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Stealth Still Winless at Home
By Gary Araki January 25, 2005 |
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9-8 loss to expansion Minnesota Swarm keeps lacrosse team blanked at Tank. SAN JOSE- The San Jose Stealth is the only professional team that’s currently using the Shark Tank, AKA HP Pavilion. A.as the main draw for the Tank, the San Jose Sharks are still locked out by the NHL, and it seems as if the season for the Sharks maybe be over even before it begins. Meanwhile, lacrosse, another sport that has many similarities to hockey, continues to draw fans to the Shark Tank. Saturday night, 5,059 fans came to the Tank hoping for the Stealth to get their first home win of the 2005 season, but that wasn’t the way the story would be at the end of the night with a 9-8 loss to the Minnesota Swarm. The Swarm, a new expansion team in the NLL, improved their record to 2-2 after the victory in San Jose. The Stealth are still winless at their home field with a 0-2 record so far this year at the Shark Tank; their wins have only come on the road. Minnesota only has one player who was with San Jose last season. Kelly Hall was sent to Minnesota in exchange for Derek Malawsky and a second round pick in the 2006 NLL Entry Draft. As part of this deal for Malawsky, the Stealth also gave up their first round draft pick in the 2007 NLL Entry Draft. San Jose has started the season with back-to-back games twice in their first four games. The Stealth opened the season with a home-and-home series, then they traveled to Arizona Friday night before returning for Saturday’s contest against Minnesota. Minnesota also played Friday night back at home, taking a 15-10 loss to the Buffalo Bandits. San Jose scored first with Ryan Boyle’s shot to the glove side of Minnesota’s goalie San Jose 1-0 Ryan Boyle at 1:04 in the first quarter. Boyle, who had three goals Friday night in Arizona against the Sting, and also had the winning goal which broke a 13-13 tie at 1:43 left in the fourth period Friday to give the Stealth their second victory of the season. Boyle put himself on the scoreboard again with a shot to the glove side of the goalie, at 9:56 making the score 3-0 in favor of the Stealth. The goal was Boyle’s second of the game. The Swarm who was quiet during the 3-0 run by the Stealth, but at 11:46 in the first, Minnesota scored their first goal of the game by ex-San Jose player Kelly Hall. 29 seconds later at 2:46, Chad Culp added to the Swarm’s scoring to make it a 3-2 game still with San Jose in the lead. Gary Rosyski, a familiar name from the 2004 season, picked up his eighth goal of the season, making the score 4-2 at 13:10 in the first. Minnesota would end the scoring in the first quarter with a breakaway goal by Kerry Susheski at 14:40 to make the score 4-3 San Jose. The second period was pretty uneventful until 11:36 in when the Stealth’s Gary Rosyski and the Swarms Mike Kilby went at it near the Stealth logo, and Rosyski was assessed a 5 minute penalty for fighting, while Kilby was assessed with a 5 minute penalty for fighting and a 2 minute penalty for roughing. The only scoring in the 2nd was by San Jose when Matt Alrich with a blazing shot at the center to the glove side of Minnesota’s goalie Matt Disher, giving Alrich’s his first NLL goal of his career, making the score 5-3 in favor of San Jose at the break. After the half, Minnesota scored twice with Jamie Taylor with an unassisted goal at 4:21 and Ryder Bateman scored at 6:50, tying the game again 5-5. Gary Rosyski then picked up his second goal of the game at 8:21, but Minnesota returned with Darcy Berthiaume getting a goal at 13:52, in the 3rd ending the scoring at 6-6 for the 3rd. In the fourth, San Jose and Minnesota traded goals with Hall picking up another goal for Minnesota and Rosyski picked his third goal for a hat trick at 1:21. Minnesota scored the winning goal at 10:04 when Kerry Susheski scored making the score 9-7 in favor of Minnesota. San Jose made a attempt to get back into the chase when San Jose’s hero from the night before in Arizona, Ryan Boyle picked up his third goal of the game at 1:10, giving him back to back nights with a hat trick. Boyle scored with another glove side shot on the goalie, to make the score 9-8 in favor of the Swarm. San Jose went back on offense with 38 seconds left in the quarter, but was unsuccessful in scoring, and Minnesota took possession of the ball at 16.1 seconds left in the game. San Jose had one last chance with 5.5 seconds on the clock, with Luke Gilbert taking a final desperation shot to the glove side of goalie Disher, to wrap up the victory for the Swarm. For Minnesota, goalie Matt Disher had 38 saves on 46 shots, and for San Jose, Anthony Cosmo had 23 saves on 32 shots. NLL Notes: San Jose has six days off until their next match, which is at home against the Colorado at the HP Pavilion. The Stealth has only one home game in February with Colorado coming in again on February 18th. Saturday’s inclement weather in the Midwest and East Coast caused the postponement of the Philadelphia Wings’ home opener against the Toronto Rock. Earlier this week it was announced by the NLL, that NBC Sports has picked up the contract to broadcast the 2005 NLL All Star game on February 26 in Calgary at the Saddledome, and NBC will also carry the 2005 NLL Championship Cup Final which will be held on May 14th. Gary Araki is the sports director for KLIB AM 1110 in Sacramento, where Sportstalk can be heard at 2 AM every Saturday Morning. Gary covers the San Jose Sharks for Sports Radio Service, and for other media outlets across the NHL. |
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