While the term Battle of Alberta is usually reserved for when Edmonton and Calgary face off, the past few seasons, the Mammoth have had their own Battle of Alberta facing off against both Edmonton and Calgary in back to back games. Playing a barn to barn game is tough enough but at least you’re playing a team that also played the previous night. The Mammoth headed into Alberta faced with the challenge of playing not just two different teams but two strong division rivals. They definitely had their work cut out for them and they rose to the challenge.
Colorado Mammoth at Edmonton Rush
1st Quarter
If there was any doubt in Colorado’s mind that Edmonton came to win, the first five minutes of the game definitely erased it. The Rush took a commanding three goal lead with a bounce shot goal before the game hit the minute mark, followed by a phenomenal play from Zack Greer where with a combination of faking and fancy footwork he was able to get around his defender and shoot one over Levis’s shoulder. Not to be left out, Scott Evans scored on an outside shot.
Rookie Adam Jones gets the Mammoth on the board with a crease shot from a behind the net pass from John Grant Jr. Sean Pollock scores off a diving shot but it’s waived off for crease violation and understandably, since it’s still very early in the game, there’s no challenge from the Mammoth bench despite it looking like a good goal. Zack Greer answers with his own assisted by Shawn Williams. Jones gets his second goal assisted by Sean Pollock to close out the quarter.
Colorado Mammoth 2, Edmonton Rush 4
2nd Quarter
While Edmonton started off strong and the Mammoth offense looked flat and unfocused, the second quarter was a whole other story with Colorado dominating completely. The Mammoth offense looked good. It was hard to believe it was the same team. Levis found his groove and the defense prevented a lot of shots as well. Again assisted by Pollock, Jones starts off the scoring notching a hat trick as the only Mammoth player to score. John Grant Jr scores an unassisted goal on a running shot from the outside bouncing it five hole. In a beautiful play, Pollock spins to the outside of his defender to break away and score with a crease shot. The Rush stop the bleeding for nearly eight minutes before Jed Prossner scores his own unassisted goal followed by Jones scoring his fourth on the night.
Colorado Mammoth 7, Edmonton Rush 4
3rd Quarter
Early in the third quarter, Mammoth rookie Jamie Lincoln blasted a hard shot at Rush goalie Aaron Bold only to have it ricochet off the side of Rush defender Jim Quinlan’s head ringing his bell. Zack Greer opened up the scoring with his hat trick goal four minutes in. In a questionable call for a game that hadn’t been remotely chippy, Mammoth player Rory Smith and Rush player Scott Evans both receive two minute roughing penalties for a non-fight. Apparently in the East coast, they get full on team brawls, however, on the West, mild pushing and shoving is the same penalty. The next play John Grant Jr scores his second goal of the game followed by Gavin Prout with a power play goal. In a beautiful underhand five hole shot, Shawn Williams follows up with his own power play goal for the Rush launching the Edmonton into their own run. Corey Small followed by Ryan Ward with his own power play goal and Brett Mydske to tie it up. With four seconds remaining in the quarter, John Grant Jr scores his hat trick goal on the power play to take back the lead.
Colorado Mammoth 10, Edmonton Rush 9
4th Quarter
Thirty seconds in, Adam Jones kicks off the final quarter with his 5th goal assisted by John Grant Jr. Tom Johnson scores his first goal of the night followed by a pair of goals from Ryan Ward, (one of them a shorthander), to take the lead for Edmonton. John Grant Jr dashes Edmonton’s hopes though by scoring both the tying goal and with fifteen seconds left, the game winner. Both teams made a lot of mistakes and it’s obvious it’s early in the season, but both teams showed potential and their next meeting February 4th in Denver should be exciting.
Final
Colorado Mammoth 13, Edmonton Rush 12
Attendance: 8, 192
1st Star – Adam Jones, the rookie had 5 goals (4 of them in the first half), a 41.7% shot percentage, and was second in loose balls.
2nd Star – John Grant Jr, hard to argue with 5 goals, especially when his last two tied the game and subsequently won it. He also had 4 assists and 6 loose balls.
3rd Star – Scott Stewart, there’s plenty of discussion about how important face offs are and whether having a dominant face off guy a la Geoff Snider is important or not, but as Stewart won 22 of 29 including key moments like the end of the game, this at least is one instance where the face off guy had a huge impact.
Colorado Mammoth at Calgary Rush
1st Quarter
Coming from across the crease, Sean Pollock makes the most of the first Mammoth possession scoring 47 seconds in. A Minute later, Daryl Veltman scores with a low hard shot going top shelf on a power play provided by John Gallant. (Unfortunately, what happened was off camera. Gallant was charged with a minor roughing, but game play was stopped and the trainer came out to check on him and he looked like he was in a lot of pain walking to and sitting in the box. By the look of it, he may have been lucky he only had to serve about 10 second of the penalty.) In the first of what would be many Roughneck illegal substitution penalties, John Grant Jr. capitalizes almost immediately to retake the lead. Kaleb Toth scores on the next play to knot it back up and kick off a Calgary run. Scott Ranger and Shawn Evans both score on the power play followed by Curtis Manning. Derek Hopcroft stops Calgary’s run heading in to the second quarter and on the assist, John Grant Jr scores his 1,000th career point.
Colorado Mammoth 3, Calgary Roughnecks 5
2nd Quarter
Rookie Jamie Lincoln starts things off scoring for the Mammoth in the first minute followed by John Grant Jr on a penalty shot forty seconds later after the Roughnecks were served with a trio of penalties for delay of game (Kaleb Toth), illegal substitution and unsportsmanlike conduct (Dane Dobbie). Mammoth Captain Gavin Prout scores his own power play goal a minute later followed by a power play goal from Gavin Prout to retake the lead. Daryl Veltman and Curtis Dickson each score a goal in under twenty seconds to retake the lead. And that was just the first three and a half minutes! Adam Jones scores on the power play for the Mammoth to tie the game, but Veltman immediately follows it up to give Calgary back the lead. Pete McFetridge scores a short hander after Mammoth take a shot, fail to get the rebound and Mike Poulin passes it down the floor to give McFetridge a clear one on one opportunity.
Colorado Mammoth 7, Calgary Roughnecks 9
3rd Quarter
For as heavy scoring and back and forth as the second quarter was, the third quarter was relatively quiet aside from penalties. Midway through the third, Shawn Evans scored on the power play followed by Scott Ranger making it look easy as running ahead of his defender he catches a pass from Shawn Evans and scores from the crease to give the Roughnecks a four goal lead, but John Grant Jr scores a short hander and in an unusual circumstance Derek Hopcroft recovers a rebound off a bad Calgary pass that bounced off the ref to score his second goal of the night to cut the lead back to two.
Colorado Mammoth 9, Calgary Roughnecks 11
4th Quarter
Curtis Manning starts of the scoring with a one on one break away to take Calgary back up to a three goal lead. In a play that would get anyone else benched for even attempting, John Grant Jr scores on a no look behind the back shot to the top right corner. Jones gets his own breakaway chance to score bringing Calgary’s lead down to one. Chris Levis may have had some rough moments early in the game, but the fourth quarter was all about Levis standing on his head making tension inducing saves. Especially against Dane Dobbie who was relentless, peppering him with one shot after another. Adam Jones scores his hat trick goal on the power play to tie the game. Levis continues to make one phenomenal save after another to keep fans of both teams on the edge of their seats as the game goes to over time.
Colorado Mammoth 12, Calgary Roughnecks 12
Overtime
As expected, Geoff Snider won the faceoff for the Roughnecks giving them a definite advantage in overtime however Levis is able to block the shot, Mammoth get the rebound. In a “what in the world were you thinking” move, Shawn Evans clearly intentionally trips the Mammoth player giving the Mammoth a man up advantage which Gavin Prout uses to his advantage to score the winning goal.
Final
Colorado Mammoth 13, Calgary Roughnecks 12
Attendance: 9,341
1st Star – John Grant Jr, four goals and six assists in this game was huge.
2nd Star – Adam Jones, the second highest scorer on the night with three assists, and instrumental in sending the game to overtime.
3rd Star** – Chris Levis, Calgary had plenty of opportunities in the fourth including stonewalling Pete McFetridge on a breakaway, with ten seconds left, and a diving shot from Dane Dobbie, who went zero for fourteen on the night, immediately afterwards but Levis stopped them all. Without Levis’s performance in net the last quarter, Calgary would have had the game in the bag.
**Gavin Prout was a strong consideration for third star, especially as not only did he have the overtime game winner, he also had another goal and four assists, however, in a game where their opponent was capitalizing on power plays, he had 7 penalty minutes because of his tussles with Andrew McBride.
Around the League
Washington Stealth 9, Philadelphia Wings 10 OT
Buffalo Bandits 12, Rochester Knighthawks 9
