The Stealth Dragon

I've gathered together my super squad of West Division friends and foes to give me their playoff predictions.  Without further ado, here are the predictions from Wingszone forums members and Lumberjax fans laxinoregon and Smackem, Mammoth fan Mtn_Scott and Stealth fans Zmystere, Zeboim and myself.  I'm sorry I haven't included anyone from Calgary, but I haven't really interacted or met with any of them yet. Laxinoregon: Colorado @ Calgary. The 1 vs 4 seed. The #1 hasn't faired in recent years, however, I expect Calgary to buck that trend with a landslide win, 15-9. Calgary's offense is clicking and everyone's healthy, defense is aggressive and plays within itself harrassing the opponents scorers. Only weakness is in the transition which unfortunately for Colorado they aren't suited for. The only way at an upset will be if both Prout and Langtry score early and score often, I don't see that happening. San Jose @ Portland. The 2 vs 3 seed. San Jose has a few things going for them in this game. Renewed aggression on the defensive end, pay back for last years home playoff loss, and two guys by the name of Doyle and Zwyicki. Portland counters the dynamic duo of Batman and Robin with The Butcher (Alexander) and The Playboy (Codron) and The Wall (Disher). These two teams hate each other, plain and simple and I expect nothing less than a war on the floor, a few fights, a few lead changes, a penalty shot to send the game into overtime, and a Jax victory 12-11 in said OT. Or it could be a masacre of epic porpotions with a 17-9 San Jose win, but nah, my first predicition has more drama. Jax 12-11. Smackem: I hope my Homer instincts don't kick in too quickly so I'll start with Colorado vs. Calgary. As much as this one seems to be a lock for Calgary I would offer some caution. If Leyshawn gets some early stops and builds his confidence he could keep Colorado around, but I'm doubtful that will happen with the injuries the Mammoth defense has suffered. Guze was a nice story of giving his all, but his 15 minutes of fame is over. No way anyone knows better than a Jax fan how much Langtry seems to rise to the occasions of away games, but it will be too little too late. Should Colorado get it going early I think Calgary will make a quick switch of goalies. Campbell and King have both played well and I believe either one could step in and stop the bleeding. Calgary puts this one away early, but I'm holding out hope for the Mammoth (homerism demands it). Portland vs San Jose. This one is keeping me up at night. These 2 teams met 3 times and the Jax won twice. The problem I'm having is that Eric Martin absolutely handed one of those games over by taking horrible penalties at terrible times. I believe Peter Morgan has to play great and Disher has to be healthy enough to go the distance for the Jax to win. The Stealth seem to be getting it together and gaining momentum at just the right time. The question will be how do their rookies, particularly Duch, handle playoff pressure. I'd love to see the Jax quicken the pace on transition and see if it forces some rookie mistakes (this is where Rabil's lack of box experience could hurt). What frightens me the most about the Stealth is undoubtedly Colin Doyle! I'm not sure if there is any one player out there I'd rather have than Doyle if you needed someone to will you to a win, he can flat out get it done. I know Dawson is incredible in the playoffs, but the Jax were just 6-10 with Dan. For an entire season I actually think I'd go with Doyle. OK, homer time. The Jax defense with Disher behind them can make any offensive players' life miserable. If the refs let them play physical, and I think in playoff atmosphere with the home crowd they will, the Jax are going to escape with a hard fought narrow victory. Zeboim: Calgary vs Colorado --- winner Calgary Calgary is really hot right now. The entire team is playing like they want to win. The Roughnecks offense is really clicking. On defense, Calgary is swarming to the ball. Seriously, this team is playing so well that I expect them to represent the west in the Championship Cup this year. This Colorado team is not the same as we have seen in past years. They have many injuries, resulting in no continuity on the floor on defense or offense. Also, they are playing uninspired lacrosse right now. The Mammoth seem to regret having Gavin Prout as their captain. He provides no leadership and has been a very selfish player this year. Portland vs San Jose --- winner Portland (come on Colin, prove me wrong!) The Portland Lumberjax team identity revolves around their defense. The Jax defenders are big, strong, and fast. Tyler Codron is a shutdown defender who is extremely competitive and takes it as a personal challenge to stop whatever player the coach puts him on. Disher has been playing excellently this season, but I don't know if he will be back at 100% for this game. Offensively, the Jax lack the firepower and leadership that Dan Dawson provided them with last year, but they manage to get enough transition goals from players like Brodie Merrill, Peter Morgan, and Scott Stewart. San Jose has had a season that didn't start off too strong. The team made a lot of changes from 2008, not all of them by choice. It is in games like these that the Stealth really miss Anthony Cosmo. The San Jose defense has improved with the addition of Shaydon Santos to the roster. Jeff Zywicki seems to be healed up, which will help out an already potent Stealth offense. Finally, and by no means least, Colin Doyle is an amazing team leader and he may just decide that I am full of crap and take this game into his own hands and lead the Stealth to a victory. Zymystere: Portland is not necessarily better than last year, because they had a damn good team last year.  But they are now full of confidence and have trust in Disher to make the big saves to keep them in the game. San Jose ended the season with big wins.The offence is what we had hoped they would be, though the scoring is coming from Duch and Doyle, versus last being Wick and Doyle. Wick is always dangerous in the second season, but it will come down to goal tenders. The Ghost T-Rich is hot and will take this time to solidify his position on the team. T-Rich will be the diff. 14 - 9 San Jose wins. Now for the CO, they are a Jeckyl/Hyde team. If everyong plays their best game, they can do well. Prout will try to carry the team and Langtry will get 7 pts. CAL is the class of the West.Thought that they would falter as the season went long, but they held together. Campbell should get the start and is a solid tender. TK is just being TK and Dobbie is a threat to keep the boys energized and open the shooting lanes. I see it being a close game, no more than a 1 goal differrential at the final whistle. Colorado will find a way to make up for a depleted D and sqeek out a win. Colorado wins...barely! Mtn_Scott: Colorado @ Calgary This is a very interesting game for quite a few reasons. On paper, this will be Calgary's game to lose. Calgary's offense and power play unit have been unstoppable all year. Fortunately for the Mammoth that plays directly into their strengths. Unfortunately, the Mammoth might start suiting up fans to play. In the final game of the season Rich Catton and Ray Guze both went down to injuries and status is uncertain. This adds to an already lengthy casualty list. The Mammoth's best hope is the fact that this is a rivalry game, and games between these two teams always comes down to heart. I am not sure even a Mammoth size heart can overcome the pure talent differential. Calgary 12-8 San Jose @ Portland This is another game of a great offense versus a great defense. Normally, I would take the defense on this, but not when the offense involves Colin Doyle. He is the most clutch player in the league during the playoffs. Portland has beaten San Jose Twice this season already, beating them a third time will be tough in this league. San Jose 13-12 in OT. StealthDragon: First up #4 Colorado @ #1 Calgary.  The previous two seasons the #4 seed in the West has walked in to the #1 seed's barn and won.  In both of those games the #4 team had also beaten the #1 seed while playing at the #1 seed's barn during the regular season.  This season Colorado beat Calgary 13-12 but it was not in Calgary.  I fully expect Calgary to break the curse of the #1 seed in the West losing in the first round.  Colorado has too many injuries on defense to stop Calgary's offense and transition game.  Or Langtry scores 9 goals to keep it close, but Calgary still wins. Now the big show #3 San Jose @ #2 Portland. The rematch of last season's #4 over #1 upset in San Jose.  Most of the Stealth players were there last year and will have revenge on their mind.  The Stealth have defeated the Jax in Portland this year, so despite the season series being 2-1 in Portland's favor this Stealth squad knows how to win in Portland.  Beating Portland goalie Matt Disher early and making him move will be key to the Stealth victory.  If Disher is hot then it could be a problem for the Stealth.  Jeff Zywicki is finally healthy and has been running around his defenders the past couple weeks after not driving to the cage and challenging defenders the first 3/4 of the season.  Brett Manney we'll see you soon. My wild card factor is Portland coach Derek Keenan, there's a 50/50 chance that he develops the right game plan for a Lumberjax victory.  When he plans right the Lumberjax can be dangerous.  Thankfully Stealth coach Chris Hall is capable of adjusting on the fly, so if the Jax get out of the gates fast there will still be time to right the Stealth ship. In my opinion, it's a good night and the Stealth win 13-8 like they did in late March. Final Tally: Calgary is picked 5 to 1 while the PDX/SJ meeting is split 3 picks each.  Bring on Friday! Go Stealth!

We're back again with a mid season West Conference power rankings. This time around I recruited some of my left coast amigos from Portland and San Jose to get a broader range of input. So I'd like to thank Zeboim, Zmystere, RP=BA and laxinoregon for their assistance and comments to create these rankings. Like me, they all watch more games than just their home teams (thank you NLL for the Mogulus services this season) so I trust their judgement. In talking with Zeboim I realized the goal of the list is not clearly defined for if it is A) How the teams are playing right now or B) How the West Division will finish. I'm leaning towards A and when I do another ranking in a month I'll make that more clear. Scoring: I had all participants rank the teams 1-6 and then I averaged out their scores to rank the teams. Their final average score is what is listed as their rank. No two rankings were identical and for the record, no fan of their own team picked them as the top team. Finally - ranking does not account for the games already played on Friday February 27th. Calgary Rank: 1.4 [caption id="attachment_139" align="alignleft" width="100" caption="Calgary Roughnecks"] [/caption] laxinoregon: Rank: 1 - Sure they lost two in a row, they are still healthy and because of that they are a right scary team. zymstere: Rank: 2 - Because of their recent losses and the close games they have had all season. Campbell in cage has been average at best. As you mentioned before, they peaked at the beginning of the season and is one injury away from being a bottom feeder. RP=BA: Rank 1 - The Boston game doesn't bug me that much, they're just starting to round off a little after starting so hot. I've never been a huge Campbell guy so I have concerns there. They need to keep improving like the rest of the west and hope they haven't peaked. Zeboim: Rank 2 - I had Calgary ranked #1 until they had close losses in their last 2 games. The 'Necks don't seem to be able to handle playing against physical defense. StealthDragon: Rank 1 - The two losses were in close games and the wins were not that close. If they're going to really be a league champion again I think they need to be able to close out a close game. Still, one injury away from being in major trouble on offense or defense. Portland Rank: 1.6 [caption id="attachment_155" align="alignleft" width="100" caption="Portland Lumberjax"] [/caption] laxinoregon: Rank 2 - Best defense in the West. Only question is can Disher maintain his form for the remainder of the games. Disher goes down, good night Irene. zymstere: Rank 1 - Because the D has been consistent from game one and their O has been getting better each game. Morgan, Conway and Malawsky has been the back bone. Of course you can't help but mention Merrill the human loose ball vaccum. RP=BA: Rank 2 - I was ready to stick the Mammoth here (#2) before they laid an egg this weekend. I'm concerned about the Wings game this weekend only because they've had so much time off and were playing so good before the layoff. This is the 2nd of a back to back though for Philly and the Jax know 1st place could be at stake. Zeboim: Rank 1 - Portland seems to score just enough points to win, but since wins and losses are what ultimately counts, they are doing what it takes. Defensively the Jax are strong, fast, and aggressive, overpowering most teams them play. Just for the record, while I think the Jax are the best in the west, I don't like it! StealthDragon: Rank 2 - Maybe the best defense in the league. Size does matter when you can never get your hands free because a monster 6'5"+ defender is guarding you. Disher is surprising the heck outta me. Their offense learned a great deal from Dan Dawson that they're applying to games this year now that he's not there. San Jose Rank: 3.2 [caption id="attachment_132" align="alignleft" width="100" caption="San Jose Stealth"] [/caption] laxinoregon: Rank 3 - At 3-4 San Jose is better than their record, but not by much. They still have a lot of questions concerning their defense, but they are starting to gel together. zymstere: Rank 3 - Stealth had their most complete game on both sides of the floor. The cast of rookies are improving with every shift. Gillespie, Hartzell and Manney have been more than capable and it showed this weekend against the Mammoth. The addition to McKinlay and Veltman now available for the roster will only help the D/T. O has been solid with contributions from Doyle, Wick, Duch and TJ not to mention Cam. The current trip to NY & Boston should help prove this point. RP=BA: Rank 4 (StealthDragon note: hater)- This was a tough pick for me but the Stealth have been playing really well as of late. I still think Roik is too much of a headcase when other teams make runs, that will always hurt the Stealth in close games and the D is young and fairly inexperienced. Love the offense though, I'd take SJ's O over Calgary's even. Zeboim: The Stealth just beat Colorado, and thus I can't rank San Jose below the Mammoth. However, the Stealth have no close wins, which is concerning as we head into the back half of the season. StealthDragon: They can't move up until they beat one of the teams above and they don't get to play Calgary again... Double header against Eastern teams this weekend to lock up some out of conference victories. Colorado Rank: 4 [caption id="attachment_153" align="alignleft" width="100" caption="Colorado Mammoth"] [/caption] laxinoregon: Rank 4 - What is their identity? In years past it was crisp offensive excecution and transition. Now both are gone, and it's all down hill. zymstere: Rank 4 - Colorado is still a dangerous team and with them playing at the can will help stabilize their struggles. Leyson may loose his position as #1 tender. Colorado needs to re-group from a horrible weekend and Pawlidor may be the answer. Langtry and Prout will need to get things going if they want a spot in the playoffs. RP=BA: Rank 3 - Starting to finally take shape. Prout is playing better, Langtry is aggressive and will score, and Danowski has been huge for them. The Gajic injury is gonna come back to bite them especially now with Ward out too. I still don't buy into Leyshon as a playoff contender. Zeboim: Rank 5 - Speaking as a Stealth fan, Colorado should be in last place, but Minnesota's five losses in a row can't make that happen so I am putting them at #5. They have a few key injuries that have disrupted their productivity. StealthDragon: Rank 4 - They're either hot or cold, but more cold than hot it seems. Edmonton Rank: 5.2 [caption id="attachment_154" align="alignleft" width="100" caption="Edmonton Rush"] [/caption] laxinoregon: Rank 6 - Look it's good to have 3 wins, two against Colorado, but until the consistently do something they're going to sit at the bottom spot. zymstere: Rank 5 -  Edmonton has all the pieces in place to be a contender, they just need the confidence that they can compete. RP=BA: Rank 6 - Hamley will trade half his roster at the deadline so its tough to get a beat on them. Lots of individual talent but crummy goaltending, below avg D, and the worst tranny unit in the West will bury them. Zeboim: Rank 4 - Edmonton seems like they should be winning more games. I think the problem may be that some of the Rush players don't seem to be playing the whole game. Hamley is probably the most successful coach in the NLL in the post-season, so don't count him out of the hunt. StealthDragon: Rank 5 - Win or lose I think it's safe to say that Hamley is still trying to trade someone. I don't quite like all the pieces he has in place, but maybe he does for all I know. But if I had to guess, until Dan Dawson is on his roster again I'd say Hamley is still looking for pieces to the puzzle he built in Arizona. Minnesota Rank: 5.6 [caption id="attachment_144" align="alignleft" width="100" caption="Minnesota Swarm"] [/caption] laxinoregon: The West isn't what you thought it was and your Eastern foes aren't laying down either. Offense needs help and 2 good defenders does not make a good defense. zymstere: Minneapolis is in total disarray. They trade their leader in scoring 2008 (Craig Point) and Cousins has been mediocre. Croswell & Patterson has been solid in net to start the season but the O has not been able to lay the hammer down. RP=BA: They fend off the Rush, but BARELY. This team is in a bad way, Patterson isn't the same he was last year, the transition game has struggled and an offense built around other guys contributing aren't getting the contributions they needed. I hated the Point trade for them too, that was dumb to give him up, he's gonna blow up in Rochester. Zeboim: Minnesota lacks a "team" identity. That by itself wouldn't put you at the bottom of my list, but five straight losses puts you at the bottom of the list. StealthDragon: My how the mighty have fallen! First to worst in just 5 straight losses. Traded away last seasons' Rookie of the Year Craig Point. That is all for now.  I'll work up another round of rankings at the end of March heading in to the playoffs.  Put your comments below and let us know what you think too.

I'm going to depart from my previous content cycle of game previews and reviews. That same stuff is covered on the team sites, league site and the NLL Insiders so there's nothing too ground breaking in my work there. It takes lots of effort and is time sensitive to get my previews up before games start and reviews up in a timely fashion. Changing things up relieves that pressure so I can just post what I want when I want and you're stuck with it. Since I watch more Western Division games than Eastern Division games I'm going to keep track of how the teams are stacking up out West with a Power Rankings each week. Ted Jenner is the only Insider out west, and I'm not by any means calling myself an Insider, but I watch a lot of Western Division NLL lacrosse so I'm going to talk about what I see in general. Right now, that's an initial Power Ranking for all the teams out West. 1) Minnesota Swarm (2-0) [caption id="attachment_144" align="alignleft" width="75" caption="Minnesota Swarm"] [/caption] Their previous time in the Eastern Division toughened them up for their first season out West. Maybe their schedule was favorable starting against a Portland team that hadn't had any scrimmages against other teams and needed to find their own groove. In the Swarm's second game they got a Stealth team that had played the night before and was a little tired and a little beat up. They beat both teams and looked pretty good doing it.  They have to play several Eastern teams in their upcoming schedule so their overall record might be skewed, but I'll focus on their action against their Western foes. 2) Calgary Roughnecks (3-0) [caption id="attachment_139" align="alignleft" width="75" caption="Calgary Roughnecks"] [/caption] Coach Troy Cordingley has the Roughnecks off to a very hot start. They might be a 1B to Minnesota's 1A at this point. The downside that Calgary might have right now is they appear to be playing up to their potential. I don't necessarily know whether they have room to improve. They beat the Stealth by 2 and Edmonton in OT. If/when those two teams improve and Calgary is already playing at their max potential, Calgary might not beat them again.  The Roughneck offense might be the best in the West right now.  I think the Roughnecks are one injury away from being a completely different team, but for now they're cruising along. 3) San Jose Stealth (0-2) [caption id="attachment_132" align="alignleft" width="75" caption="San Jose Stealth"] [/caption] How is my winless team ranked above Edmonton and Portland? It is more than just being my favorite team.  Those two losses came to the top two teams and not a worse team. The Stealth defense was not a functional unit last weekend. They got torched on the Short Man and overall weren't entirely cohesive. When they do come together I think they can beat the Roughnecks and give the Swarm a good battle. Until then, it'll be a bumpy ride.  Just remember back to 2007 when the team had 14 new players and started 0-4 before going 9-3 the rest of the season and advancing to the Western finals. 4) Edmonton Rush (1-1) [caption id="attachment_154" align="alignleft" width="75" caption="Edmonton Rush"] [/caption] The Rush are pretty equal to the Stealth. They actually had a closer loss to the Roughnecks than the Stealth did and they've got a win last night, but the Stealth should knock off Rochester Sunday night so they both have a win to balance this out so a zero win team is ahead of a 1 win team. Hamley has built a solid roster but doesn't have a blockbuster star like Colin Doyle to push them to the top. They'll do well, I don't know if they'll be great.  Keep an eye on the kid Ryan Benesch, he had a good debut after one practice.  Next weekend they come back to Portland to finish the modified "home and home".  A convincing win over the Jax might push them up in the rankings. 5) Portland Lumberjax (1-3) [caption id="attachment_155" align="alignleft" width="75" caption="Portland Lumberjax"] [/caption] They put a whooping on Colorado at their place, but lost a close one to Edmonton last night. They go where their defense takes them. Disher has been the best goalie in the West to start the season. The offense needs to be consistent every night.  They put 14 on the Mammoth with relative ease when Gee Nash had an off night.  In the other games they've scored 7, 10 and 10.  Double digits is not actually that bad considering the Lumberjax defensive potential but they failed to win those games so far.  A little more defense and a little more offense will swing the close games their way (yeah, I really went out on a limb there). 6) Colorado Mammoth (1-1) [caption id="attachment_153" align="alignleft" width="75" caption="Colorado Mammoth"] [/caption] The argument for the Mammoth this year is that they are younger than they've been in the past. But the argument against the Mammoth is that they lost way, way, way more experience on their defense (Josh Sims, Jim Moss and Pat Coyle) than can possibly be made up for in youth. Gee Nash is an All Star when he's on, when he's off even the Lumberjax can jump out to a 7-1 lead on him. Last season Chris Levis came in to save the day. In 2009, it's Andrew Leyshon's job to be the backup and he's no Chris Levis.  Might be a long season for the league's largest  crowds.

[caption id="attachment_139" align="alignleft" width="100" caption="Calgary Roughnecks"] [/caption] [caption id="attachment_132" align="alignright" width="100" caption="San Jose Stealth"] [/caption] The San Jose Stealth start their 2009 NLL season at home against a healthy Calgary Roughnecks team. Looking at the Roughnecks offensive roster is a scary proposition. Tracey Kelusky, Josh Sanderson, Dane Dobbie, Jeff Shattler, Kaleb Toth and Cayle Ratcliff (Lewis Ratcliff's little brother) are a formidable opponent for the Stealth's new defensive corps to face in the first game. Thankfully that murder's row is matched on the Stealth side by Colin Doyle, Jeff Zywicki, Cam Sedwick, Tom Johnson, Frank Resetarits and Rhys Duch. I'll take my Stealth boys over the Roughnecks any day of the week, but it's close. The defensive comparison is also close. The Roughnecks do not necessarily have a big name shutdown defender like Eric Martin or Curtis Hodgson but every one of the Roughies is a name I've heard of so they've almost all been around the league for a while. They might be smart enough to stick with the Stealth's offensive schemes, but I'm not sure they're athletic enough to shutdown the Stealth offense. One thing the Roughnecks and other Canadian based teams have not done is draft American defenders for their athletic abilities. This is where the Stealth separate themselves from the Roughnecks and it just might be the deciding factor in the game. Most of the NLL teams are following this trend of getting great American athletes for defense and the Canadian teams need to adjust or they might get left behind. Calgary has been in the playoffs every year, but it might catch up with them soon. Calgary's coach Troy Cordingley is a tough son of a gun and in the summer lead Colin Doyle, Dan Dawson, Cam Woods, Jeff Shattler, Anthony Cosmo and several other NLLers to a Mann Cup victory for the Brampton Excelsiors of the OLA. But with a line up like that he'd have won the Champion's Cup too so I'm not 100% sure he's an elite coach or if he's working with great talent. He's surrounded with talent again this year so we'll see how that goes. He's obviously adept at using his talent, so he's got that going for him. But if he loses his talent would he be another Derek Keenan?  That's not fair to Cordingley, Keenan also fails using talent when he has it. Former Stealth Players in the game for Calgary: F Curt "Mouse" Malawsky F Scott Ranger - though he never even got enough minutes to not be called a rookie after playing 2005 in San Jose.  But he was in the team photo. F Josh "Shooter" Sanderson was traded to Toronto as part of the deal that brought Cosmo to San Jose Prediction: It'll be a close battle as it always is when Calgary comes to San Jose.  San Jose 14 - Calgary 12 Other Previews: Brian Shanahan's NLL Insider Preview NLL.com Go Stealth!

Score 4. Give up a 12-5 run. Score 4. And you've got victory for the first place Stealth over the visiting Calgary Roughnecks. The Roughnecks were really missing the TKO (Tracy Kelusky Offense) with TK's return to the Injured Reserve list after playing the last two games. Steve Dietrich returned to the lineup but did not play despite Pat Campbell's rocky start giving the Stealth a 6-1 lead part way in the second quarter. Top to bottom every single member of the Stealth contributed on Saturday. So everyone is going to get recognition this week. 2) Paul Dawson - the tough guy stood up for everyone, especially little Wick when he took out Jeff Moleski at the knees. 2) Tim Booth - helped tie up the final faceoff with 4.4 seconds left to preserve the victory. 5) Frank Resetarits - the big guy scored one and helped clear the paths for Wick and Wiles. 6) Curtis Hodgson - beat up Scott Ranger and got the crowd in to it. 7) Colin Doyle - quarterbacked the offense and scored the sweet game winning goal with 4.4 seconds left. 9) Jeff Zywicki - Mr. Consistency with another 3 goals including his league leading 6th short handed goal and his 100th NLL goal. 10) Sean Morris - welcome to the NLL. Never played a box game before so he went for 2 goals and 2 assists. Bravo. 11) Kyle Sorenson - drew multiple penalties from Roughneck players taking shots at him, but kept his cool each time. 15) Luke Wiles - 2 goals and 5 assists. Scored that big goal to tie it at 12 with 5 minutes to go. 20) Shaydon Shantos - zeros across the box score and 2 loosies. The perfect Shaydon game, because he anchors the defense. Especially on Man Down when he makes the crucial slides. 21) Steve Holmes - Did great in transition pushing the ball up the floor and pressuring the 'Necks to get out on the field. 25) Eric Martin - The Stealth loose ball leader lead the way again. We'll miss you next weekend in Edmonton. 29) Cam Sedgwick - 1 and 4 for Cam on Saturday. He got 3 of his assists on the last three goals in the comeback. 34) Luke Hinton - He doesn't get to play every game, but his hustle to get out the door and shutdown the 'Necks transition that torched us in the last meeting is greatly appreciated. 41) Zach Heffner - I would pick him as being an American player. He's as physical as any Canadian and gets the crowd in to the game. 44) Anthony Cosmo - Played a great game and knew when to cut his losses and get Bold on the floor to finish the job. It's always rough to see him leave the floor. 55) Steve Panarelli - He's a little energizer bunny, scooping up loose balls and always going full speed every moment he's on the floor. 77) Aaron Bold - the kid comes in to close the door and only let in 2 goals in the final 22 minutes of game play. Thanks to each and every one of you guys above for making our trip down to San Jose so great. You're a solid group of players and no change is necessary for you win The Championship Cup this season. Just keep playing exactly like you're playing and ride it all the way through May! Game MVP: Without a doubt, the captain Colin Doyle with 4 goals and 5 assists. He dominated the game just like I thought he would after the two assist performance against Philly.

The Calgary Roughnecks travel to San Jose for the second time this season and the rubber match of the season series. The injury-riddled Roughnecks made a roster switch this week putting Tracy Kelusky on the shelf for at least three weeks while, activating goalie Steve Dietrich. With TK out of the game, the Roughneck lineup will look similar or identical to the team that came to San Jose and beat the Stealth at the end of January. Since that time, the Stealth have solidified their line-up and will field a much more solid team than their last meeting. Colin Doyle should be looking to really tear apart the Roughneck defense after being held to just two assists in the last Stealth game in Philadelphia. Jeff Zywicki and Luke Wiles will pick apart Dietrich because this is Chugger's first game back in a couple of months and he will not be in game shape or used to seeing real shots after a practice and warm-up. In the previous meeting, Jeff Shattler propelled himself to the All-Star game with a four goal performance. With TK out Shattler will step up again, and along with Lewis Ratcliffe and Scott Ranger they will be looking to get shots past the Stealth defense and Anthony Cosmo. After Cosmo was shelled by the East All-Stars last Sunday in Edmonton, I imagine he is looking forward to playing behind his usual defense. This is the first Stealth home game since February 9th. A rather brutal six week stretch to leave the fans hanging without any home turf action. Aside from a road trip next weekend to Edmonton on the 29th the Stealth have home games every weekend from now through the end of the season. There is going to be some nice consistency there to hopefully grow their game attendance because fans will have the opportunity to come back in just one week to see another game. Prediction: Stealth get a big win for the home crowd, sticking it to the Roughnecks 15-10. Go Stealth!

Tonight is a meeting of two teams that are in very different places at mid season. The Lumberjax are finally starting to click, though their two victories have come against the very weak Edmonton Rush. This match against the Calgary Roughnecks will prove if the Jax are improved are just also preying upon the weak. The Calgary Roughnecks are dealing with serious injuries to both their starting goalie Steve Dietrich and All Star forward Tracey Kelusky. Sadly, these injuries are going to be the difference maker in the game. A healthy Roughneck squad will squash the Lumberjax squads from any of the games we've seen this year. Aside from the typical Lewis Ratcliff game, the 'Necks are relying on Scott Ranger, Jeff Shattler and others as well as a good transition game to score their goals tonight. It worked earlier this year at San Jose for the Roughnecks and they'll need it to work tonight. But Portland's transition game is young and fast and should hold Calgary in check there. I fully expect last Sunday's offensive explosive to continue for Portland they might even let a lefty forward like Pete Jacobs or Derek Malawsky get in on the action. That is the only piece they were missing last week despite the route they put on the Rush. Predicition: The Jax have been on a roll and got to stay home all week to get ready for this crippled Roughnecks team. The home crowd gets to enjoy a nice 14-11 victory moving the Jax in to third place and tied for wins with the 2nd place Stealth until tomorrow night.

Friday night was a tough 16-13 loss for the San Jose Stealth in their home opener. The Calgary Roughnecks came to San Jose and got revenge for the loss the Stealth put on them two weeks ago in Calgary. San Jose came out firing on all cylinders, the offense was crisp and scored four goals in the first five minutes of play. The remaining 55 minutes of Stealth offense was not nearly as crisp or precise. Multiple cross-crease passes were either off the mark or not caught by the player who started looking at the shot instead of watching the ball into the stick. Sadly, even more sloppy was the ground ball play by all the Stealth players. Few players were scooping the ball, most players were slapping at the ball, trying to pick the ball up with flare instead of with results. Scoop, scoop, scoop. Man ball communications. That is the way to win ground balls. Don't poke, jab, flick and grab. In the San Jose goal Anthony Cosmo had several good saves but also let in 14 of the Roughnecks' 16 goals. Cosmo never really looked sharp and even pulled himself in the second half so Aaron Bold could come in cold and let in one goal. Jeff Shattler went from obscure in my eyes to dominate in just four quarters. Shattler's 4 goals were the unexpected difference maker in the game. On the other end of the floor, Steve Dietrich started slow in those first five minutes, but after that only let in stellar Stealth goals. Jeff Zywicki's pickup behind the cage and swoop around the front was fantastic. But that goal was almost the only Stealth highlight in the second half which was filled with missed passes and poor ground ball play. Calgary still employed their double teaming defense and it worked as they needed it to. Passes to the open player weren't completed which made the execution of the double team defense look brilliant. Face-offs were controlled by Nolan Heavenor for the Roughnecks. It's wasn't totally dominating, but in the fourth quarter Heavenor won all the crucial face-offs that prevented the Stealth from making a come back. In transition the Stealth were out hustled by the Roughnecks. Frequent transition opportunities were converted by the Roughnecks after beating the Stealth off the bench and capitalizing on odd-man opportunities. Thankfully the refs were looser in this game that any other game I'd seen so far this year, which is typical of Rick Lum's screw. There were several skirmishes throughout the game, but none of them escalated in to a fight. The only call that was completely blown was a Roughneck shot that went off a Stealth defender and into the crowd. It wasn't even within 10 feet of the goal when it went off the defender but the shot clock was reset. My wife and I were right next to Lum when this happened and chewed his ass for 10 seconds to the point that he honestly turned to us for a second and then looked turned to look at the shot clock. The shot clock wasn't corrected, but the Roughnecks didn't score a goal either. So it didn't hurt the Stealth. I'm just glad to know that we can get the refs attention when we need to :) Friday night's game was the first home game for the Stealth under the new ownership and it was the best game presentation I have ever experienced in San Jose. It was a great leap forward! Pyrotechnics during the player introductions, young fans on the floor connecting with the team and an emcee working the crowd. We're even starting a chant for penalized players on opposing team. San Jose had the choice of the two basics, "Get in the Box" or "Take a Seat" and we're going with "Get in the Box". Everyone was given a "Get In The Box" sign to hold up and at half time the instructions were given so that everyone can chant. It's a start, we're going to ask for a corresponding jumbotron screen to show people the when to chant so the timing is consistent. (Speaking of the jumbotron, it's in HD now and AWESOME.) Unfortunately the weather in SJ prevented many people from coming out, which resulted in lower than expected attendance. It has been pouring down rain all day, which doesn't sound intimidating, but days of rain here is the equivalent to a blizzard with six feet of snow in the Northeast. People in the Bay Area can't travel in these conditions. Several fans have to travel an hour or more in good weather and tonight that drive was possibly two or three times that length because of the Friday night rush hour. So people would be driving longer than they'd be at the game. That's a hard sell. We stayed two miles from the arena and could barely get a cab to go to the game. The first few cab companies called for us said they weren't running any cabs that night because of the rain. Nope, it is not snow, but it's rain that slows down California. Watching the news after the game we found out about the flood warnings. Bay Area Storm Watch. The final attendance was announced at just under 3700 which is again the worst in the league, but seriously the weather was a major factor. This won't stop the NLL boards on wingszone.com from calling for our removal from the league immediately. Thanks guys, we really feel the love. I believe the Stealth were looking ahead to their game on Saturday with the Colorado Mammoth. The Stealth had beaten Calgary once on the road, so there was little reason to worry about them. Instead it was preparation and worrying about the team that they haven't yet played that caused distraction. Next week the Stealth have a Thursday and Saturday double header weekend. Not preparing equally for both teams will be a major problem and losses to Eastern division teams will ensure the Stealth aren't able to compete for the Western Division regular season title. Game MVP: Jeff Shattler (CGY) for his 4 goals and 4 assists.

The first Stealth lacrosse game of the weekend is the Friday night rematch from the thrilling OT game they started off the season with against the Calgary Roughnecks. Calgary is coming to town with a healthy Tracy Kelusky in tow. Kelusky missed the first meeting due to illness and the Roughnecks went on to lose the game 13-12 in OT. I believe it is safe to say that the Roughnecks missed his presence on the floor. In the weekly league press conference call, Stealth coach Walt Christianson said “We prepare as a team, there’s never any mention as to who’s going to have the ball… My philosophy is that who’s ever open needs to get the ball.” This is what I love about the Stealth and makes their offense so lethal. Jeff Zywicki and Luke Wiles torched the Roughnecks last time. So if the Calgary defense adjusts and overcompensates for the righties then Gary Rosyski, Tom Johnson and Cam Sedgwick put the ball in the net from the other side. All the while Colin Doyle is up top leading the way. I didn't get to watch the first match up between these two teams, so I don't know if Calgary continued their extensive double teaming from the Colorado game. I hope they did and they continue to, because the Stealth can pick apart those doubles even better now that they've got a game under their belt. I'm also not expecting as slow of a start to the game as their was two weeks ago. Calgary was up to game speed already as they had played a game and scrimmage. The Stealth came out flat and really had to battle back, but that will not happen this week. On defense, I think the Stealth will do as well or better than they did in the first game. Stealth goalie, Anthony Cosmo only had one weekend of training camp under his belt and now he can add a full game to that. Cosmo hopefully gets a few more saves than the first go around. Steve Panarelli was a big surprise in the box score. Panarelli, the three-time All-American from Syracuse had five loosies in his professional debut. I need to see him in person, but I feel like he's my Jarrett Park replacement that I've been clamoring for. (I actually haven't been hoping for a replacement, I've been hoping for Jarrett specifically, but Steve sounds about perfect after one game.) I can't think of too many things to say that I didn't already say in the first preview. Kelusky will be in the Calgary line up, he's probably good for 1 or 2 goals. Hopefully he only produces as many goals as Cosmo has extra saves. Then the final result will remain in the Stealth's favor. Curt Malawski has been replaced as the X-factor for the game. This time around, the X-factor will be the difference in the Roughnecks with Kelusky on the floor. He'll either put the offense over the top and lead the way to a victory or slightly interfere with the chemistry the O group had in the first match up and prevent a victory. Just two more nights until I find out. On the bench: This week the Stealth re-signed Todd Fairlie and release Greg Gurenlian. Gurenlian is a pure face-off man, but I think Tim Booth showed in the first game that he's ready take that job full time this season after filling in for Joe Vasold last year after Joe was injured. Frank Resetarits was a healthy scratch last week in Calgary, but with back-to-back games this weekend he'll surely dress in one game, if not both. He's a heck of a talent, but when we sit him it allows another transition guy to play and keep the defense fresh late in the game. It's a tough trade-off but one that leads to team victories. Prediction: I like the prediction I had the first time around. I'm sticking to it, it was almost perfect. Stealth 12 Roughnecks 11 I'll have the Stealth @ Colorado preview up Friday night or Saturday so that I can have the result of Thursday's Mammoth game and Friday's Stealth game in my analysis. Go Stealth!

What an exciting game to have missed. At least I saw last years game, which was very similar and an OT win for the Stealth. And I missed the game because I was at another game, which makes the miss bearable. If I had missed it for any other reason I'd be kicking myself. Luke Wiles scored the game winning 13th goal. While I didn't pick an overtime game I was very close to picking the score exactly, 12-11 instead of the actual 13-12 final. I think it was my closest guess yet for a Stealth game. And I also picked Curt Malawsky to be an x-factor and he had the final goal in regulation to send it to overtime. That was a pretty clutch goal by Mouse. Since I did not see any of the action myself, here are the collection of articles talking about the game. There information is better than mine today.

• www.sjstealth.com
• www.nll.com
• www.calgaryroughnecks.com
• The Calgary Sun

The Stealth and Lumberjax are off this week. So I'll see if I can find any games on TV, which I doubt because the Mammoth don't have a home game for a couple of weeks.