Copyright Melissa Dafni
After last week’s game ending brawl between several players on the Colorado Mammoth and the Buffalo Bandits, there was plenty of anticipation for round two. There was also plenty of curiosity as to who would actually play. For their participation in the altercations, Bandits David Brock, Nick Cotter, Jimmy Purves, Billy Dee Smith, and Mammoth Ilija Gajic, Chet Koneczny, Rich Morgan and Jon Sullivan all received one-game suspensions. For his obscene hand gestures and repeat offender violations, Koneczny received additional game suspensions. Although the Player’s Association has appealed most if not all of the suspensions allowing the players to play while waiting for their appeal to be reviewed, Ilija Gajic was not in the lineup. (Neither were Jimmy Purves nor Jon Sullivan as they were both involved in separate trades with Rochester). For his incident, Buffalo head coach Darris Kilgour was fined an undisclosed amount.
The trade deadline which occurred this week proved interesting as the Colorado Mammoth acquired Casey Powell from the Rochester Knighthawks. As can be imagined, this created plenty of grumbling and hurrahs from many Mammoth fans, myself included. I think the Powell’s are very talented, but the Colorado fans have already been snubbed twice by Ryan Powell and Casey Powell has struggled to transfer his outdoor lacrosse talent to the indoor game. He’s also 37 years old, so once again the Mammoth were in a position of trading young talent for seasoned talent. I can honestly say, I was pleasantly surprised with Powell’s play. While he may not have scored more than a goal, he had several assists and he definitely fought for the ball unlike some of the Mammoth players. It was a nice change, and it seemed to help spark a fire in the Mammoth that has not been there most of the season.
The Mammoth still had moments of lackadaisical passing, dropped and intercepted passes, and just generally frustrating play, but they also had moments of great goal tending, strategic plays, aggressiveness and awareness, and great stick work. This was the Mammoth team we fans keep waiting to see. The Mammoth offense didn’t look good because the Bandits defense played poorly, nor did the Mammoth defense look good because the Bandits offense played poorly. Both teams came out and played hard for four quarters. While I won’t deny each team did have moments where they fell off, the Bandits were simply out played. With two solid wins in a row under their belt, the Mammoth may finally be on the road to turn the season around. The fans can only hope that this truly isn’t an isolated incident.
And of course, as many of the Mammoth games seem to be this season, this game also wasn’t without its controversy. About midway in to the first quarter, Colorado Mammoth Defender Rory Smith and Buffalo Bandits Defender Steve Priolo decided to throw down. The fight actually went for quite a while with a flurry of punches thrown and landed from both players. Smith succeeded in ripping Priolo’s jersey off, but despite many attempts, Priolo was unable to do the same to Smith, nor use the jersey to stop the fight. The fight finally ended when Priolo hip tossed Smith to the ground. Both players were sent to the box and given five minute fighting majors. Smith was also given a roughing minor and after all was said and done an unsportsmanlike conduct for “instigating”. This is of course where the controversy lies. The fight seemed very much two sided.
According to Rule 80 in the 2013 rule book:
It is the intent and purpose of this Rule that the referee shall impose the “major and a game misconduct” penalty in all cases where the instigator or retaliator of the fight is the aggressor and is plainly doing so for the purpose of intimidation or punishment.
80.1
INSTIGATOR – An instigator of a fight shall be a player who by his actions or demeanor demonstrates any/some of the following criteria: distance traveled; gloves off first; first punch thrown; substitution direct from bench; menacing attitude or posture; verbal instigation or threats; conduct in retaliation to a prior game incident.
80. 2
INSTIGATOR PENALTY ASSESSMENT – A player who is deemed to be the instigator of a fight shall be assessed an instigating minor penalty, a major for fighting and a game misconduct.
So, if both players removed their gear within seconds of one another, is that truly intimidation? Or instigation? Lots of opinions and gray area. Adding to all the confusion, I have now heard from several different sources that this actually was not an instigator misconduct penalty, but actually an illegal equipment penalty due to the fact that Rory Smith was not wearing his league required shoulder pads. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for the official score sheets to have mistakes, and nothing was said in game, so I cannot provide much more insight.
Next week’s game against the Calgary Roughnecks could prove interesting. Depending on what the league rules on the suspensions, the Mammoth may be without several defenders going in to a very important game against a league rival.
Final Score
Buffalo Bandits 13, Colorado Mammoth 16
Attendance: 15,511
1st Star – Tye Belanger, many of Buffalo’s goals were scored on screens that would have flummoxed even the most seasoned goalies, and Belanger really came up with some fantastic saves late in the game when it counted the most. If the Bandits would have gotten Belanger off his game like the Mammoth did Anthony Cosmo, the score would’ve been very different.
2nd Star – Jordan McBride, with four goals and two assists, McBride made his presence known.
3rd Star – John Grant Jr, hard to argue with a hat trick in a game that was decided by three points.
Around the league
Toronto Rock 13, Philadelphia Wings 8
Edmonton Rush 11, Rochester Knighthawks 9
Washington Stealth 5, Minnesota Swarm 12
