Eight days of rest was not enough, it appears, for the Langley-based Vancouver Stealth.
They had what head coach Jamie Batley called a “rocky trip” out east this weekend, being beat by the Toronto Rock 13-7 on Saturday night.
He lauded the Toronto efforts.
“They had lots of energy and we were not able to match that, and we looked tired and that’s the way we played,” Batley said. “we should have been well-rested… but we looked tired.”
The Stealth are 5 and 8 in the season, while the Rock enjoy their 8-5 standing.
“When you are chasing a team by so many goals, it is hard to comeback,” Batley said of the game that saw Stealth’s Rhys Duch get the first two goals for his during the first half, while in the same timeframe the Rock added up eight goals.
The energy and momentum seemed to shift at the beginning of the third, with Toronto taking multiple penalties and the Stealth took advantage, Corey Small and James Rahe scoring back-to-back power play goals.
But minutes later, the Rock answered back with two goals to finish out the third.
Vancouver’s Jordan Durston scored to open the fourth, and put the Stealth within striking distance at 10-5. But while the Stealth would score two more goals off the sticks of Justin Salt and another off Durston, that was the end of their offence, Batley said.
Toronto, on the other hand, would score two more late in the fourth to compete the home victory.
“We had the ball enough to get 52 shots but we only had 7 goals. That is unacceptable,” he said.
“I think offensively we need to be better. It has been three or four games in a row now. Offensively we need our guys to score and we need that to happen on Friday.”
He was referring to the Stealth’s next game, this Friday, March 31 at home in the Langley Events Centre.
They’ll be hosting the Rock for the first time this season.
Friday night will be student night, where anyone with a valid student ID will get 40 per cent off bowl seating. Tickets are available at the Langley Events Centre box office, by calling 604-882-8800, or online at Ticket Rocket.co.