Stealth aim to shake off NLL slump
The Vancouver Stealth will try to break their skid against a team that’s undoubtedly equally ornery right now.
The Stealth, losers of five consecutive National Lacrosse League games after winning the first two games of the season, head to the Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday to face the Calgary Roughnecks (3-3), who have dropped two straight at home and three of four as hosts.
The top three teams in the NLL’s Western Division advance to the playoffs after the 18-game regular season. The Saskatchewan Rush (4-2) face the Colorado Mammoth (4-3) on Saturday as well.
Vancouver prevailed in Calgary’s home opener on Jan. 6, nabbing a 12-11 decision. The Roughnecks returned the favour in the Stealth’s curtain-raiser at the Langley Events Centre on Jan. 14, taking a 14-10 decision.
The Stealth lost their past two games by a combined three goals. In their last two fourth quarters, though, they’ve been outscored 8-3, including 4-2 in Sunday’s 10-9 overtime loss to the Mammoth at the LEC.
Vancouver is 2-2 when leading after three quarters so far this season. The other eight teams in the NLL are 22-0.
Some of Vancouver’s problems to date can be tied to special teams. The Stealth have surrendered a league-high six short-handed goals. They’re the lone squad that’s yet to score a short-handed goal.
Vancouver has the league’s least successful penalty killing unit, one that’s working at 28 per cent (18 goals against in 25 opportunities). The league, as a whole, is at 46 per cent, led by the 57.1 per cent (12 goals against in 28 opportunities) put forth by the Georgia Swarm.
Vancouver has the circuit’s fifth-best power play, thanks to its 56.5 per cent (26-of-46) success rate.
Stealth GM Doug Locker had talked about bringing Cory Conway (shoulder) — a star in the summertime Western Lacrosse Association with the Victoria Shamrocks — off the injured reserve list to face Colorado but the team opted against doing it. No word from the Stealth on whether he’ll play Saturday against the Roughnecks.
The Stealth signed Conway in the off-season as a free agent and he’s yet to play for them this season after getting hurt in training camp. He hasn’t played in the NLL since 2015 and Calgary is one of his four former teams. He’s shone in the WLA, making the league all-star team four times in the past six seasons he’s played.
That included this past summer, when he produced nine goals and a league-best 63 assists in 14 regular-season games with the Shamrocks.
Locker had also talked last week about bringing defenders Curtis Hodgson (undisclosed) and Travis Cornwall (undisclosed) off the IR. That didn’t happen against the Mammoth, but, like Conway, they could come into play in Calgary.