Short-handed Stealth win again

DENVER — Playing short-handed in front of a large, hostile crowd, the Washington Stealth still proved to be an unbeatable foe.

On a night when star transition player Paul Rabil and defender Eric Martin were absent from the lineup, the Stealth rallied from an early two-goal deficit to beat the Colorado Mammoth 12-11 in National Lacrosse League action Saturday night.

The victory, the Stealth's second over Colorado in three weeks, improved Washington's NLL-leading record to 5-0. With Toronto's loss to Rochester on Saturday night, the Stealth are the NLL's lone undefeated team.

Rabil and Martin missed the game because of commitments to the U.S. national squad.

The Mammoth, playing in front of a Pepsi Center crowd of 15,242 — roughly five times what the Stealth see at Comcast Arena — jumped to an early 3-1 lead. But the Stealth, the NLL's highest-scoring team, responded with five goals over the final 11:20 of the second quarter.

Forward Jeff Zywicki led the charge, collecting two goals and three assists in the period. Rhys Duch, Tom Johnson and Lewis Ratcliff also scored in the second quarter for the Stealth.

In the third period, the Stealth benefited from a five-minute penalty on Colorado for goalie interference, scoring a pair of power-play goals.

The score was knotted 8-8 late in the third quarter when Duch scored what proved to be a key goal. With just one second left on the clock, he rifled a shot past Colorado goalkeeper Andrew Leyshon to give the Stealth the lead for good.

Duch's tally seemed to ignite Washington's offense. The Stealth scored twice in the first 2:46 of the fourth quarter, with Wiles and Ratcliff finding the net to give Washington its biggest advantage of the night, 11-8.

Back-to-back penalties left the Stealth short-handed for nearly four minutes midway through the final period, but Colorado failed to capitalize.

Zywicki then found Cam Sedgwick all alone in front of the crease and Sedgwick scored what proved to be the winning goal with 1:28 remaining.

Colorado cut the difference to 12-11 with 9.4 seconds remaining when Jed Prossner scored, but the Mammoth couldn't mount a scoring threat in the final seconds.

Zywicki finished with three goals and six assists. Ratcliff, Sedgwick, Wiles and Duch each scored twice. Tom Johnson added a solo goal and Stealth goalie Tyler Richards made 36 saves.

Cory Conway and Prossner each scored three goals for Colorado (2-3).