Aiming to build off a 2-0 start — with both victories coming on the road — the Vancouver Stealth were instead given a taste of their own medicine.
Eight days earlier, the Stealth went into Calgary and ruined the Roughnecks home opener with a 12–11 victory to open the National Lacrosse League season.
The Stealth would add another win the next day while Calgary sat and stewed, waiting for their chance for revenge. And that came Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre, in the Stealth home opener as Calgary won 14-10 to drop Vancouver to 2-1 on the season.
Vancouver would open the scoring but at the end of one quarter it was 6-3 Calgary and the Stealth would never get within two goals the rest of the way.
“I thought we were flat; they obviously wanted to avenge the loss last week,” said Vancouver coach Jamie Batley.
“They came in with a little chip on their shoulder and had jump in their step and we didn’t.”
The Roughnecks were led by Curtis Dickson, who had six goals and an assist.
Vancouver’s Corey Small led his team with four goals while Rhys Duch added two goals and five assists.
A big problem for the Stealth was their lack of transition as Vancouver had no goals in that department.
“Our transition game was non-existent tonight and that’s why it was 14-10,” Batley said. “If we get some transition goals, it could have been a different game.
“(Calgary) kind of bungled up our transition; we threw the ball away in the first quarter a few times and we continued to that.”
The Stealth also struggled completing passes and their power play — which entered the weekend tops in the league — scored four goals but had double-digit man-advantage opportunities.
The stat sheet said they had 13 power-play opportunities, but that included a handful of late Calgary penalties which came with one second remaining.
