Stealth vs. Bandits Recap: Stealth Get First Win Of Season With Overtime Victory

The Buffalo Bandits seem to have issues when the Washington Stealth roll into town as they drop their third straight game of the season with an 11-10 loss. Rhys Duch scored 45 seconds into overtime to give the Stealth their first win of the season. Duch scored a game tying goal with nine seconds to go last season as the Stealth defeated the Bandits in overtime in Buffalo last season.

The Stealth get their first win of the season and it comes on the back of star forward Rhys Duch. Along with the game winning goal in overtime, Duch scored four goals on the night and had four assists as well. Lewis Ratcliff also had an impressive game with three goals and three assists. Stealth assistant coach Art Webster had glowing things to say about Duch and the whole team. "Our best players have to be our best players every night and they have to understand that. Tonight, our best players were our best players."

On the Bandits side of the ball, former Stealth forward Luke Wiles had his best game of the night with four goals and an assist in the losing effort. Mat Giles had two goals and two assists and John Tavares had two goals and three assists. In net for the Bandits, Mike Thompson had 41 saves on the night, with most of those coming in the second half.

The Bandits were able to tie the game up late with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter, but they had to consistently battle their inability to keep the game tied late in the game. On two occasions, the Bandits allowed a goal within twenty seconds of tying the game in the second half. That inability to keep themselves on a run of goals was part of the reason they cost themselves this game. Bandits assistant coach Rich Kilgour reiterated that after the game, "This game is a game of runs. If you can only get a one goal run, you aren't going to win many games. We have to start figuring out ways to get a three, four, five goal at a time and find a way to stop those three, four, five goal runs."

The Bandits will try and right the ship as they face off against the Philadelphia Wings on Sunday February 12th and the Washington Stealth will matchup against the Calgary Roughnecks on Friday February 10th.