The Calgary Roughnecks faced off against the Vancouver Stealth at the Langley Events Centre Saturday night, with Calgary edging Vancouver by a score of 9-8.
Vancouver employed a split-squad strategy for the scrimmage, with completely different units being used in the first and second halves.
Calgary got out to a 2-1 lead in the first quarter on the strength of a pair of goals by lefty Dane Dobbie. Kyle Sorensen answered for the Stealth in a quarter filled with penalties.
The second quarter was almost all Roughnecks as they extended their lead to 8-2 by halftime. The big highlight for the Riggers was rookie Tor Reinholdt contributing his first goal as a professional.
With fresh legs on the floor, Vancouver began to mount a comeback in the second half. Calgary scored their ninth goal early in the third quarter, but after that it was all Stealth the rest of the way. Vancouver scored six unanswered goals, including two from Sean Lundstrom.
In spite of the pressure, the Roughnecks were able to hang on for the one-goal victory.
After the game, Roughnecks head coach Curt Malawsky observed, “I thought the compete level was really good. I thought all our draft picks played very, very well, particularly Garrett McIntosh. He soaked up some shots back in the d-end. He ran over some guys and was very physical. He lived up to the expectation of 6-foot-2, 235, so we’re happy with that.
“Tor Reinholdt and Karsen Leung were just as advertised – they pushed the transition,” Malawsky continued. “We played a real fast game and I liked the way we started. We sagged a little in the fourth quarter and they came back. We wound up on the PK a couple times and they were able to score some goals, but the main thing is we got the result in the end.”
Added Reinholdt, “Everyone on the team battled hard and we had lots of gritty loose balls. Everyone ran, especially the young guys, ran hard. Everyone is trying to earn their spot.”
The Roughnecks have one more weekend of training camp to go, this time heading to Ontario for Oct. 13-15 where they will also play two more scrimmages, against the Minnesota Swarm on Saturday and the Rochester Knighthawks on Sunday. They open their regular season on the road in Toronto against the Rock on Jan. 3.
The Stealth meanwhile, will be participating in camps for the remainder of December, with sessions scheduled for Dec. 14, 15, 21, 22 and 28 with a view to having the team in playing shape and completely in sync when they open their regular season schedule on Jan. 4 against the Mammoth in Colorado.
