A Washington Stealth Fan Blog
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Well well well Colorado. Not so tough after all. Bob McMahon has come to town and shaped up the defense and forgotten all about the offense. Instead of just chugging along as in past years the wheels have come off completely. On paper the names look right, but in execution the past month they have failed. I don’t know what else to say.
In just about every aspect of the game the Stealth took what they wanted from the Mammoth. Despite the defense being the strong part of the Mammoth the Stealth were still up 10-5 to start the fourth quarter. Luke Wiles scoring from outside the white line might be a low point in Gee Nash’s career. That shot was from too far out to not be stopped, but Wiles powered it right past him.
The rookie forward duo of Frank Resetarits and Tom Johnson lit the lamp five times combined. Johnson hadn’t played any games in the past month and must have had a fire inside to get on the floor. Most surprisingly he took Gary Rosyski’s spot and Rosy was a healthy scratch. Seriously, if Rosy is a healthy scratch for an offense then it is amazingly stacked top to bottom.
The Stealth defense was aided by the horrific effort the Mammoth offense made Saturday night. Little movement of the players or ball. When the ball did move it was effective, thankfully it was just not fully utilized. Only Jason Wulder scored more than 1 goal against us, which means Dan Carey and Gavin Prout were held to just a single goal which is a guaranteed victory after a defense is that effective against those two guys. Prout’s goal shouldn’t have even counted anyways, he scored just after time expired at the end of the first and because of the crowd noise the horn was not heard and the goal counted. So I’m not going to count it and I consider this to be the game that we shutout Prout.
Anthony Cosmo was awarded player of the game by the press, which is nice recognition of holding the Mammoth to just 8 goals on the night. Cos tried to push all the thanks on his defense, but suck it up Cosmo. You are that good and you’re last two performances have been just about textbook perfection of your art. Are you ready to face 70 shots this week? At least the game will be on your regular timezone instead running in to the middle of the night. Shut those Wings down man.
The TV crew on Altitude was hyping the “Battle of the 9’s”. Turns out Jeff Zywicki is the real #9, congrats Wick. Way to show them who’s the boss.
Fun stat of the night: Colorado’s Power Play was 3 for 8. Identical to their production in the playoffs last year that cost them advancement to the Western Conference finals and proof they haven’t improved their team much from last year.
The only thing I would liked to have seen improved is Tim Booth’s faceoff percentage. Sadly it was only 10 of 23 because Jim Moss matched up well with Booth and the Mammoth out hustled the Stealth to the loosies on the draws as well, so Booth maybe won the draw but the team lost control. Facing Geoff Snider in the next match this overall effort by the team needs to be corrected in this one position.
Finally – special recognition goes to Mammoth fan Ronin for “making the game interesting” by wagering his avatar and signature against mine in the forums at www.wingszone.com/nllmb. Going in to the game I wasn’t as convinced we were as ready to take out the Mammoth like we did in the playoffs last year. I knew we could beat them because of how they’ve played in their last two games, but I wasn’t sure the Stealth were already playing at this high a level. I’m very excited at what I’m seeing, they’re playing like the team that finished last season, but we’re only half way through this one.
The real test comes this Friday. If we can leave Philadelphia with a victory over the Wings we’ll be in the drivers seat for the West title and the home field advantage it provides.