St. Kitts native nets six in loss

Corey Small strengthens case for MVP honours with standout game in sudden-death playoff

The Vancouver Stealth lost a lacrosse game Saturday night. They undoubtedly won some fans along the way.

In their first playoff game at Langley Events Centre in suburban Vancouver since moving to the lower mainland from Everett. Wash., for the 2014 season, the Stealth nearly pulled off a wild comeback before a raucous crowd of 4,011 before falling 1312 to the Colorado Mammoth in a one-game, winner-take-all National Lacrosse League West Division semifinal.

The Mammoth will now meet the Saskatchewan Rush in the best-of-three Western final next weekend.

Vancouver looked to be sunk when Callum Crawford beat Stealth netminder Tye Belanger with 6:51 remaining to make it 13-9 in favour of the Mammoth, but Stealth sniper Corey Small, a St. Catharines native and Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School graduate, proceeded to score to three times within a span of 3:05 to cut the margin to one-goal with 1:11 remaining.

The Stealth had a couple of cracks to knot it up in the waning seconds, but Rhys Duch had his shot blocked by a Colorado defender and Logan Schuss was foiled by Mammoth netminder Dillon Ward.

Colorado neatly denied the ball from Small in the last series.

Small, a league most valuable player candidate, finished the night with six goals.

He finished third in NLL scoring in the 18-game regular season, thanks to his 111 points, including 46 goals.

The Stealth averaged a leaguelow 3,206 fans during the regular season, so it will be interesting to see if they can use Saturday to build up their fan base for next year.

Those on hand cheering for the Stealth were undoubtedly more entertained as the night went on. Vancouver trailed 3-1 after one quarter and were down 7-6 at halftime.

Schuss keyed that early rally with back-to-back, one-handed goals in the second quarter. He finished the night with three goals and six assists.

Jordan Durston, who joins Small and Schuss in Vancouver’s lefthanded offence contingent, had one goal and two assists.

The Stealth and Mammoth both finished the regular season 9-9, but Vancouver won three of four headto-head meetings, which earned them the right to host Saturday.

Vancouver did need a tying goal from Small with 18 seconds remaining and then the winner from Small in overtime in a 17-16 decision in New England on the final night of the regular season to tie Colorado in the win column.

Small, who won an Ontario high school lacrosse championship with Holy Cross, played field lacrosse at University of Albany in upstate New York for four seasons.

He scored 127 goals and amassed 278 points in only 102 regular season games in junior B box lacrosse with the St. Catharines Athletics. He added 40 goals and 77 points in 30 playoff games for the Athletics.