The Washington Stealth defeated the Colorado Mammoth in Everett last night to start the season 2-0 against their western rivals. Washington was led by Tyler Richards in net who made 51 saves on 57 shots in the 13-6 win.
Richards is now 8-0 all time against Colorado, and this is the second game he has allowed seven goals or less in a row after he lost to Rochester 7-6 last week.
Washington led 5-2 after one quarter and never looked back as they dominated most of the night. Colorado did not score more than two goals per quarter, scoring just one in the second and third.
Athan Iannucci had six points with a goal and five assists. Rhys Duch picked up three goals with two helpers while Lewis Ratcliff had a goal and four assists.
Bob Snider won 64% of his faceoffs to help Washington win in that department, but they were outshot 57 to 42. Washington capitalized on four of their six power plays, including their first goal of the game from Dean Hill, who picked up his 200th career NLL point.
Washington would eve score shorthanded with a shorty from Cliff Smith, the second goal of the game, after a Kyle Sorensen interception on a bad Colorado pass on their power play.
Leading Colorado in scoring was Adam Jones with four points. Richard Morgan, Joey Cupido, Colton Clark and Sean Pollock also picked up goals. The Stealth held the league’s leading goal getter John Grant Jr to just one assist on the night.
Smith now has a career high 11 goals just seven games into the season for the Stealth. Meanwhile, Richards now leads the league in goals against average at 10.01 and Snider still leads the league in faceoff percentage. Richards even got an assist on a Mike Grimes goal for his first point of the season.
Washington travels to Edmonton next week while the Mammoth will host the Rush the next day. The Stealth are now 0.5 games out of first place behind Calgary.
