Shots, loose balls, face-offs, special teams: the Vancouver Stealth finished ahead in all of those categories.
Unfortunately, the one category they came up short in was the most important: goals.
The Stealth had a much better effort than the week before, but the result was the same, a 15-13 defeat at the hands of the Calgary Roughnecks in National Lacrosse League action.
Vancouver was at Calgary’s Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday night with the loss dropping the Stealth to 1-3 while Calgary improved to 2-2.
Calgary had jumped ahead 2-0 before Vancouver cut the lead to 5-3 after one quarter. And the second period saw the Stealth surge ahead thanks to a 4-1 advantage and a 7-6 lead at the half. That was Vancouver’s lone lead of the game.
The teams took turns trading runs in the third quarter and entered the final period knotted at 11 goals apiece.
But the Roughnecks scored three times to open the period and then held on for the 15-13 victory.
Logan Schuss had a big night for the Vancouver visitors, finishing with five goals and nine points while Rhys Duch (three goals, five assists), Garrett Billings (two goals, five assists) and Corey Small (one goal, five assists) also had big games.
Other than goals, Vancouver was ahead in every other statistical category, 50-48 in shots on goal — and 75-63 in total shots — 66-59 for loose balls and 18-14 in face-offs. Special teams also saw the Stealth finish ahead as they went 4-for-7 with the man advantage (plus a shorthanded goal) compared to Calgary’s 2-for-6.
The Stealth will look to get back on track when they host the NLL West Division-leading Colorado Mammoth (4-1) on Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre. Game time is 7 p.m.
“We just have to move forward,” Stealth coach Dan Perreault told NLL.com following the game. “We need the same effort, the effort was good, we (just) have to regroup and go over a few things, clean up a few mistakes.
“But bring the same intensity next week.”
