Tomorrow night the Calgary Roughnecks face the Edmonton Rush in round two of the yearly Battle of Alberta. Curtis Dickson, now in his third year in the league, says that these games do have something a little extra.
“There’s always a little extra incentive playing against your provincial rival. We see these guys four times a year and it’s always a battle so its always a huge two points when we play these guys.”
The Necks will be playing the Rush for the second week in a row, and Dickson says there are some advantages there. “It has its advantages playing the same team 2 weeks in a row. You have done all your preperation already a week ago with all the film we have watched and with our game plan so it makes for an easy transition to do it all over again.
“We just have to be careful because they are going to be hungry coming off a loss at home to us so we can’t come in with a slow start or they could easily jump all over us.”
The Roughnecks now sit atop the Western Conference while the Rush are tied for last with the Minnesota Swarm. “I think our transition game played a big part in our win last weekend. Getting the ball up the floor quicly is key against these guys. They have good defense and goaltending so any chance you get to push the pace and keep them on their toes gives you those little advantages and we need to take all the advantages we can get.”
Last week Calgary defeated Edmonton, and Dickson thinks they need to do what they’ve done. “I think our defense did a great job in the second half last week and if they can play like that for a full 60 minutes I believe that we are a very hard team to beat.”
