Roughnecks fall short against Bandits in front of full house at Saddledome

Over 16,000 fans crowded into the Saddledome Saturday to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and cheer on the Calgary Roughnecks. (Photo: X@NLLRoughnecks)

With more than 16,000 cheering fans in the Saddledome celebrating St. Patrick’s Day a little early, the Calgary Roughnecks fell to the Buffalo Bandits 11-6.

It was the second of back-to-back home-and-away games against the Bandits whom the Riggers defeated last weekend in Buffalo.

Early on, it appeared to be the Roughnecks’ night as they quickly built a 3-1 lead in the first quarter on two goals from Dane Dobbie and another from Haiden Dickson.

However, the Bandits responded with five straight second-quarter goals to take a 6-3 halftime lead.

In the third, Calgary got goals from Jesse King and one more from Haiden Dickson but Buffalo matched them to head into the fourth leading 8-5.

Tanner Cook added one for the Roughnecks but Buffalo scored three more to make it 11-6.

Nick Rose stopped 40 shots in goal for the Roughnecks as the Bandits outshot them 51-50.

“Give Buffalo credit,” said Calgary head coach Josh Sanderson. “They were a bit better than us tonight. (Bandit goaltender Michael Vinc) played well and we just couldn’t get on a run. That’s too bad with the crowd we had.”

Captain Jesse King said the Roughnecks had to be aware of becoming too predictable on offence.

“We were going into tendencies of just running up and down the alleys of the play and that makes it really easy for them,” King said. “Our job as an offence is to make it difficult for a defence and if we don’t do that, they we’re going to see games where we’re going to only put up six goals.”

Next up for the Roughnecks is a game next Saturday at the Saddledome against the San Diego Seals. Game time is scheduled for 7 p.m.