I was out at my kids’ soccer games (my older son’s team won the consolation final while my younger son’s team won the Championship, though on penalty kicks. A sucky way to decide a championship in any sport) so I couldn’t watch the Vancouver @ Colorado game live. I did set the DVR to record it, so I started the game once I got home. I like to watch the game while chatting about it with other fans on Twitter, but that obviously wasn’t an option in this case, so I decided to do a “liveblog” just for fun.

First quarter

• No Adam Jones for the Mammoth
• Only a minute in and the Mammoth have already had a 30 second possession with no shots. Solid Stealth D
• 10:55 – Ward has been solid so far, making a few saves. Richards hasn’t really had to make any yet
• 8:36 – How many times have the Mammoth missed the net or missed passes so far? Looks like the first game of the season
• 7:28 – Goal by Duch. Very nice pick by Billings to clear the lane. 1-0 Stealth
• 6:30 – Beautiful goal by Mallory, top corner. Tied 1-1
• There are taller players out there, but Callum Crawford just looks huge, like he’s towering over everyone
• Duch had a wide-open lane but opted to pass, and almost threw it away. Ended up getting a shot off but nice save by Ward
• Goal by Schuss, another laser into the top corner. 2-1 Stealth
• 1:03 – Grant with a behind the back pass that was picked off by a Stealth defender. Grant loves him some behind the back action, doesn’t he? When it works (which, I admit, is most of the time) it’s a smart play but when it doesn’t, it looks showboaty.
• Mammoth got away with it and regained possession
• When under a minute is left, the game clock on the broadcast has “.0” at the end of it but never shows tenths of seconds. So why have the “.0”?
• Noble scores to tie it up with a second left. Once again, top corner.
• Wow, I’m bigger than Jeremy Noble. He’s 5’9″ 170 pounds, I’m 5’10” 180 pounds. Of course his 170 is very likely distributed a little differently than my 180…

Game is tied 2-2 after one quarter. This is a must-win game for the Stealth but they are not looking panicked at all. They seem confident and are playing with purpose. The Mammoth haven’t looked bad either but a little more sloppy than the Stealth. One wonders if the Mammoth didn’t think “Ah, it’s just the Stealth” coming into this one.

Second quarter

• Nasty goal by Duch. Off the boards, hit Ward’s leg and deflected into the net. Just like in practice. 3-2 Stealth
• 13:21 – Delay of game penalty against McCready. Don’t agree with that one. If a change of possession is signaled by the ref, you can’t drop the ball and then check the guy who picks it up, but that’s not what happened here. The change of possession was because of a shot on net and rebound, so the check should be totally legal IMHO.
• Nice defense by the Stealth on the PK, keeping the Mammoth from getting any decent shots off
• Man, these All Star RV bigfoot commercials are terrible.
• Goal by Small. Standing on the doorstep and picked up a lucky bounce. 4-2 Stealth
• Beautiful passing play resulting in a goal by Grant. Honestly, the passing was nicer than the goal itself but congrats to Grant for becoming the all-time Mammoth goal-scoring leader
• Duch scores again – hit Dillon Ward who saved most of it but it still trickled across the line. 5-3 Stealth
• Tyler Richards makes a dumb play, coming out of his crease and Dan Coates capitalizes. Not sure it should count because it looked like he batted it in rather than shooting it. I may be misremembering the rule though – I know you can’t reach into the crease and “poke” the ball into the net, but perhaps it’s OK out of the crease. 5-4 Stealth
• Nobody mentioning this rule and no challenge flag, so I must have gotten the rule wrong.
• Another behind the back pass, this time by Billings, that backfires.
• Goal… or not. The shot clock expired before the ball went in. Surprisingly, no challenge
• Loving the analysis from Shewchuk and Gallant. Obviously these guys know the game very well, and lots of other announcers do too, but hearing these guys discuss the pros and cons of the diamond vs. box defense on the PK was great.
• Grant tries another behind the back pass and this time drops it
• Rory Smith’s stick has a very cool black shaft.
• 1:57 – Noble ties it up with – guess what? – a top corner shot. Tied at 5
• Beautiful pass from Crawford who looked like he was going to shoot. Instead he passed it over to McLaughlin who had an open cage. That’s why Crawford is leading the league in assists. 6-5 Mammoth
• Shewchuk nailed it – in a do-or-die game, you can’t be taking too many men or unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.
• Is there a harder-working offensive guy than Joel McCready? Well, Shawn Evans is up there in that category too.

I’d be surprised if any thoughts of underestimating the Stealth remain on the Mammoth bench. The Mammoth have a 6-5 lead but this is anybody’s game.

Third quarter

• Remember when Tyler Richards announced his return to the NLL and the Stealth said that Eric Penney was still their number one goalie? I wonder if anyone believed them
• Stealth with a sloppy play giving the Mammoth the ball again, and they almost drop it themselves
• Some more sloppy defense by Vancouver, giving Colorado a one-on-one chance. Richards bailed them out
• Corey Small with a goal that, amazingly, did not go top shelf. Tied at 6. MOAR MONEY BALLER GOALS PLZ
• Nice transition play by Ilija Gajic. That was at least the third pass interception by the Mammoth tonight and Gajic took off down the floor. Didn’t even have to run all that fast. 7-6 Mammoth
• A couple of names I haven’t heard much in this game: Cupido & Billings
• Of course, just after I typed that, Billings took a shot at one end and then Cupido took one at the other end
• Excellent save by Dillon Ward with McCready right on the edge of the crease
• Rhys Duch takes a huge hit, which knocks him to the floor but he keeps the ball, gets up, and puts the ball in the net though he went through the crease. Great play
• Challenge flag is out. Looked to me like Duch stepped on the line before shooting. I’m not even sure that the ball went in the net at all
• OK, the ball did go in but he stepped on the line. Here’s the call – no goal
• Beers gets hurt, rolls around on the floor in pain for a while. Trainer tries to help him off, looks like Beers tries to wave him off then realizes his knee/ankle/something hurts more than he thought
• News flash: Rhys Duch is a good player. Sweet goal to tie it up again
• That was weird – Small picked up a rebound and all the Mammoth defenders seem to run away. Luckily for them he didn’t score but he was given a great opportunity
• Nice spin-o-rama by Cupido, but great save by Richards
• Corey Small with another one on a great pass by Billings. GB looked like he was going to fire it at the net but passed instead
• Vancouver has 8 goals, Duch has 8 points (4+4)

Vancouver leads 8-7 but I’ll fearlessly predict this game will be tied at least once more.

Fourth quarter

• Duch with another pretty one to give the Stealth a two-goal lead
• Grant tries the Dane Dobbie style goal, coming off the bench straight to the net, doesn’t work
• That one worked. Nice bounce shot from Grant through a defender gets by Richards. 9-8 Stealth
• Now a pass interception for the Stealth. Doesn’t lead to a transition chance but they get a possession. No shots though
• Almost the same shot again, Grant ties it up at 9. My fearless prediction came true.
• What an effort from Callum Crawford. Fights off a bunch of Stealth defenders, picks up the ball, shovels it back to Gilles who’s wide open. Mammoth have the lead again, 10-9
• McLaughlin scores, Crawford ties the single-season assist record. Mammoth lead 11-9
• Hopefully the Stealth can kill this penalty off soon and then they might be able to get possession again. Oh wait, they’re not on the PK.
• I’ve talked in the past (both on this blog and on the Addicted to Lacrosse show) about some dumb trades the Swarm franchise has made over the years. I think letting Crawford walk as a free agent tops them all.
• Ward has been great in this game. Richards has been pretty good too, though with one or two shots that snuck by him.
• It ain’t over yet… Corey Small gets the Stealth back to within one with 90 seconds left
• Ward makes a save, then gets in the way of a Stealth player and gets knocked over… while standing in his crease. No call. Dangerous play by the Stealth given that there’s less than 30 seconds left in their playoff hopes but they got away with it

And that will do it. The Mammoth regular season is over and the Stealth are out of the playoffs. After winning twice in the past two weeks when they really needed to, they just couldn’t get it done tonight. A few defensive breakdowns here and there but I thought they put forth a solid effort. Rhys Duch came to play, and picked up 9 points in an outstanding game.

The Stealth have had a pretty lousy season but the last few games should give them hope for next year. Once they can get all the pieces together and stay healthy, they could do some damage.