Never mind the Vancouver Warriors.
The Calgary Roughnecks are the real warriors just a few weeks into the 2022-23 National Lacrosse League season.
They’ve come to play, battle and take no prisoners on the floor, opening up the campaign with two victories — the most recent an 14-5 no-doubter Friday night over the host Warriors on the West Coast.
Anchored by an amazing effort from goaltender Christian Del Bianco and a second straight game of 60-minute lacrosse, the Roughnecks topped their West Division rivals — again — in the rematch of last Saturday’s triumph at Scotiabank Saddledome.
“All-around solid team effort,” said Roughnecks GM Mike Board. “It started in net where Delbs was sharp from the git-go to the final buzzer. Big saves, timely saves throughout.”
Del Bianco, indeed, proved perfect early, stopping the first 19 shots on net before the Warriors were able to crack his code, and wrapped up the outing with a whopping 52 saves.
“I was seeing the ball pretty good — that’s always a positive,” Del Bianco told TSN. “But I think our team defence was really good. We packed it in and kept them to the outside. So all-around, I think’s kind of the team success.”
Meanwhile, the ’tender from B.C. got plenty of run support, thanks to a variety of offensive plays executed by the Roughnecks, which amounted to four goals by Haiden Dickson and seven points from Tyler Pace.
“It was good to see Haiden Dickson put up some goals,” Board said. “Tyler Pace made some great plays and scored a couple, as well.”
Cross-court passing helped the visitors put up goals, as did production in transition and good old-fashioned seeing-eye shots from the slot.
It was second-year man Tanner Cook picking up where he left off last game with the opening goal on the power play, just over five minutes in, on a well-timed feed from Pace.
The veteran Pace was at it again just a half-minute later, when he set up captain Jesse King for the second Riggers marker.
Another second-year talent in Kyle Waters made it 3-0 Roughnecks before the end of the first quarter.
It was more of the same in the second frame, with three more goals to chase Warriors starting goalie Steve Fryer. The first came on a hot shot from Dickson off an assist from Dan Taylor. Then came two transition goals — one from Shane Simpson on a dip-and-dunk to convert a two-on-one with Harrison Matsuoka, and the other from newcomer Jeff Cornwall after he slid into the slot and took another pretty pass from Pace.
“It’s great that we’re contributing at the back-end,” Simpson told TSN. “That’s kind of exactly what we expect from our guys there. We’re going to continue to look to push the ball.”
With Aden Walsh into the game in place of Fryer, Warriors star Mitch Jones finally beat Del Bianco to burst his shutout bubble, but Dickson — on arguably the prettiest goal of the game converting King’s pass in close — and Zach Herreweyers replied with goals for the Roughnecks against the new goalie. Walsh actually lost control of the ball for Herreweyers to scoop up uncontested and score into an open net to give the visiting side the commanding 8-1 halftime lead.
In the second half, it was more of the same, with Simpson himself scoring on another dip-and-dunk in transition — to make it 9-1 for the visitors — and Dickson scoring twice more — both on the power play in the fourth quarter, and both on assists courtesy of Pace.
And Pace opted in on the goal-getting himself with a pair of man-advantage markers in the third quarter just 37 seconds apart. The first was on a perfect shot down the pipe, while the second was a thing of beauty back-door on a sweet feed from Taylor.
Herreweyers also scored his second on the evening, wiring a shot through the wickets of Walsh from not too far out.
‘Offensively there were a lot of contribution,” Board said. “Nine different players found the back of the net, and we scored in all situations — even strength, man-advantage and in transition.”
With the win, they’ve zoomed to a 2-0 start on the season, while putting the Warriors in a sizable 0-3 hole to open the campaign.
“We knew what we had coming into this matchup,” Simpson told TSN. “We knew coming into training camp that we were going to be the hardest working group — think fast — and we’re just going to continue doing that.”
Next up for the Riggers is a Dec. 30 tilt against the visiting San Diego Seals on WestJet Field at the Saddledome (7 p.m., TSN).
QUICKSTICKS
Waters drew into the Roughnecks lineup Friday for fellow forward Brett Hickey, who was a scratch along with 2022 draft pick Seth Van Schepen, also a forward … Taylor notched his 100th career NLL assist on Dickson’s first goal … Roughnecks D Curtis Manning was on the receiving end of another dirty hit for the second straight game. This time for the Warriors, it was former Roughnecks superstar and two-time NLL MVP Shawn Evans levelling the fellow veteran well after the whistle late in the contest … Friday’s NLL slate for Week 3 also includes Panther City Lacrosse Club (1-0) visiting the Las Vegas Desert Dogs (0-1) … The other Week 3 games all go Saturday before the Christmas break kicks in: the Buffalo Bandits (0-1) at the Toronto Rock (1-1); the Rochester Knighthawks (2-0) at the Albany FireWolves (1-0), the Philadelphia Wings (0-1) at the Georgia Swarm (0-1); the Halifax Thunderbirds (1-0) at the New York Riptide (0-1); and the Colorado Mammoth (0-1) at Panther City in Fort Worth, Texas.
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