Sporting a 5-7 record and sitting outside of the playoff picture, the time was now for the Calgary Roughnecks. A huge opportunity to move into third place with a win against the visiting Vancouver Warriors presented itself on Friday night and the game did not disappoint. A flurry of late fourth quarter goals forced overtime and in that extra frame it was Curtis Dickson sticking an amazing bouncer giving Calgary a 10-9 victory.
Calgary’s Tyler Burton secured the faceoff in overtime and a timeout was quickly taken. Once play was whistled back in, Vancouver’s defense disrupted the set piece and the play was scrambled. As the shot clock ticked down, Dickson took an errant shot, but was able to collect his own rebound off the back glass. Pressured by Tyler Codron, Dickson spun and fired a bounce shot that beat Alex Buque far side.
Moments after being mobbed by teammates, Dickson addressed the importance of the win.
“That’s a lot of weight off our shoulders. This was a must win game for us. We’re battling with these guys along with a couple others for that playoff spot in the west. We knew we couldn’t lose this game. It was a dogfight to the end and we’re fortunate that we came out with a win.”
The Riggers leaned heavily on their Captain in this crucial conference matchup. Despite being the target of a number of heavy hits, Dickson picked himself off the turf each time and hurt Vancouver where it mattered – on the scoreboard. No. 17 led his team in scoring with four goals and an assist and head coach Curt Malawsky praised Dickson’s overtime winner: “world-class players do world-class things.”
Vancouver got out to a slow start going down 5-1 early in the second. However, a couple of three goal runs had the game even at 7-7 going into final quarter. Kyle Killen’s 31st goal of the season was answered by two Roughnecks goals from Pace and Dickson. Veteran Marty Dinsdale scored a clutch game-tying goal with 4:11 to play. Both teams were unable to score in the final minutes and unfortunately for the Warriors offense, they never got possession in overtime.
Keegan Bal and Logan Schuss each had two goals and three assists on the night. Rookie standout Reid Bowering continued his chase for the rookie loose ball record adding eight more to give him a total of 172.
On the topic of loose balls, Zach Currier had a monster night collecting 15 loosies to give him a season total of 177. Jesse King continued to distribute the ball putting up five assists and adding a goal.
The Roughnecks (6-7) will play their third doubleheader of the season next week against the Thunderbirds and PCLC in back–to-back home games.
Meanwhile, the Vancouver Warrior’s (6-9) had to rush home for a matchup the following night against the Albany Firewolves which they lost 11-7 dropping them to 5th in the Western Conference. Week 19 will have them travel to Saskatchewan for a game against the Rush (4-10).
