NLL Week Six: Calgary Roughnecks at Washington Stealth

Tonight, Calgary will travel to Everett for the second time this season. Both teams are different than when they faced each other back on January 14th. Calgary won the first meeting 13-10 thanks to a 4-1 third quarter and a solid attack in the fourth quarter to stop any attempted Stealth comeback. If you would have asked me after that game where these two teams would be this week after Calgary started out 2-0 and Washington was 0-1 I would had said that the Necks would be at 4-0 and Washington at 2-2 with their other loss coming to the Bandits.

Calgary sputtered late against the Mammoth and couldn't win at home in a rematch against the Rock to drop two games in consecutive weeks both in overtime. The Roughnecks were looking a little tired in their loss to the Rock so, luckily, they will have taken last week's bye to their advantage. Washington, on the other hand, was just beginning to fall apart. Duch and Ratcliff weren't able to score and the defense couldn't keep the opposition away from Richards who was slipping. Well, all of that changed when the Stealth took on the Bandits.

Washington got off to a hot start with seven first half goals (two more than they scored against Edmonton) and finished the game with Duch having eight points (4g 4a) and Ratcliff adding six for himself (3g 3a). The offense looked fresh and very reminiscent of last season when they were the highest scoring team. Pair that up with Richards having 41 saves and a 80.4% save percentage and you're going to have a decent game at the least.

One of my key match ups for the game comes from the fact that Calgary shares the ball so well on offense. They have six players in double digit points (Dickson, Shattler, Evans, Dobbie, Ranger, and Veltman). If Washington wants to have a different outcome from the first game, Matt Beers and Kyle Sorensen will need to bring their top game in order to stop Curtis Dickson and Jeff Shattler.

Calgary will have to watch Rabil as he is starting to get back to his old self. Against the Bandits last week, Rabil earned three points (1g 2a) which is his season high. The offense is running the play through him more than they did in the first couple of weeks and now they have a win to show for it. With such a great ball handler, we could see Calgary get burned again on short handed goals (allowed two in the previous game).

An often understated aspect of the game is the faceoff. Two of the best specialists in the league, Bob and Geoff Snider, will be going all out with some brotherly animosity in order to give their team the extra possessions. Geoff won the battle in the first round (17-9) while Bob gave him his biggest challenge of the season. Geoff's other games are 16-7 against Toronto in the first game, 25-1 against Colorado, and 24-4 against Toronto the second time.

I believe that the game will come down to whether Duch and Ratcliff can stay hot two weeks in a row. They didn't do much the first time around and Washington hung in until late. My prediction is going to be Calgary winning in overtime, 12-11.