After a tumultuous season, it’s official – The Mammoth have missed the playoffs for the first time.
Although a slow start, heading into the second half of the season, the Mammoth had the potential to turn it around. But despite the amount of control and influence they still held over their playoff potentials, when it really came down to the Mammoth needing to step up… they just couldn’t seem to do it.
Winning the game against the Calgary Roughnecks last week would’ve had a positive effect on their chances. Not only because they notched one more win, but because the Minnesota Swarm lost,it wouldn’t have made their game against the Boston Blazers a must win combined with a Swarm must lose situation.
The game between the Mammoth and the Blazers could be described with several words – calamity, circus, disaster, contentious, defensive, offensive, disturbing, wild, questionable… and the list goes on. However, none of them accurately depicts the game.
The game was certainly defensive. Going into halftime, the score was Blazers 3, Mammoth 2.* The first goal wasn’t scored until just over 4 minutes remained in the first quarter, the second three minutes later; both by Boston. With the quarter almost over, the Mammoth went on the power play but were unable to convert.
Unfortunately for the Mammoth, while Chris Levis and the Mammoth defense kept the Blazers scoreless for 11 minutes, Anthony Cosmo and the Blazers defense kept the Mammoth scoreless for over 21 minutes until Jed Prossner broke the scoring drought.
It certainly didn’t help the Mammoth that the offense struggled much in the first quarter, dropping several passes and giving Cosmo easy shots to block. Missing rebounds and loose balls resulted in the Mammoth defense being on the floor more than the offense.
While some fans were excited to see Ilija Gajic back in the line-up after fighting illness, many others couldn’t help but question the coaches’ decision. After all, the team finally seemed to be clicking, it was a pivotal game and Ilija hadn’t played since early in the season. It could be argued that Ilija had such a large impact in the first few games that not playing him now that he was better didn’t make sense. However, he looked rusty and was a big part of the passing issues.
Overall, other than a couple of minor skirmishes with one resulting in matching penalties as the second quarter wound down, the first half was pretty quiet. The second half was anything but.
*To begin with, as halftime ended, in an extremely questionable call, it was announced that Crew Chief, Chet Couture, had re-reviewed Alex Gajic’s goal during halftime and determined that it was not a goal. The goal in question had originally been determined good upon review, overturning the call on the floor. Couture’s reasoning behind the re-review behind closed doors? He claims he was not provided the correct footage for review.
Regardless of whether this was for or against the Mammoth, Couture’s decision completely undermines the purpose of the replay system. The first question one has to ask, if he didn’t recognize it as being incorrect footage at the time immediately after it happened, how would he recognize it as such several minutes later? The second question has to be, is that even within the scope of the official rules?
In what seems to have become the NLL standard this season, inconsistent refereeing reared it’s ugly head once again. Minor calls are one thing (and there’s often some fan bias) however, watching players picked up and tossed to the ground in front of the ref, players hit from behind, again in front of the ref… with no call? Although, in a rare call, Boston received a penalty call for “divingâ€.
The third quarter remained relatively defensive, with Jamie Shewchuck, Cliff Smith and Jed Prossner each scoring once for the Mammoth. Mat Giles notched one and Dan Dawson two for the Blazers to end the third quarter Boston 6, Mammoth 4.
The fourth quarter is when the melee started.
At the request of the Colorado Mammoth, Boston Blazer goalie Anthony Cosmo’s equipment was checked by the refs, overseen by Mammoth Assistant Captain, Bruce Murray, and Blazers Captain, Dan Dawson.
Cosmo’s equipment was found to be illegal. He received a 2:00 illegal equipment penalty in addition to a 10:00 game misconduct which resulted in him being ejected from the game.
It’s interesting to note that the Mammoth have now faced 8 goalies in four consecutive games.
It became apparent two minutes in to the fourth quarter that the refs were rapidly losing control of the game. As sometimes happens, between plays, several fights broke out although penalties were only handed out to five players. At one point Paul Dawson swung a right hook at Jamie Shewchuck, missed and hit the ref trying to break it up. Amazingly enough, neither of them received a penalty.
At another point Jonathan Dumo, who had received a penalty for fighting, nearly came to blows with the Mammoth announcer Willie B. One of Dumo’s teammates (Greg Downing or Kyle Ross) temporary tempered the fight by separating the men by pushing the penalty box door between them. However, even while sitting on the bench, Dumo didn’t want to let it go and while Dumo didn’t seem to receive any further warnings, Willie B mentioned after the game that he was threatened with a 5:00 penalty against the Mammoth if he continued.
Needless to say, the fracas brought to mind the Mammoth’s final home game of their inaugural season against the Albany Attack which resulted in a bench clearing brawl close to the end of the game.
Alex Gajic, Jamie Shewchuck and Rich Catton all scored goals for the Mammoth. Although the Mammoth kept him from shooting from the crease, the defense struggled to completely stop “Dangerous†Dan Dawson. He scored twice more from further out to bring his total to five. Jon Harnett also notched a goal as the clock wound down to end the game Blazers 9, Mammoth 7.
Adding insult to injury, the Minnesota Swarm lost their game againt the Philadelphia Wings in overtime.
The Colorado Mammoth play their final game of the season against the Calgary Roughnecks, Friday, 7 pm MDT at the Pepsi Center.
Attendance: 15,104
Around the League:
Buffalo Bandits 7, Orlando Titans 9
Rochester Knighthawks 7, Toronto Rock 15
Calgary Roughnecks 15, Edmonton 14 OT
Philadelphia Wings 13, Minnesota Swarm 12 OT
Edmonton Rush 14, Washington Stealth 13
