A Washington Stealth Fan Blog
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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!