By Gary Ahuja / NLL.com Correspondent
Photo by Garrett James / Vancouver Stealth
Given a chance to make a difference, Frank Scigliano made the most of his opportunity.
The Calgary Roughnecks goaltender had to sit and watch as his team lost 12-11 to the Vancouver Stealth in the season opener eight days ago, suspended for a pre-season fight.
But back in the line-up and in the crease on Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre, Scigliano made his presence felt, stopping 30 of 40 shots in his team’s 14-10 victory over the Stealth.
Vancouver dropped to 2-1 while Calgary is now 1-1.
“You are just pulling your hair, wanting to help and not being able to do anything about it.,” he said. “It is tough to watch.”
He was one of three Calgary regulars suspended for that game, alongside defenders Greg Harnett and Garrett McIntosh.
But Roughecks coach Curt Malawsky didn’t want to use not having his full complement of players as an excuse in the earlier game.
“It is what it is and you play with what you got,” he said.
What made a big difference was the fact his team stuck to their systems and instead of trying to do things one-on-one, this time they played by committee.
“We made the unselfish plays. Not that were selfish last week — it was a good game plan by (Vancouver) they kept the ball off certain sticks — I thought we really shared the ball and moved our feet,” Malawsky said.
The Stealth opened the scoring with Corey Small getting his first of four on the night.
That set off a high-scoring quarter that saw Calgary score the next three and then lead 6-3 at the break.
Vancouver cut the lead to 6-4 but the Roughnecks scored three times before Jordan Durston made it 9-5 at the break.
The Stealth would then go 16:16 — spanning the second and third quarters — without a goal until Keegan Bal finally snapped the slump. And while Vancouver went goalless, the Roughnecks added three more and led 13-6 after three.
The Stealth would find their game in the fourth quarter but still fell well short, losing 14-10.
“Going on runs is huge in this league and being able to anchor down during that time is great,” Scigliano said, adding that his defense let him see the shots and were great at knocking the ball down.
“It was going to take 60 minutes to win this game and I thought we played the whole 60.”
“They came in with a little chip on their shoulder and had jump in their step and we didn’t,” said Stealth coach Jamie Batley.
“I thought we were flat. They obviously wanted to avenge the loss last week.”
Batley has wanted to implement an attacking system that preaches transition but that did not work tonight.
“Our transition game was non-existent tonight and that’s why it was 14-10. If we get some transition goals it could have been a different game,” he said.
“They kind of bungled up our transition. We threw the ball away in the first quarter a few times and we continued to do that.”
Vancouver also struggled with turnovers.
“We couldn’t pass and catch the ball at certain times. Even on the power play, we were missing passes and the passes weren’t on. And that resulted in a poor power play.”
Curtis Dickson led the Roughnecks with six goals and an assist while Jeff Shatler (two goals, three assists) and Riley Loewen (two goals) also had multi-goal games. Dane Dobbie (one goal, three assists) and Tyson Bell (one goal) rounded out the scoring.
The Stealth were led by Small’s four goals while Rhys Duch had two goals and five helpers. Bal (one goal, three assists), Logan Schuss (one goal, two assists), Joel McCready (one goal, three assists) and Durston (one goal, two assists) provided the Stealth offense.
One bright spot for Vancouver was their fourth quarter as they outscored Calgary 4-1.
“The guys worked hard in the fourth and showed some pride and we are going to take that into the next game.”
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Dickson was the first star while Small and Thomas Hoggarth were the second and third stars.
