Conrad Chapman and the Vancouver Stealth know they will have to do better in the rematch.
They got their butts handed to them by the Colorado Mammoth in a 20-9 loss Saturday night in Denver which left the Mammoth with a perfect 3-0 record to start the National Lacrosse League season.
Chapman, in his first year at transition for the Stealth, was held to one assist in his second career NLL game. The Stealth are off to a 1-3 start and after giving up 68 goals in four games Chapman and his team are going to have to find a way to tighten up on defence with Colorado coming to the Langley to play the Stealth on Saturday.
"We weren't playing smart lacrosse and we made too many mistakes," said Chapman, a 22-year-old from Prince George. "We're going to have to make some adjustments. We can't let this get out of hand."
The Pepsi Center in Denver is the home of the Mammoth and the NHL's Colorado Avalanche and is known as the Loudest House in Lacrosse and on Saturday it lived up to that reputation, with 14,345 fans packed into the stands.
"They really get fired up there," said Chapman. "On a few of the faceoffs I couldn't hear the person standing next to me."
At six-foot-six, 230 pounds, Chapman is built to take the punishment of playing the pro game and has tremendous acceleration, which enables him to join the rush or sprint to the bench as a defence-first transition player. He scored his first NLL goal in his first game, in a 14-13 loss at home to Buffalo on Jan. 17. Injuries to forward Rory Smith, transition player Tyler Garrison and defenceman Chris O'Dougherty opened up a spot in the lineup for Chapman.
"That was exciting, I knew the night before [that he would be playing] and it was hard to get to sleep - I think I only got a 20-minute nap in that day," he said. "I was pretty fired up. It's pretty cool.
"I'm just plugging away each weekend. I started the season on the practice roster and I'm just trying to play my hardest to contribute and help the guys win."
Chapman, a left-handed shooter, played three seasons of junior A with the Victoria Shamrocks and moved up last summer to senior A lacrosse in the WLA with the Nanaimo Timbermen. He played in all 18 games, picking up three goals and three assists.
The Stealth traded some high-end draft picks to acquire forwards Johnny Powless and Joel McReady from the three-time champion Rochester Knighthawks. Last week, Vancouver acquired forward Corey Small from Edmonton for the Stealth's first-round picks in 2016 and 2019. Small led the Stealth Saturday with two goals and two assists.
The Stealth also has plenty of incumbent firepower up front with the likes of Rhys Duch, Tyler Digby and Lewis Ratcliff, but it's so far translated into just one victory.
"We have lots of special players on this team, on the offensive side and the defensive side," said Chapman. "We're going to have an offensive-heavy team, but our defence, when we click, we're going to have a pretty deadly team."
Chapman is a full-time student at Camosun College in Victoria. He finished his Grade 12 studies at Claremont secondary school, where he earned a scholarship at Mars Hill University in North Carolina. He played field lacrosse there for one season before returning to his home province. A few of his Stealth teammates live in Victoria and on Fridays the team meets in Langley or on the road for one team practice before their game.
Chapman wears a Prince George Minor Lacrosse Association sticker on the back of his helmet as a tribute to his lacrosse roots and the coaches who taught him the game. He makes regular trips home to visit his parents, Kurt and Laurae (McLeod) and on his next visit in the summer he's hoping to work with the B.C. Lacrosse Association to organize a skills clinic for young lacrosse players.
"It seems like the level of popularity of lacrosse has dropped off a bit [in Prince George] and I've been trying to think of ideas to garner some interest in the sport," said Chapman. "That's definitely on the agenda."
Chapman is one of two Prince George players now in the NLL. Jeff Moleski, 32, who played the past four seasons for the Stealth, is now a member of the Calgary Roughnecks, where he began his pro career in 2005. The Roughnecks, the defending West Division champions, fell to 0-3 Saturday after a 16-8 loss at home to the Edmonton Rush.
