Stealth win, advance to NLL Western Division final

St. PAUL, Minn — What a time for the Washington Stealth to pick up their first-ever victory in Minnesota.

The Stealth, as they have many times this year, fell behind early, but responded emphatically, scoring 13 of the final 16 goals to defeat the Minnesota Swarm 14-8 in an NLL Western Division semifinal game on Saturday.

“I think we showed some maturity as a playoff team,” Stealth head coach Chris Hall said after the game.
Up next the Stealth face the Calgary Roughnecks, who defeated Colorado 10-6 on Saturday night in the West Division finals as Washington continues defense of its NLL championship. The day and time of that game is yet to be announced.

Rhys Duch said beating Minnesota gives the team confidence, but doesn’t help much with strategy against the Roughnecks.

“I think the only thing that we can take out of this win is confidence and a little bit of momentum,” Duch said. “Calgary and Minnesota are two completely different teams.”

In Saturday’s victory, the Stealth held NLL regular season scoring champion Ryan Benesch without a goal. Hall gave defensemen Matt Beers and Chris O’Dougherty the responsibility of shutting down Benesch and they didn’t disappoint.

“It was a super job by those two guys,” Hall said.

The Stealth had been prone to slow starts this season and Saturday night was no different. With just under 3½ minutes to play in the first period, Washington found itself behind 5-1. But there was no panic in the defending champs.

Lewis Ratcliff and Jeff Moleski both found the net before the end of the first quarter to cut the lead to 5-3.
Minnesota’s Kevin Ross scored a goal for the Swarm with 9:08 to play in the second period to extend the lead to 6-3.

Then the Stealth took control and never looked back.

Washington ended the second period with three straight goals, the first by Cam Sedgwick and the next two by the NLL’s second-leading scorer in the regular season, Lewis Ratcliff, to tie it a 6-6.

That run carried over to the second half, where the Stealth exhibited a killer instinct that had seemingly been lost all season.

Duch had a second half hat-trick and Jeff Zywicki in his return from injury scored two goals as the Stealth outscored Minnesota 8-2 after halftime.

“He’s a superstar in this league,” Hall said of Zywicki. “He scored two huge goals for us. It was fantastic to have him back in the lineup.”

“It was awesome to be able to contribute and play well and not having to worry about being 100 percent,” Zywicki said.

Having Zywicki back as well as having a bye week before the playoff game to get other injured players back to full strength meant that this was the healthiest the Stealth had been since week one of the regular season.

“This is the fullest lineup we’ve had all year,” Duch said. “We found our way and we played like last year’s championship team.”

“To have everyone back and play as well as we did, I think it shows we are getting back to where we should be,” goalkeeper Tyler Richards said.

Playing a big role in the Stealth’s second half success was Richards, who saved 27 of the 29 shots he faced in the second half.

“How good is that?” Hall said of Richards.

Richards gave up the five first-quarter goals, but was rock solid the rest of the way.

“Obviously it was a tough start,” Richards said. “The defense really picked it up in front of me and helped me see the ball better.”

And it was Richards and the rest of the Stealth defense that held Benesch without a goal.
“(Matt) Beers and (Chris) O’Dougherty were absolutely outstanding on him,” Richards said. “He has a favorite spot he likes to shoot from and we kind of identified that before the game.”

The Stealth certainly have reason to enjoy this win, something that Hall said they will do — for a night.
“We enjoy this win a lot tonight, but by tomorrow the party is over,” Hall said.

Then the Stealth’s focus switches to the Roughnecks.

“We will be good if we can put 60 minutes like that together against Calgary,” Zywicki said.

Stealth 14, Swarm 8
Washington 3 3 4 4 — 14
Minnesota 5 1 2 0 — 8
1st Quarter-1, Minnesota, R. Morgan 1 1:50. 2, Minnesota, C. Crawford 1 (J. Sullivan, J. Shewchuk), 3:27. 3, Washington, C. Smith 1 (L. Wiles, R. Duch), 4:53 (ea). 4, Minnesota, A. Wilson 1 (K. Ross, R. Benesch), 9:16 (pp). 5, Minnesota, J. Shewchuk 1 (A. Wilson, J. Sullivan), 10:38. 6, Minnesota, A. Suitor 1 (M. Kelly), 11:32. 7, Washington, L. Ratcliff 1 (J. Zywicki, R. Duch), 11:57. 8, Washington, J. Moleski 1 (P. Rabil), 12:21. Penalties-C. Smith Was (roughing), 1:01; A. Suitor Min (roughing), 1:01; C. O’Dougherty Was (illegal equipment), 2:35; R. Benesch Min (illegal cross checking), 2:35; J. Bloom Was (holding), 7:36; C. Conn Was (unsportsmanlike conduct), 10:38; E. Pacey Min (unsportsmanlike conduct), 10:38; K. Sorensen Was (slashing), 15:00; M. Giles Min (slashing), 15:00.
2nd Quarter-9, Minnesota, K. Ross 1 (A. Wilson, J. Sullivan), 5:52. 10, Washington, C. Sedgwick 1 (C. Smith, M. Beers), 8:31. 11, Washington, L. Ratcliff 2 (C. Smith, M. Beers), 13:40. 12, Washington, L. Ratcliff 3 (C. Sedgwick, T. Richards), 14:15. Penalties-served by C. O’Dougherty Was (illegal substitution), 3:14; C. Crawford Min (unsportsmanlike conduct), 3:14; R. Duch Was (slashing), 4:43; R. Smith Min (slashing), 4:43.
3rd Quarter-13, Minnesota, C. Crawford 2 (R. Benesch, K. Ross), 2:43. 14, Washington, R. Duch 1 (L. Ratcliff, P. Rabil), 4:45. 15, Washington, M. Beers 1 (P. Rabil), 7:28. 16, Washington, J. Zywicki 1 (C. O’Dougherty, M. Grimes), 8:24. 17, Minnesota, K. Ross 2 (R. Benesch, C. Crawford), 11:55 (pp). 18, Washington, J. Zywicki 2 (M. Grimes), 13:56. Penalties-K. Sorensen Was (holding), 9:29; R. Duch Was (slashing), 11:22.
4th Quarter-19, Washington, R. Duch 2 (J. Zywicki, C. Sedgwick), 2:50. 20, Washington, R. Duch 3 (L. Ratcliff, L. Wiles), 3:49. 21, Washington, C. Sedgwick 2 (R. Duch, L. Ratcliff), 9:30. 22, Washington, L. Wiles 1 (R. Duch), 10:38. Penalties-E. Martin Was (illegal equipment), 5:56.
Shots on Goal-Washington 16-13-11-12-52. Minnesota 11-8-19-10-48.
Power Play Opportunities-Washington 0 of 0; Minnesota 2 of 4.
Faceoffs-Washington 14 of 26; Minnesota 12 of 26.
Goalies-Washington, Richards 0-0-0 (47 shots-40 saves); Roik 0-0-0 (1 shots-0 saves). Minnesota, Patterson 0-0-0 (52 shots-38 saves).
A-5,878
Referees-Mark Gardonio (27), Jeff Dolan (17).