the Langley Events Center for a Valentine’s Day battle with division rival Vancouver Stealth which can be found online at tsn.ca/live/nll with a opening faceoff time of 8:00 pm MT.
