Denver, CO– The Vancouver Stealth lost to the Colorado Mammoth 11-10 with one second remaining in regulation on Saturday afternoon at Pepsi Center. It was the third of four meetings of the season between the two West Division rivals. Coming into the game, the season series was tied at 1-1. Tyler Richards received his first start in net for the Stealth, while Dillon Ward played for the Mammoth.
The Mammoth opened the scoring with a goal during a delayed penalty at the 3:05 mark with a marker from Jeremy Noble. Just over a minute later, Thomas Hoggarth scored his first career NLL goal on his first ever shift in the league making a great shot on Ward in tight. Jeff Moleski had the only assist. After over eight minutes of scoreless action, Logan Schuss scored his first of the game with a hard outside shot to give his team the lead. Garrett Billings and Rhys Duch had the helpers. At 13:18, Schuss scored his second straight goal and 15th of the season after beating Ward between the legs to make it 3-1 after 15 minutes. Duch and Jordan Durston earned the assists.
2:36 into the second quarter, Duch scored his team leading 18th goal of the season after taking a pass from Billings, and found room in the top right corner behind Ward. At 4:47, Schuss capped off the hat-trick with a bounce shot between the legs of the Mammoth goaltender from the right side of the floor. Corey Small and Duch were in on the assists. During a Stealth power play, Tyler Hass kept the run going by stealing the ball at centre and went in on a breakaway scoring his first of the season at 6:26. Just under two minutes later, John Grant scored the Mammoth’s only goal of the quarter and made it a 6-2 score at the end of 30 minutes.
To begin the second half, Duch fired a long shot that beat Ward five-hole to extend the Stealth lead to 7-2. Billings and Schuss had the assists. On the ensuing face-off, Travis Cornwall picked up a loose ball and bounced a perfect shot past the right leg of Ward, who was then pulled in favour of Alexis Buque. After Buque made stops on the first couple shots he faced, his team scored back to back goals courtesy of Chris Wardle and Noble. At 11:17, Duch scored his hat-trick goal on a power play to make it a 9-4 lead going into the fourth quarter. Schuss and Joel McCready had the assists
In the last quarter, Adam Jones took over the game scoring five straight goals from 2:38 to the 9:08 mark, which tied the game at 9-9. The deadlock did not last long though, as Corey Small got the Stealth lead back with his first goal of the game at 9:08 after taking a great pass in the middle of the floor from Schuss. However, Callum Crawford tied the game with just over four minutes to go and then got the game winner from Jones with one second left in the contest.
After being held off the score sheet for 45 minutes, Jones was the story in the fourth quarter registering 7 points. For the Stealth, both Rhys Duch and Logan Schuss led the way offensively with 3 goals and 3 assists. In his first start of 2016, Tyler Richards stopped 47 of 58 shots, but was charged with the defeat and is now 1-1 on the season. With the loss, the Stealth fall to 3-5 on the year.
The Stealth are back in action on Saturday, March 5 against the Buffalo Bandits at the Langley Events Centre at 7:00pm PST. It is ‘Hall of Fame Night’, with the first 1000 fans through the door receiving a free pack of Hall of Fame cards. Tickets are available online at www.stealthlax.com or by phone at 604.882.8800.
STEALTH NOTES: FINAL SCORE: Mammoth 11 – Stealth 10, SHOTS ON GOAL: Mammoth 58 – Stealth 43, LOOSE BALLS: Mammoth 57 – Stealth 51, FACE-OFFS: Stealth 18-25 – Mammoth 7-25, POWERPLAY: Stealth 2-3, Mammoth 0-6.
