In the second weekend of NLL action the Vancouver Stealth will play their home opener vs. the Toronto Rock. Both teams look to improve their records to 2-0, with the Stealth having a great come from behind win over the Roughnecks while the Rock took down the three time defending Rochester Knighthawks.
In their second year in Vancouver the Stealth look to make this year a more successful one than 2014, and the Stealth has some great players to do just do that. Last weekend veteran forward Rhys Dutch had nine points and another player who really stood out was Tyler Digby.
Digby has a great size, a hard shot, and is an ex college football player, which is a huge contribution to his athleticism. He finished with 4 points last week, while rookie Caleb Wiles fished with 3 of his own. Transition man Ilija Gajic was great at pushing the ball up the floor, which resulted in him scoring 5 points on offense. This team also saw its big offseason pick up Johnny Powless not score a goal but did have 3 assists.
Rory Smith should also be a huge help on stopping the Rock’s offense in this game with his tough defense play. The Rock will need to get through net minder Tyler Richards who had an impressive 48 saves against a tough Roughnecks offense.
For Toronto they have two of their top guys, Colin Doyle and Garret Billings, not playing, but the Rock do have some top players to fill in. Rob Hellyer led the way with 6 points last week and Kasey Beirnes had 3 goals one of which got his team the win. Stephen LeBlanc chipped in with 4 points as well. This team is also very good in transition with one of the best players in the world, Brodie Merrill, and two other newcomers Brock Sorensen and Jeff Gilbert. Brandon Miller started in goal last week and made some key saves, but Nick Rose may see the start this weekend. At this point both goalies are very capable in net to get their team the win.
This game should be a very high scoring game. The Stealth looked great on the road last week and should be able to have the same success on their home turf.
