It was Every Child Matters night in Ottawa as the hometown Black Bears welcomed in the Calgary Roughnecks for a Friday night showdown. Both teams came in sitting in the middle of the pack as far as the standings went, and Ottawa specifically needed an offensive breakthrough considering the stout play of Zach Higgins as of late.
Those offensive struggles continued a bit for the Black Bears, as Calgary controlled the tone of the game for a vast majority. A big performance from Tyler Pace and goaltender Cam MacLeod propelled the Roughnecks to a 11-8 win over Ottawa.
Pace set the, well, pace (sorry) very early on as he got Calgary on the board first. He was followed up by teammate Tanner Cook and then buried his second of the frame. Calgary completed dominated the first quarter as that three-goal run spanned over 13 minutes. Jacob Dunbar finally got Ottawa on the board with his first with under two minutes to play in the first. 3-1 Roughnecks after one.
Ottawa’s defense settled down in the second quarter, as they only allowed one Calgary goal, all the while scoring two of their own. Reed Kurtz got his first with a short-handed goal, but Pace had the answer for the first half hat trick. After seven plus minutes of back-and-forth, Dunbar buried his second and that’s how the half would end. 4-3 Calgary at the break.
“They’re overplaying certain guys”, said Pace about his first half hat trick. “If they’re going to overplay, then other guys have to take advantage, and I was just put in that position tonight. We have to get more shots on net, just pepper the net a little bit.”
Ottawa must have started to overplay Pace in the third quarter, because it was Jesse King who would have the breakout performance. Calgary scored three goals in the third, all courtesy of King, to Ottawa’s one, giving them a ton of momentum. King’s first goal saw him crashing the crease and receiving a beautiful behind-the-back pass from Tanner Cook. Taggart Clark would get the lone Black Bears goal in response, followed by King’s second and third. His third was a power play marker. 7-4 Roughnecks after three.
Compared to the previous three quarters, the fourth quarter saw an uptick in scoring. There were eight total goals scored in the frame, four per side. Basic math tells us that was bad news for Ottawa. Every time the Black Bears got something going, Calgary was right there to match them. Curtis Dickson started it off with his first but was quickly answered by Clark’s second. Pace buried his fourth, but was answered by two-straight from Ottawa, one from Dunbar and the other from Larson Sundown. Dickson and Connor Kearnan traded goals late, and Robert Hudson tossed in a one-handed empty-net goal for good measure. Your final from the nation’s capital, 11-8 Roughnecks.
Players of the game for Calgary were Pace (4+2), King (3+3), and Dickson (2+3). MacLeod was sensational all game long, stopping 36 of 44. For Ottawa, Dunbar (3+1), Clark (two goals), and Kearnan (1+2) led the way. Once again, Higgins had a great game but came up short presumably because of the lack of offense. He stopped 33 of 43.
“It’s credit to our guys on the front end of the floor”, said King. “We challenged ourselves this week to have a really good first quarter, and I thought we did this week. It’s good to get a big travel day and get a good win.”
