Washington Stealth wins National Lacrosse League title

EVERETT — Lewis Ratcliff hadn't scored a single goal in the playoffs until he scored five on Saturday night to lead the Washington Stealth to a 15-11 victory over the Toronto Rock and claim the National Lacrosse League title.

"I'm a goal scorer and I've been thinking about that every minute for the last two weeks," Ratcliff said moments after he was awarded the Most Valuable Player trophy for the playoffs. "I'm a goal scorer. That's my job. To go two weeks in a row without a goal, I can't remember the last time I've done that. This is unreal."

Ratcliff, who had 46 goals in the regular season, felt so bad that he took the week off his job in Victoria, B.C., to come to Everett to practice his shooting.

"I've been here every day since Tuesday shooting," Ratcliff said. "To score five makes it all worthwhile."

The Stealth, which moved to Everett from San Jose, Calif., before the season, scored eight straight goals to turn a 10-6 deficit late in the third quarter into a 14-10 lead late in the fourth period and take the Champion's Cup in front of 8,609 at Comcast Arena.

The key was a two-goal spurt in the last 13 seconds of the third period. The Rock pulled its goaltender in the last 10 seconds when it had possession after a Stealth goal at 14:47. Eric Martin then corralled a loose ball and missed the empty net. He then hustled down to get his own rebound and put it in with one second left in the period.

That made it 10-8 and the Stealth scored the first six goals of the fourth period to earn the victory.

"That was a big goal, any goal in the last minute is huge, and to score two was just an unbelievable turn," Ratcliff said. "We really came together after that and showed what kind of team we are."

Rhys Duch, who scored four goals in the game and led the Stealth with 11 in the playoffs, said even with the two goals late in the third period they needed more.

"We knew we had to do something or we were done," Duch said. "It was time to wake up. That last goal in the third period was huge. We were starting to lose confidence a little bit and that was a great play by Eric Martin to get us back in it."

Tyler Richards, who called the Cup the Super Bowl of professional lacrosse, started in goal for the Stealth, staring across the floor at Bob Watson of the Rock, a five-time Champion's Cup winner. Richards made 50 saves in the game and the Rock outshot the Stealth 61-47.

The Stealth trailed 10-6 after Garrett Billings scored for Toronto with just 2:07 left in the third period. The Stealth then scored twice in the final 13 seconds of the period to cut the lead to 10-8 and turn the momentum completely around.

Six unanswered goals in the fourth period decided the issue, two by Duch, two by Ratcliff, one by Cam Sedgwick and one by Jeff Zywicki to make it 14-10.

The Rock scored a goal with 2:53 left to make it 14-11, before the Stealth scored an empty-netter to make the final 15-11.

For the third consecutive playoff game, the Stealth started fast.

Ratcliff scored 59 seconds into the contest and again at 3:49 to put the Stealth up 2-0.

Paul Rabil, who scored the overtime winner in the semifinals, took a perfect breakout pass from Richards and put it into the net to make it 3-0.

After Richards stopped the first 15 shots he faced, Toronto scored three times in the final three minutes of the first period on two goals by Kasey Beirnes and one by Billings to end the quarter 3-3 even though the Rock outshot the Stealth 21-9 in the period.

Toronto took the lead with a power-play goal by Blaine Manning and then two more to lead 6-3. The Stealth came back to cut the margin to 6-5 on goals by Duch and Ratcliff, but Colin Doyle scored with 50 seconds left before halftime to make it 7-5.

Doyle then scored twice in the third period and the Rock led 10-6 and appeared ready to win its sixth championship in the last 12 years.

This is the 24th season for professional indoor lacrosse. The league championship has been known as the Champion's Cup since 1998.