Is pride enough to win a game? Bragging rights? Intimidation? Professional athletes are known for their competitive nature, especially lacrosse players, but is winning really enough to keep you motivated throughout a game when there’s nothing on the line? Unlike in the East Division, the Western Division was finalized last week. Neither team was playing for ranking and in fact, these two teams play again next week in the first round of the Champion’s Cup playoffs. Knowing that you’ll be playing the same team again in a week, do you come out hard and try to get in their heads or do you come out and play half hearted and give it your all when it actually counts? Complacency is easy to fall into, much harder to get out of.
While I’m not trying to take anything away from the Minnesota Swarm and their win, they looked solid in every area, but I have to wonder what was going through the Mammoth players’ minds. Yes, Gavin Prout was out for both games and yes, he has a huge impact on the floor, but just because he isn’t playing doesn’t mean you should just give up. The Colorado Mammoth team that showed up against the Edmonton Rush last week and the Minnesota Swarm this weekend looked more like the team that went 5-11 last year and 4-12 the year before. Throughout the night, the Mammoth continuously dropped and over threw passes. They continue to struggle with rebounds in front of the net (on both sides) giving the Swarm extra opportunities to shoot on Chris Levis, while the Mammoth frequently took a shot right away wasting most of the shot clock and making it easy for the Swarm to get the rebound and send it back down the floor. If time of possession was recorded, there would be a very large gap between the two teams with the Swarm dominating ball possession.
A lot of emphasis and speculation has surrounded John Grant Junior this season and whether or not he would be successful in breaking John Tavares’s 2001 Single Season Point record of 115 points. You almost have to feel bad for Garrett Billings of the Toronto Rock who has been having his own potentially record breaking season but has been completely overshadowed by JGJ. Billings finished the season just one shy of tying Tavares’s record while JGJ did indeed break it with 116 points. Hopefully now that the record is no longer a factor, the Mammoth offense will be able to focus on what’s truly important.
1st Quarter
Joel Henry, looking like he’s playing golf rather than lacrosse, gets a power play goal to put Minnesota on the board. Sean Pollock puts the Mammoth on the board with a bounce shot off a no look pass from Jamie Shewchuck. Kevin Ross scores after getting ahead of his defender near the crease to take the lead back. Colorado will neither tie nor take the lead for the remainder of the game. In a beautiful no look spinning back hand shot, Ryan Benesch scores on Chris Levis. With just under six minutes remaining in the quarter, Tyler Hass gets a shorthanded breakaway goal. Mammoth challenge and upon review, it’s ruled no goal due to a crease violation. Derek Hopcroft left wide open makes it look easy, scoring on the power play to bring the Mammoth within one. With less than thirty seconds left on the clock, JGJ scores at the crease but it’s waived off. Andrew Watt of the Swarm gets the ball and passes it down the floor to a wide open Callum Crawford. Crawford catches the pass, turns and scores.
Colorado Mammoth 2, Minnesota Swarm 4
2nd Quarter
Capitalizing on more Mammoth mistakes, Colorado shoots on net, Tyler Carlson blocks it, Dan Ball recovers the rebound for the Swarm, who are on the power play, and while the Mammoth focus on their line change, Ball passes to Brendon Doran who is already on the other side of the floor giving Doran an easy one on one opportunity against Chris Levis. Mat MacLeod scores immediately on the next play with a 5-hole bounce shot. Joel Henry, using his defender as a screen, gets a goal from center. In a highlight reel worthy play, Josh Gillam catches a no look pass from Jay Card who subsequently goes rolling through the back of the crease. Gillam shots and scores, but it’s waived off because of Card. Minnesota challenges, but the call on the floor holds and it’s ruled no goal. Scoring his first career hat trick, Henry scores on the power play with a quick stick at the crease on a pass from Callum Crawford. With just over 5 minutes left in the half, Andrew Suitor scores with a hard shot from center to give Minny a 5 goal lead. Bob Hamley pulls Chris Levis from net and puts in Tye Belanger. Belanger does well blocking the first few shots he faces, Dan Coates recovers the rebound for the Mammoth and passes it down the floor to Ilija Gajic. Gajic runs towards the net undefended with a Mammoth player as back up. Gajic has so much time to shoot, it looks more like a penalty shot than a breakaway. Gajic shoots it 5-hole scoring with a bounce shot. With under a minute left in the quarter, Tyler Hass undefended scores on Belanger from the crease.
Colorado Mammoth 4, Minnesota Swarm 9
3rd Quarter
Minnesota starts off the second half aggressive getting in the first shots on goal but unable to score on a refreshed Chris Levis. Rory Smith recovers a rebound for the Mammoth and he and Mat MacLeod run down the floor. Smith shoots, Tyler Carlson blocks and MacLeod scoops up the rebound and quickly shovels it in for a goal. Jordan McBride scores for the Mammoth off a pass from Derek Hopcroft on a bounce shot before defenders are able to get to him to cut the Swarm’s lead to three. Josh Gillam scores midway through the quarter after catching a shot rebound off the post. Mammoth initially challenge the goal as Gillam’s feet may have been in the crease before the ball crossed the goal line, but before the goal was reviewed, the Mammoth picked their challenge flag back up. With just over three minutes left in the quarter, Jamie Lincoln recovers a dropped pass and manages to score. On the next play, Dan Coates capitalizes on a breakaway opportunity after Ilija Gajic wins the face off to bring the Mammoth within two. With about thirty seconds remaining in the quarter, the Swarm get a pair of back to back goals from Crawford and Jordan MacIntosh.
Colorado Mammoth 8, Minnesota Swarm 12
4th Quarter
Ryan Benesch notches a pair of goals, one using a screen, the other on a power play, to kick off the 4th quarter. Chris Levis is again pulled from net. Jordan MacIntosh and another Swarm player immediately get a 2:0 opportunity against Tye Belanger with MacIntosh getting the goal. Immediately on the next play Scott Stewart channeling some Geoff Snider snags the face off ball, runs down the floor, shoots as he’s falling and scores. Mammoth get the ball again the next play. Adam Jones catches a behind the back pass from John Grant Jr and takes it to the corner. On the next play, after the Mammoth recover the Swarm rebound. Cameron Holding passes the ball to JGJ as he comes off the bench. JGJ catches the pass and continues to run down the field towards Carlson. JGJ takes the shot and scores the single season record tying point. In the play that will go down in the record books, with over four minutes left in the game, an undefended JGJ catches a pass from Jamie Lincoln and shots from the outside to score on the power play and bring the Mammoth within three of the Swarm. With a minute and a half remaining in the game, Jay Card undefended at the top of the crease catches a pass and shoots over the defender trying to catch up to him. Despite repeatedly pulling Belanger for the extra attacker, the Mammoth are only able to notch one more goal. Jamie Lincoln has the ball and is running around the back side of the net, Carlson knocks Lincoln’s stick, the ball bounces out of the pocket and on to the ledge, hits the glass and goes back into Lincoln’s pocket. Lincoln continues running around the back of the net and shoots and scores before Carlson is able to get back in to position.
Final:
Colorado Mammoth 13, Minnesota Swarm 16
Attendance: 11,297
1st Star – Tyler Carlson, he kept his cool throughout the game and most importantly for the Swarm, during the 4th quarter flurry from the Colorado Mammoth. Facing 55 shots on goal and making 42 saves was huge in the Swarm winning.
2nd Star – Ryan Benesch, he had three goals on five shots and four assists and was a leader on the floor.
3rd Star – Jordan MacIntosh, not only was MacIntosh a loose ball machine, he had two goals and four assists plus he did well in the faceoff circle which definitely had an impact on the game.
Around the League:
Philadelphia Wings 7, Rochester Knighthawks 9
Toronto Rock 12, Edmonton Rush 11
Buffalo Bandits 17, Washington Stealth 16 OT
Playoff Schedule for Week 1
Friday, May 4
Philadelphia Wings at Rochester Knighthawks, 7:30pm ET, NLL Network
Saturday, May 5
Buffalo Bandits at Toronto Rock, 7pm ET, TSN & NLL Network
Minnesota Swarm at Colorado Mammoth, 7:30pm ET, CBS Sports Network
Edmonton Rush at Calgary Roughnecks, 9pm ET, NLL Network
