The Vancouver Stealth were on opposite ends of lopsided scores over the weekend.
On Friday, the Stealth trounced the host Colorado Mammoth 19-9.
The next night at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, it was the Stealth’s turn to take one on the chin, falling 20-9 to the Roughnecks.
Stealth 19, Colorado Mammoth 9
The Stealth bumped their five-game slump by toppling the Mammoth at the Pepsi Centre in Denver, Colorado.
The win gave the Stealth their first victory in five games, their first road win, and they evened the season series with Colorado at two games apiece.
It was an impressive first half for the Stealth as their offence came out firing on all cylinders, scoring nine goals to Colorado’s one during the first quarter.
At the end of the first half the Stealth led 13-4 and were in complete control of the game,
“We had our backs against the wall a little bit so it was time to see what we were made of,†Stealth head coach Chris Hall said. “It was also the first time this season that we pretty much had our offence from last year intact.â€
The offence continued to stay hot in the second half as the Stealth scored another 10 goals on route to a huge victory.
The Stealth were led by Brett Bucktooth who had a monster night, collecting a remarkable 12 points, including six goals.
“Bucktooth was obviously phenomenal tonight,†Hall said. “He played well last week, too but we were without ‘Duchee’ and we finally had our captain back on defense, and he’s our leader, back there.â€
Bucktooth was playing in just his second game of the season after missing time with injury, and it was his first game back alongside Rhys Duch this season.
The two proved to be unstoppable, as Duch had a breakout game as well, after missing last week’s game with a suspension. Duch finished with four goals and seven assists.
Cliff Smith and Tyler Digby also contributed in a big way, tallying a combined 15 points.
Smith had three goals and five assists, and Digby added one goal and six assists.
It was also a big night for another Stealth rookie, as Chris Wardle scored his first career NLL goal in highlight-reel fashion, in just his second career game.
Calgary Roughnecks 20, Stealth 9
It was a second half to forget for the Stealth, who fell to 3-7 after being routed by the Roughnecks.
The Calgary hosts outscored the Stealth 12-4 during the second half of play, transforming a reasonably tight game into a blowout.
It was close early on, with the Roughnecks leading 3-2 after the first quarter of play.
The Roughnecks then scored three unanswered goals to make it 6-3 early in the second quarter.
The Stealth looked to pull within two before heading into the first half break, but a late Roughnecks goal made it 8-5 before the half.
The Roughnecks took over in the third quarter, scoring three goals 27 seconds apart.
The slow start to open the second half forced the Stealth to make a change in the net, after starting goaltender Tyler Richards surrendered 11 goals on 29 shots.
Matt Roik replaced Richards for the remainder of the game and made a couple of big saves for his team, but the Roughnecks kept the pressure on, peppering Roik with 27 shots in the second half while scoring nine times.
The Roughnecks outshot the Stealth 56-40 in the game, thanks in large part to a dominant performance in the face-off dot by Geoff Snider who won 85 percent of his draws.
The Stealth will now have two weeks off before making a return trip to Alberta on Saturday, March 8 to take on the Edmonton Rush (7-0) who have yet to lose a game this season.