The Vancouver Stealth will look to win their fourth home game in a row as they host the Colorado Mammoth in a game that has playoff implications.
It is BCLA Night at the Langley Events Centre and the Stealth will wear special jerseys that are designed with the red, blue and yellow that don the flag of British Columbia. Vancouver will have a significant backing behind them and will need to take full advantage of that to help them pull back even in the West Division standings.
VANCOUVER
The Stealth put in a lackadaisical effort forward in Edmonton last weekend, allowing 19 goals and scoring just 7. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that this team is consistently inconsistent, but that might just be the recipe in getting them into the playoffs with the way the NLL is looking these days.
Vancouver is going to have to have more nights like the one almost a month ago when they dropped 21 on the Minnesota Swarm. The combination of mediocre goaltending and defense makes it impossible for the Stealth, it seems, to keep teams from hitting double digits on a routine basis. Vancouver has played just nine games but have the third-highest goals against in the entire league.
They need guys like Johnny Powless to just go out and will this team to a win. Powless, in particular, is invisible a lot of nights and seemingly is relegated to a passing role. He’s the guy they mortgaged their future for, but just hasn’t played at the necessary level to put this team over the top.
COLORADO
This would be the perfect night for the Mammoth to find a win on the road, as the Stealth hold a game in hand and would overtake them tonight with a win.
Colorado has been almost as inconsistent as the Stealth. After starting the season off relatively well, they’re 2-4 in their last six games and seem to have the same problem as Vancouver: they cannot take games over. This seems like the perfect opportunity for Colorado to come in and take advantage of a strong defensive performance last week and catch a Stealth team reeling from their beating in Alberta.
The last time these two teams met, a 16-13 Vancouver win, Drew Westervelt had a strong game with three goals and three assists. They’ll need a similar performance tonight and big games from the usual suspects in order to find a win and maintain the pivotal second place spot tonight.
BCLA Night gets underway tonight at 7 PM PST/10 PM EST. You can catch the game on NLL Live and TSN GO.
