Duluth, GA- The Vancouver Stealth ended their 2016 season with an 14-6 loss to the Georgia Swarm on Saturday night at Infinite Energy Arena. It was the one and only meeting of the season between the two out of division squads. Tyler Richards played in goal for the Stealth, while Brodie MacDonald got the start for the Swarm.
The Swarm came out of the gates hard and got five straight goals in under 10 minutes from Jackson (2), Randy Staats, Miles Thompson, and Johnny Powless. At 12:46, Jordan Durston got the Stealth on the board with his 17th goal of the season. Chris O’Dougherty and Ian Hawksbee had the assists. However, with three seconds left in the quarter, Randy Staats scored his second of the game to give his team a 6-1 lead after 15 minutes.
3:03 into the second quarter, Lyle Thompson got his first of the game on a Swarm power play to make it 7-1. Georgia continued to put the ball in the net getting three more goals from Jackson (2) and Kiel Matisz to take a 10-1 lead into the half. Georgia also had the shot advantage at 26-24.
The Stealth got off to a much better start in the second half getting a goal from Joel McCready on the power play at the 1:00 mark. Logan Schuss and Rhys Duch had the assists. Just over three minutes later, Schuss notched his first of the evening with a long range bounce shot that beat MacDonald between the legs to make it a 10-3 game. Keegan Bal and Duch had the assists. After Miles and Lyle Thompson scored back-to-back, Corey Small put away his 37th goal of the season after finishing off a pass in tight of the net from Duch. With the goal, Small has registered a goal in every game this season. To end the quarter, Miles Thompson and McCready (Schuss, Small) traded goals, as Georgia took a 13-5 advantage into the fourth quarter.
At 2:34 of the fourth quarter, Rhys Duch tied the Stealth single season goal scoring record with his 48th goal of the year on a diving effort. McCready and Small were in on the assists. Kiel Matisz closed out the scoring in the game getting his second of the game at the 8:11 mark.
With the loss, Vancouver finishes their 2016 season with a 5-13 record. Rhys Duch tallied four points in the game and ties Colin Doyle for the Stealth single season points mark with 111.
STEALTH NOTES: FINAL SCORE: Swarm 14 – Stealth 6, SHOTS ON GOAL: Swarm 54 – Stealth 41, LOOSE BALLS: Swarm 76 – Stealth 54, FACE-OFFS: Swarm 15-25 – Stealth 10-25, POWERPLAY: Swarm 4-9, Stealth 1-5.
