A Washington Stealth Fan Blog
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All right, I’m back after doing more traveling the past two weeks than expected.
I didn’t even get a preview or review post of the Jax vs. Philly Wings match up from a week ago. It was a great game to watch. Dan Dawson exploded for 6 goals after being bottled up by the Stealth the previous weekend. Athan Iannucci also scored 6 goals while leading the Wings to victory and getting himself with in one goal of the single season goal scoring record which he obtained the following night.
I also didn’t do a review of the Jax victory down in San Jose on Sunday the 6th. The day that Ryan Powell actually played a great two man game with Dan Dawson and single handedly beat the Stealth. The Stealth were over anxious to double DDD and he found RP just about everytime and RP converted the opportunities and the Jax won. Then RP was on my flight back to PDX that night and I talked to him very briefly. I congratulated and booed him on kicking our butts. It’d better not happen tonight. The Stealth lost this game on special teams, only converting 4 of 12 power play opportunities. Just one more goal to go 5 of 12 would have made a tie game late instead of pulling Cosmo for the extra defender sealing the 12-10 victory.
Finally in the missing posts section, last Sunday the Stealth hosted the Edmonton Rush and beat them up exactly like they should a team that played the night before while the Stealth rested and waited. Cosmo was supreme in the cage and the D guys did more than their fair share of scoring with 5 goals. Doyle QB’s the offense again with four assists, Zywicki got acrobatic early goal to get things rolling and the rooks Tom Johnson (2 goals and 3 assists) and Frank Resetarits 2 goals had fabulous performances. Also scoring were Gary Rosyski, Cam Sedgwick and Peter Veltman with a Luke Wiles look alike bomb from outside.
Now to the matter at hand tonight. The Stealth have been alternating wins and losses for about two months now. So after the big can of whoop ass we opened on the Edmonton Rush last Sunday I am a bit worried about the potential team performance tonight.
Portland’s stud rookie defender Tyler Codron has been guarding Dan Carey, Athan Iannucci, Jeff Zywicki and Colin Doyle the past four Jax games so he’s been facing top talent and been doing an okay job at it. This week he’s rested up and probably stoked to be going against another top forward that he’s seen twice recently. Zywicki also loves going against top defenders with his performances against Ryan Cousins and Brodie Merrill (7 pts a game against Merrill). Nllinsider.com mentioned that Codron will be covering Zywicki instead of Merrill covering Wick so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. Codron does his best when he’s preventing a player from getting the ball. But once the player has the ball I’d rather have Merrill defending even if Wick torched Merrill for 7 points in each of the previous meetings.
Offensive and defensive match ups aside, the game comes down to just one thing. Anthony “Mr. April” Cosmo. Cosmo’s performance against Edmonton last weekend as top notch. He only allowed two goals in the second half and is starting to peak for his playoff run. The Stealth defense in front of Cosmo is also a great part of his success that he readily acknowledges. Of those two second half goals one was on a break away. When in a settled defense they totally prevent people from even taking good shots against Cosmo.
The one thing that needs to change for the Stealth to secure victory tonight and to bring home the Champion’s Cup is the power play. Unfortunately the Stealth rank 9th in the league in power play conversions. Last season they were much higher and need to start converted about 55% or more the rest of the way. Last weekend they didn’t get much of a chance with only one PP opportunity, but Portland is less controlled than Edmonton and committed 16 penalties in the first two meetings, including 12 in game in San Jose. If the Stealth can get the Jax in the box that much this time and convert 55% of the power plays the win will be in the bag.
Let’s go defense, Cosmo, Power Play and all the offense.
Prediction:
Stealth 14 – Jax 8
Go Stealth!