A Washington Stealth Fan Blog
This project is maintained by tfitch
Okay, just arrived in California after traveling all day. But I get to stay the whole week until the game on the 9th against Chicago, so I’m stoked about that.
The San Jose Stealth (2-2) spoiled the home opener of the New York Titans (1-3) with a 12-7 victory. After giving up the first goal to Mike McLellan of the Titans the Stealth answered back with four goals in five minutes. Then the New York Titans scored two to start the 2nd quarter and the Stealth answered again with three goals in less than two minutes. All the Stealth goals came in streaks, never scoring just one goal in a row, except Jeff Zywicki’s final goal in the fourth quarter to slow down a mini Titans run by new acquisition Brendan Mundorf.
The star of the game was Aaron Bold in goal for the Stealth. Not the expected starter but, he may have put on the best performance in goal by any goalie in the league this year outside of Nick Patterson holding the Toronto Rock to just four goals. Bold saved 87% of the Titans shots on goal. It’s the highest value I’ve ever seen, but I don’t know what Patterson’s save percentage was in that Rock game. The Stealth defense also contributed to Bold’s performance by limiting the easy looks for the Titans. The Stealth bore down in the 3rd quarter holding the Titans completely scoreless in the 3rd, which was part of an 18 minute stretch where the Titans did not score.
The Titans were missing Pat Maddalena for reasons unknown to me. He’s the teams’ 3rd leading scorer and his presence was missed, though also made up for by Brendan Mundorf returning to action. Stellar Titan rookie Jordan Hall had a quiet night offensively with 1 goal and 1 assist but, was second on the team with 10 loosies behind Jarrett Park’s game leading 14 ground balls.
Statistically, the Titans beat the Stealth in two key areas, loose balls and face-offs. Tim Booth competed with Jamie Hanford in the first half and they split 50% of the face-offs. And on the ground ball front, the Titans put up the biggest number and differential I think I’ve ever seen – 85 to 57. Collecting +28 loosies and winning the overall face-off battle 14 of 23 would generally lead to a victory or competitive loss. But not this time for the Titans, they fell behind early and couldn’t stop the Stealth goal runs and couldn’t get shots past Aaron Bold.
The Stealth took advantage of one statistic that the Titans did not, assists on goals. The Stealth recorded 20 assists on their 12 goals, while the Titans managed a sub-par 9 assists on 7 goals. The Stealth offense emerged from the cocoon they hid in last weekend. Zywicki and Luke Wiles each registered a hat trick to lead the Stealth offense and Colin Doyle captained the attack while quietly he had 2 goals and 1 assist with the first goal was a short handed game winning goal in the 2nd quarter.
In a 12-7 victory where almost everything went right for the Stealth, I still find myself with one gripe, there was no killer instinct by the Stealth in the 4th quarter. The game was put away in the third quarter by the Stealth with their 4-0 performance, extending their lead to 11-4. Yet in the fourth quarter the Steath just didn’t keep up the pressure. In this game it didn’t matter, but come April when we’re battling Western division rivals we can’t let up. Put the opponent away and pile on the goals until the final horn.
Game MVP: No doubt in this one at all, Aaron Bold for his performance in goal.