The Calgary Roughnecks are no longer perfect on the season, after a 13-12 loss Saturday night at the hands of the Colorado Mammoth.  Calgary now sits 5-1 on the season and all of a sudden, we’ve got a tight race on top of the NLL’s West Division with the Mammoth sitting an impressive 4-2.  A 1 goal loss to a good opponent is not cause for concern, and it’s what we see on Sunday afternoon that will give us a true indication of how far this Roughnecks team has come.

The game itself is going to leave a real sour taste in the mouths of the Roughnecks.  They lead at the half, they played a solid 3rd quarter and lead 10-8 heading into the final frame.  It was another opportunity for Troy Cordingley’s and Terry Sanderson’s defence to go to work and shut things down.  But Colorado was able to make a push, and on this night, the Riggers couldn’t summon the push back they needed.  The Mammoth were able to fire 5 by Paddy Campbell in the Calgary net in the final 15 minutes, while Calgary was only able to score twice. 

However, it wasn’t as if we witnessed an epic collapse from the Roughnecks.  Yeah, they’re going to be angry that they didn’t completely shut the door.  But, I really do believe some credit has to go to Colorado in this instance.  Goalie Andrew Leyshon was very good in the 4th quarter, making a number of key saves down the stretch against many of his former mates.  And offensively, Colorado was able to use some nice speed to counter Calgary’s furious pressure-based defence, which ended up serving them well in the latter stages of the game.  This is a good Mammoth team and they played Calgary well, and now it’s all about what’s next. 

“What’s next?” has been one of the themes with this team so far this season.  Whether it be quarter to quarter, or game to game, so far all the guys have been very clear that what’s already happened doesn’t matter.  So, the team has made sure they haven’t gotten to high after good quarters or solid wins.  Now, I’m fully confident the same will be true with the shoe on the other foot.  It’s a loss, there is room to improve, things to learn from, however looking back is only helpful to a point.  I think this Roughnecks team has the sack and the leadership to bounce back very strong next Sunday.

Josh Sanderson continues to lead this team in scoring with 35 points, he had 5 points Saturday night.  Also with 5 against Colorado was Tracey Kelusky who sits second with 34 points overall.  Kaleb Toth (5 on Saturday) and Dane Dobbie (6) sit tied for 3rd in team scoring.  The leadership group in the Calgary locker room is going to be able to fire this team up to come out strong Sunday afternoon, against a tough 4-3 Boston Blazers team.  Boston can score, lead by Dan Dawson and Daryl Veltman, so it should be a good bounce back test for Calgary’s defence.  That game will be live on the FAN 960 this Sunday (2 pm pregame, 3 pm faceoff), so tune us in to see if the Riggers can move to 6-1 on the season.

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