Roughnecks fall short in home opener, dropping 14-10 decision to Warriors

The Calgary Roughnecks lost their home opener to Vancouver, 14-10 at the Scotiabank Saddledome (Photo: X@NLLRoughnecks)

The Calgary Roughnecks felt the love from their fans in their home opener Saturday night but fell short in the box score, dropping a 14-10 decision to the Vancouver Warriors.

Just over 13,000 fans cheered the team on at Scotiabank Saddledome, and they got plenty to cheer for from Curtis Dickson, who scored four goals and added a pair of assists.

The team got two more from Dane Dobbie as well as six points (1 G, 5 A) from captain Jesse King, but weren’t able to overcome a first half 10-4 deficit.

The squad did respond with four goals in a row to cut it to 10-8 after three quarters, but Vancouver responded with four in the fourth to claim the victory.

Tyler Pace and Bennett Smith added single goals for the Roughnecks, who fell to 2-1 on the season.

“I thought we’d have a better start than that,” said Roughneck coach Josh Sanderson. “Obviously that’s on me.

"I’ve got to get our guys ready to go to start the game," Sanderson added. "I think in the second half we started to play more like we’re used to when we’re playing well, so I’ve just got to do a better job of getting us ready to go.”

Dickson praised the fans for their support.

“It was cool obviously getting back out here. The fans didn’t disappoint. I wish we just put on a bit of a better show for them,” he said.

 “We’ve been fortunate enough to fight back and win the first two (after being down), but we can’t keep doing that to ourselves. It’s too hard to win games like that in this league,

“Obviously it bit us in the butt tonight,” he added, “so we’ve got to figure out a way to have better starts and get out and hold some leads.”

Next up for the Roughnecks is a Jan. 11 game at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, where they’ll take on the Wings.