The Vancouver Stealth ended a three game losing streak with a 12-8 win over the Buffalo Bandits in a game that saw Rhys Duch recorded a hat trick and his 500th career point.
Playing in front of 3,500 fans who were entertained as Tyler Richards made 35 saves on the night, several of which were enormous.
Vancouver got it’s run and gun style game working improving to 4-9 on the season, hammering 61 shots on the Bandit’s net which puts and them in the run for a playoff spot in the western conference.
Somehow they managed to shut down the Bandits who hold “trump card” John Tavares holding him to a three point night.
The loss was the third straight for the Bandits as they fell to 8-5, which is something they are not used to doing – losing!!
Heading into the game the Stealth trailed the Colorado Mammoth by two games for the final playoff spot, but with the combination of the Stealth win and a Mammoth loss, the Stealth one game back.
The Stealth also have one game in hand on the Mammoth as the regular season winds down.
Scoring for the Stealth came quickly and often taking only nineteen seconds for the Stealth to break the scoreless tie, as Rhys Duch brought the LEC crowd to their feet with the early strike.
Stealth Head Coach Chris Hall told the media “Too often this season we haven’t been aggressive enough early on.” He continued “We talked about getting some good shots early and being aggressive and we were successful with that tonight.”
Duch and the Stealth out scored the Bandits 9-5 in the opening half, which saw Duch record his 500th career regular season point.
Duch finished with nine points 4 goals and 5 assists and was named the game’s first star.
The Stealth scored three of their nine first half goals on the PP going 3-4 in the opening half.
The first half saw the Stealth outshoot Buffalo 35-19 which was by far one of the Stealth’s strongest opening halves.
It was a total team effort, with the Stealth getting contribution on both ends of the floor for the home town squad.
The second half wasn’t as productive in the scoring department, but the intensity not only continued, it picked up.
A total of 47 penalty minutes in the game, 33 of which were in the second half and Bandits Head Coach Troy Cordingley knows his team has to stay out of the “sin-bin” for them to be successful,
The Stealth’s PP was red-hot producing two additional goals in the second half bringing
Coming away with the win was somewhat special as the Stealth organization raised a total of $13,365, with all proceeds donated to the Canadian Cancer Society.
Three Stars of the Game as selected by the media:
1) Rhys Duch
2) Lewis Ratcliff
3) Anthony Cosmo
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