Jesse King scored a shorthanded goal just 1:16 into the game to fuel one of his game-high four goals, to go along with eight points for the sixth year veteran from British Columbia as the Calgary Roughnecks defeated the Vancouver Warriors 14-9 on Friday night.
The struggling Warriors were led by Adam Charalambides, who contributed three goals and one assist. Charalambides fed Ryan Martel to knot the game 5-5 after being down 5-2 early in the second quarter as the Warriors showed life. Charalambides then found the back of the net after the tic-tac-toe passing of Riley Loewen and Shawn Evans to cap a 4-0 run for the Warriors. Loewen and Evans each tallied three assists in the contest.
“It was a tough one – our last three games I thought we have played much better, and we’re in games but we just have some mental lapses that cost us. We were undisciplined tonight and took some costly penalties that ultimately cost us the game,” Loewen stated after the tough loss.
The Roughnecks responded, scoring nine of the next 12 goals with strong second-half performances from Haiden Dickson, Josh Currier and brother Zach Currier. Dickson tallied a second-half hat trick and the Currier household added two goals each and the Roughnecks never allowed the home team to gain any momentum.
The Warriors are at the bottom of the league this year, but with eight games left on their season they are looking to stay positive.
“Obviously it’s very frustrating being 1-9. I’ve never been through something like this in my career, but we’re trying not to think about that, and just worry about the next game and try to get better each game from here on out,” said Loewen, a member of the 2019 NLL Champion Calgary Roughnecks, who signed a multi-year deal with Vancouver as a free agent.
Calgary’s road win moves the Roughnecks to 7-3 as they inch a little closer to the Western Conference leader in San Diego. The Seals were edged Friday night by the Saskatchewan Rush as the back half of the season heats up.
Both teams will hit the road next week as Calgary will visit Las Vegas and face-off against the Desert Dogs for the first time this year on Friday night. Vancouver will battle the Saskatchewan Rush on Saturday night and look to avenge a week 10 loss at home to the Rush.
