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Swarm Game 7: Colorado avalanche


The last time we saw the Colorado Mammoth, they had stolen a 15-14 overtime victory in a game the Swarm players and coaches admitted they let get away. Last night they returned for the Swarm's third rematch of the season. Having already won their first two rematches (against the Roughnecks and Stealth), Minnesota needs another win to climb back into the thick of the Western Division race. Looks like a bigger crowd than we've seen for the last couple of games. Will they, and I, be going home happy?

First quarter: It took almost five minutes for someone to finally put a ball into either net. That someone was Alex Gajic, the youngest of the three Gajic brothers playing for Colorado. One of the others, Nenad, assisted on the goal and would do the same for the third brother, Ilija, just 30 seconds later. Two minutes after that, Brian Langtry made it 3-0 on a nasty submariner from the quarter-line. Meanwhile the Woolies' defense has been stout as well, not allowing the Swarm many passing lanes and even fewer clear shots on net. The Swarm finally got on the board with less than three minutes to go, ironically on a shorthanded goal. Transition giant Richard Morgan snagged the ball to end a Colorado scoring chance and then went coast-to-coast and through two defenders to finally get his first goal of the 2010 campaign, after several near-misses in the first six games. Mammoth 3, Swarm 1.

Second quarter: Minnesota's Ryan Benesch and Colorado's Jed Prossner quickly swapped goals to make it 4-2, then Swarm defender Eric Pacey stick-faked high and shot low to beat Mammoth goalie Chris Levis and cut the lead to 1. Kevin Ross tied it on a power play goal a couple of minutes later. The score remained tied until just over two minutes left in the half when Callum Crawford struck on his signature right-to-left dive across the goal crease - and again just 21 seconds later, this time on a sharp-angle shot from the right side, and the Swarm had the lead going into halftime! Another fight broke out as time expired, but it wasn't nearly as wild as the one in last week's game. No one left either bench and no penalties were handed out to start the third quarter. Swarm 6, Mammoth 4.

First-half video highlights

Third quarter: Jamie Shewchuk scored from near the left faceoff dot to cut the lead in half. That's when the wheels started to come off the Wooly-wagon, much to the delight of the home crowd. Benesch got the goal back two minutes later, soon followed by Aaron Wilson on a beauty of a play set up by Tim Campeau and Callum Crawford. Less than a minute later Crawford netted one of his own from near the right faceoff dot to complete the hat trick. Meanwhile Swarm netminder Nick Patterson has had one of his best games in recent memory, albeit against a Mammoth offense that hasn't tested him much since the first quarter (12 shots on goal in the first, just 13 combined in the 2nd and 3rd). But as it turns out, the Swarm's best was still to come. Swarm 9, Mammoth 5.

Fourth quarter: Just over a minute into the final stanza, Kevin Ross fed Sean Pollock from behind the net to double up the score. Then Crawford got his fourth and most spectacular goal of the evening on a shot behind his own back! Ross snared a Wilson rebound off the end boards to make it 12-5, and the rout was on. Andrew Leyshon replaced Levis in the Woolies' net, but to no avail. The Swarm offense spent most of the rest of the game milking the clock, but still piled on three more garbage-time goals by Wilson, Benesch and Pollock while the defense held Colorado to just five fourth-quarter shots on goal, all handled by Patterson. Final score: Swarm 15, Mammoth 5.

Second-half video highlights

Closing thoughts: You don't see blowouts like this very often in the NLL. Even so, tonight's result was not much of a surprise. The Mammoth are a young team in the midst of a rough rebuilding season, and went into St. Paul tonight against a Swarm squad that has already knocked off the defending champs (Calgary) and the last unbeaten team (Washington) at home this season. After a 1-4 start the Swarm have climbed back to 3-4, scoring a combined 31 goals in their two straight wins, and now find themselves right back in the thick of the West Division playoff picture. Their third and final meeting with the Mammoth is next weekend in Denver. That's where we'll find out whether last night's avalanche of a win was a fluke or the real deal.

Official game box score