The Calgary Roughnecks and Rochester Knighthawks played a Sunday matinee at Blue Cross Arena. The Roughnecks came into the game having lost six of their last seven games. Rochester was looking to move back above the .500 mark after an overtime win against league-leading Saskatchewan last week. Tanner Cook and Brayden Mayea led an early seven-goal run, and Calgary never looked back in doubling up the Knighthawks 14-7. The Roughnecks improve to 3-9 on the season, and get their first ever win against the new iteration of the Knighthawks (they had previously been winless in four tries since 2019). The loss drops Rochester below .500 again at 5-6; however, they are one of two teams (Las Vegas) that will still have seven games left to play after Monday’s trade deadline (all other teams have six or less games to play following this weekend).
Extended run gives Roughnecks first half lead
Jeremy Thompson gave Rochester the early lead with a goal at 3:18. The Roughnecks took control from there, going on a seven goal-run into the second quarter. Haiden Dickson (4:05), Tanner Cook (6:19), and Tyler Pace (10:44) put Calgary up 3-0. Then Brayden Mayea went back-to-back (11:10; 14:53) to make it a 5-1 game after the first quarter. Cook’s second (2:23 power play) and Mayea’s hat trick goal (4:04) opened the second quarter and extended the Roughnecks’ lead to 7-1. Ryan Lanchbury (8:05) broke the run, and Connor Fields (13:35 power play) added another for Rochester. However, Cook tacked on two more goals (11:39; 13:59) to give the Roughnecks a 9-3 lead going into halftime.
Roughnecks escape the basement, keep Rochester below playoff line
The third quarter didn’t start any better for the Knighthawks. Goals from Riley Loewen (4:09) and Dickson (8:16) pushed Calgary’s lead to 11-3. Rochester began to show some life in the final five minutes of the quarter when Ryan Smith went back-to-back (10:45; 11:31) and Thomas McConvey converted on a power play (12:38) to cut the deficit to 11-6 going into the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, the momentum swung back to the Roughnecks in the fourth. Noah Manning (5:11), Dickson’s hat trick goal (5:35) and Cook’s fifth goal of the game (12:46) put the game out of reach. The Knighthawks could only counter with Smith’s hat trick goal (5:57).
Other Stats Of Note
Roughnecks: Cook (5g, 3a); Mayea (3g, 2a); Dickson (3g); Pace (1g, 5a); Manning (1g, 3a); Loewen (1g, 1a); Mathieu Gautier (2a)
Knighthawks: Smith (3g); McConvey (1g, 3a); Lanchbury (1g, 2a); Fields (1g; 2a); Thompson (1g); Kyle Waters (2a); Zed Williams (1a)
Justin Inacio (CGY): 17-25 Faceoffs, 11 Loose Balls, 2 Caused Turnovers
Aden Walsh (CGY): 50 saves
