A Washington Stealth Fan Blog
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What an exciting lacrosse game. The game was so much more interesting that I anticipated. We fought hard and lost 13-12.
But we’re waiting for the playoffs. We toyed with Colorado tonight. I know I’m a total homer saying that, but we seriously toyed with them and still almost won.
This was Aaron Bold’s first start and the two goals he let in during the first minute of the game can easily be chalked up to nerves. Save one of those and it’s 12-12 and we go to OT. If Bold saves both, at the end of regulation we’re up 12-11.
Luke Wiles had a great game, stepping up and scoring 4 goals. Callum Crawford put in 2 goals. Good production from the righties. Notice anything about our numbers there… no Zywicki. We didn’t even dress him for the game tonight. We sat out our leading scorer and lost by one to the top team in the West.
We sat out the top goalie in the entire league and sat out our leading scorer and lost by one on the road. We toyed with them. We’re just waiting for the playoffs. Our full roster beats their full roster.
My biggest concerns turns out to not be a real concern. The Mammoth defense did not match up with the Stealth offense. We could get still get goals in settled situations and the power play. We even had defenders even got in on the scoring action. Steve Holmes started the action for us when we were down 3-0 to start our rally. Darren Halls also brought the ball down and dumped a kind of easy shot over Nash once he went down. Halls has been a great little spark plug on defense. He hits hard and plays fast. He’s also young and lots of time to get even better. We wrapped up the first ahead 4-3.
Two quick goals in the second quarter because of two Stealth penalties put us back in the whole 5-4. But they were the only Power Play goals we gave up all night. They only converted 2 of 9 Power Plays. We did better and converted 4 of our 6 opportunities. Two more goals and the Mammoth were up 7-4 and had me very worried. Then Colin Doyle stepped in to score one of his two goals to slow the Mammoth momentum. Wiles scored and Doyle scored again to tie it at 7-7. Some how Jamie Hanford scored 17 seconds later and killed all the Stealth momentum leading to half time.
Speaking of big Jamie Hanford dominated on face-offs. He’s a tough guy to battle with. Tim Booth isn’t a small guy himself, but Hanford is easily able to push him, well anyone, around at the x. Booth did win a few of the draws that the Stealth didn’t control or pick up, so not all the losses directly reflect Hanford winning the draw. But as a player and a team, Hanford and the Mammoth’s 21 of 29 performance was also a difference maker.
The third quarter was more of a defensive struggle that the Stealth are used to. Things slowed down and the Stealth won the quarter 2-1, tying the score at 8-8 at the end of the third. The Mammoth squandered two man up opportunities here. Not a lot of goals or penalties to talk about, so let’s move on.
The fourth quarter started even and played out slow like the third quarter. We traded goals in the first six minutes. Still tied at 10-10 now. Then the Mammoth realized they’re at home, against a lower seeded divisional rival and not winning. They flipped a switch or something and pounded in three goals in about three minutes. Now they were up 13-10 and I thought we were toast. Only five minutes to go, down by three and Colorado had built some momentum. But we responded and got two goals from Wiles and Cam Sedgwick in two minutes and we were only down by one with three minutes to go. We really controlled the ball most of those three minutes but could not convert to get that game tying goal.
Tonight the Stealth learned a lot about the Mammoth and how they play. We can use that information to our advantage and when we see them again in the playoffs we will beat them.
We see each other tomorrow night to wrap up the regular season. Colorado did their job and got the one win to ensure home field in the West. I’d guess that the Mammoth rest a few people like Gee Nash and John Gallant who have been recovering from injuries and aren’t needed. We’ll add Cosmo to the line up, which means he’ll maybe give up 3 goals less than Bold (comparing tonight’s score to Cosmo’s average), we score like we did tonight and we give the home crowd a win to finish the season. I’m so looking forward to it.