Stealth excitement becomes letdown
Young squad racks up goals early, but shows inexperience in rest of game against Toronto
The Vancouver Stealth blew a chance to create some repeat customers.
There was a good energy in the Langley Events Centre crowd in the early stages of the Stealth’s homeopener against the Toronto Rock Saturday night.
Vancouver was more athletic this time around. In the early going, they had Toronto chasing them all over the floor. People in the stands were having a blast.
Then, all of the sudden, the quickness stopped.
Vancouver is young and inexperienced on the defensive side of the ball, too, and that became a focal point. The Rock, led by cagey veteran Josh Sanderson, started picking them apart, getting great looks at goal.
And Vancouver netminder Tyler Richards has had better evenings. He couldn’t save the day this time.
Vancouver, who led 4-2 after the first quarter, were outscored 13-2 in the second and third quarters at one point, and went on to fall 20-11.
It’s a shame. The LEC lists capacity at 5,500.
Attendance wasn’t announced at press time, but it had to be in the 5,000 range, which is far better than the 3,590 they averaged last year, en route to a 4-14-0 campaign.
There was a lot to like about the overall show. The Stealth moved their pre-game festivities from an adjacent building to a banquet room just off the LEC concourse.
They dubbed it the Fox Hole as a tribute to team mascot Bomber, who is, of course a fox.
They served up prime rib, offering up a big slab of beef and all the fixings for a tidy $17.
It sold out about an hour before the opening face-off.
The Stealth weren’t offering up how many they had stocked their Fox Hole pantry with to start the night, but it’s safe to say that impressed some folks along the way.
They have their first official contingent of First Nations drummers slated for next week’s game against Buffalo (it’s a Johnny Powless Night, with the first 500 kids in the LEC that night getting Johnny Powless T-shirts) but a small handful had made their way to the game on their own.
And there were highlight moments on the floor. In a 1:04 span in the second quarter, you got Stealth captain Curtis Hodgson making a diving, one-handed, behind-the-back feed at centre floor to spring Justin Salt for a breakaway goal. Then Toronto star Rob Hellyer rifled a ruthless backhander by Richards.
And they did get their first goal from the celebrated Powless, the big-name off-season trade acquisition who was held to three assists in last week’s 18-14 season-opening win in Calgary.
What was missing was success. Vancouver had trouble defending. They can say that they had their two best checkers missing, Rory Smith (upper body injury) and Chris O’Dougherty (lower body injury), but Toronto was without sniper Garrett Billings (knee) and veteran star Colin Doyle (shoulder).
Their offence also vanished, too. They didn’t have a goal in the third quarter until Rhys Duch scored with 1:16 to go in the 15-minute frame.
That can’t happen again if they want people come out.