It’s been a minute since the Philadelphia Wings played the Calgary Roughnecks.
And by a minute, that would be four years ago in the COVID shortened 2019/20 season. Back then Philadelphia was led by the likes of Kevin Crowley, Kiel Matisz, Matt Rambo and one Josh Currier. Of course, Calgary still had Curtis Dickson and Dane Dobbie sporting the red Roughneck jersey and the Riggers were fresh off their championship season.
Now back to Saturday night.
The 3-5 Philadelphia Wings entered Westjet Field sitting in 11th spot and needing a victory against the equally hungry Calgary Roughneck whose 4-5 record had them in 9th place. In a game that came down to the final minutes of regulation, it was former Wing, Josh Currier, scoring twice leading the Roughnecks to a 14-11 victory.
“It was a huge win tonight, but they don’t get any easier for us. We’re back in Philly in their barn so they’re going to want to split,” said Coach Sanderson after the game. “Really happy with getting these home wins before we hit the road again. The guys are all pulling on the rope together and they’re getting rewarded so just really happy for all of them.”
The Wings played a strong first half of lacrosse including a five goal second quarter. Six different Wings scored goals with local product Holden Cattoni finding the net twice staking Philly to a 7-6 lead.
An even third quarter kept Philadelphia on top 9-8. Holden Cattoni’s hat trick goal early in the fourth extended their advantage to 10-8. However, another hometown kid decided to have himself a night. Calgarian Dan Taylor scored three goals in the span of five minutes to put his club out front and give him four goals and five points on the night. A Mitch Jones goal briefly tied the game before Josh Currier’s two goals and an empty netter by Shane Simpson sealed away the Roughneck victory.
Right on cue with the LAX Metrics article written by Cooper Perkins, Jesse King and Tyler Pace led Calgary in scoring with 7 and 6 points respectively. Justin Inacio continued his improved play going 16/29 at the faceoff dot. Once again, Zach Currier was an absolute game changer. 11 loose balls and 4 caused turnovers don’t do enough justice for what he’s doing. Simply put, every time Zach Currier steps on the floor, he is affecting the outcome of games .
Mitch Jones added another 7 points to his season totals giving him 58 which puts him in 11th place in league scoring. Joe Resetarits also had a good night scoring twice and adding four assists. Goaltender Zach Higgins stopped 38 of 51 shots good for a 0.745 save percentage.
These two teams will face each other again next week as the scene shifts to Philadelphia. The 5-5 Roughnecks currently sit in the 8th and final playoff position while the 3-6 Wings will look to improve on their 13th place position.
