For 30 minutes, there was not much to cheer.
The visiting Toronto Rock had built a 6-3 lead at the break, and while the Vancouver Stealth were playing fine defensively, they were doing little to generate much on the offensive end of the floor.
That led to a quiet atmosphere at the Langley Events Centre, with the Stealth in danger of losing for a sixth time in seven National Lacrosse League home games.
But a game is 60 minutes and it was a different team which took the LEC floor for the second half.
The Stealth cut the lead to 10-9 after three quarters and then capped off a 7-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters, knocking off the Rock 14-11.
The win improved Vancouver to 6-8 with four games to play. The six victories also sets a new high for the Stealth since they moved to Langley for the 2014 NLL season.
“I think we had a little bit more jam in the second half. I thought we ran the floor well and the other big thing was we stuck with our systems and got some good looks as we kept grinding away,” said Stealth captain Curtis Hodgson, who scored his first goal in more than two years.
And while Hodgson may have been an unlikely source of offence, it was the team’s forward corps which came through against the league’s stingiest squad.
One game after scoring a season-low seven goals in a 13-7 defeat to the same Rock squad, Vancouver scored their most goals since the second game of the season.
Corey Small (four goals, three assists), Jordan Durston (three goals, three assists) and Logan Schuss (four assists) came through from the left-side while Rhys Duch (one goal, three assists), Cory Conway (one goal, two assists) and Joel McCready (two goals) delivered from the right-side.
Hodgson, Matt Beers and Peter McFetridge provided a goal apiece.
“(Toronto) played great and packed it in and we didn’t penetrate. We did that in the second half and that was the difference,” said Vancouver coach Jamie Batley.
Durston was a key catalyst for the home side, scoring three times in the game-changing second-half run. The first of those three was a thing of beauty, as he fought off two Toronto defenders, and with the shot clock nearing zero, leaped from behind the goal and tucked the ball underneath the crossbar before Rock goalie Nick Rose could seal it off.
The goal, which made the score 10-9, energized both the Stealth and the crowd.
Tonight’s Play of the Game was a beauty Thanks to @jordanDurston8 #dunk #beauty #stealthlax #Top10 https://t.co/Seza8xwCV4
— Vancouver Stealth (@StealthLAX) April 1, 2017
Durston shrugged off his highlight reel goal — something he has done on multiple occasions this season — more concerned instead with the fact his team got back on track.
“We were a little stale in the first. We wanted to stick to our game plan,” he said about the team’s second half turnaround.
The win was huge for the Stealth as they are one game ahead of Calgary for the third and final playoff spot in the West Division with four games to play.
“You have to fight for wins in this league and they are a grind,” Hodgson said.
“To fight through it in the first half — it was still a close game — and then come out and play good lacrosse in the second half and win, it keeps us in the race.”
