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Mammoth Clinch Playoff Berth

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In the end, it didn’t matter if the Colorado Mammoth beat the Minnesota Swarm in their final regular season game of 2013. The Buffalo Bandits eliminated themselves from contention losing to Rochester, 10-9. The only thing left up in the air was who would play where. And with it such a tight race, that was anyone’s guess. How can you not find it exciting to watch a league where every game had playoff implications?!

If the Mammoth won, they would face the winner of the Calgary Rougnecks/Edmonton Rush game. If they lost, due to the cross-over rule instituted a few seasons ago, having a better record, they would take the Buffalo Bandits place in the East and face the Toronto Rock. In the West, the battle has been a fierce one for the Division with the Calgary Roughnecks, Washington Stealth and Edmonton Rush all finishing the season with a 9-7 record. If Edmonton would have won, they would have taken the #1 Spot overall with Toronto #2, but since they lost, due to the tiebreakers, Calgary takes the Western Division and the #2 overall spot, with their win the Washington Stealth takes #3 and the Edmonton Rush fall to #4.

It was hard to believe this was the same two teams who played last week. Whereas last week, the Swarm flat out dominated the Mammoth the entire game, this time around it was a lot more evenly matched with both teams playing hard to win.

The Mammoth dominated the first quarter with five goals from five different players; John Grant Junior, Sean Pollock, Adam Jones, Joey Cupido and Joel Dalgarno, but the Swarm didn’t go down without a fight with Matt Gibson making the most of a screen and Josh Gillam scoring the final goal of the quarter. Both teams were playing very aggressive, although slightly unfocused. The Swarm came on strong in the second though turning it into a one goal game at the half. The defense for both teams wasn’t very strong as both teams were able to take several quality shots on goal at the crease. Midway in to the second quarter, Tyler Hass had a crazy fluke goal for Minnesota. Matt Gibson takes a shot, it rings off the pipe and directly to Hass who quick sticks it in to the net.

As a fan, I’m often left very perplexed by some of coach Bob Hamley’s game decisions. There’s no denying that there is a lot of strategy that goes into when to use a challenge flag, a timeout, or change goalies. The result when used effectively can have a big impact on a game. But at times, it seems like Hamley doesn’t have a strategy. Sometimes he’ll leave a goalie out to dry for most of the game despite their poor play whereas other times a goalie lets in three goals, and he’ll yank them. A goal will be waived off but will look like a very solid goal that could impact the score but Hamley won’t throw the challenge flag, and then other times like in this game, he’ll throw the challenge flag early in the half on a goal that looks very iffy, and truly won’t impact the game in a meaningful way. It can be argued that sometimes just breaking the momentum is enough, but two minutes into the third quarter on a game tying goal?

The second half continued to be tight with Minnesota taking the lead midway in the third, but they were unable to hold it for long before the Mammoth were able to take it back on the first play in the 4th quarter. The fourth quarter became a shoot out with a total of twelve goals being scored as the result of lots of quick stick plays, transitions, breakaways and in general, just hard play. Minnesota fought hard and kept the Mammoth on their toes, but weren’t able to bring the lead closer than one goal after the Mammoth took it back.

The Mammoth continue to struggle with the same issues they have for most of the season. Poor shot clock management, passing issues and rebound issues. The Swarm had 30 more loose balls than the Mammoth and in a sport where many games are decided by one goal, every opportunity counts. While the odds are against both teams for going past the first round of the playoffs, it isn’t unheard of, and for the Mammoth, it’s always better to head into them off a win rather than a loss.

Final Score:

Colorado Mammoth 16, Minnesota Swarm 14

Attendance: 12,214

1st Star – Adam Jones, with five goals and three assists, Jones was on fire.

2nd Star – Tye Belanger, towards the end of the game, the Mammoth defense became really lackadaisical, not good in such a hotly contested match, and the only thing truly keeping the Swarm out of it was Belanger blocking shot after shot.

3rd Star – Jordan MacIntosh, although Ryan Benesch might be the more obvious choice with three goals and two assists compared to Macintosh’s one goal and three assists, MacIntosh had 24 loose balls. As I said, in a game where the lead was often only by one goal, every possession matters and MacIntosh gave the Swarm many opportunities. In comparison, the next closest player on either team only had seven loose balls.

Around the League

Rochester Knighthawks 10, Buffalo Bandits 9

Calgary Mammoth 12, Edmonton Rush 11 OT

Philadelphia Wings 13, Washington Stealth 17

 

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