Sports stats



NLL Colorado Mammoth

Mammoth drop home opener to Lumberjax

January 10, 2009 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Colorado Mammoth News Release


DENVER - Just one night after defeating the LumberJax in their season opener at Portland, the Colorado Mammoth dropped their home opener 14-5 to the LumberJax Saturday night at Pepsi Center. The loss evened the Mammoth record at 1-1 while Portland earned its first win of the season and pushed its record to 1-2.

It was a game that saw Colorado outshoot Portland 56-41 on the night, but just couldn't covert shots to goals early on. "We played hard in the first half, we just weren't rewarded with goals - it was frustrating," Mammoth head coach Bob McMahon said following the game.

The Mammoth drew first blood on a Bryan Safarik goal just 1:45 into the first quarter. But before the Pepsi Center crowd got settled in their seats, the LumberJax reeled off five consecutive goals - initiated by a Brodie Merrill tally just two minutes following the Safarik score. Despite being outshot in the first half, Portland continued the onslaught in the second quarter with six unanswered goals to take an 11-1 lead into the halftime locker room.

Colorado came out and showed signs of life in the third quarter when forward Matt Danowski, making his NLL debut, buried the ball into the net with 9:03 left in the period. That goal was followed by a Brian Langtry score just over a minute later to cut the LumberJax lead to 12-3 and give the restless Pepsi Center crowd of 16,978 a shot of energy. That was short lived, however, as Portland scored again just thirty seconds later on a Matt Brown goal to push the margin back to ten at 13-3. The Jax would tack on one final third quarter goal while the Mammoth added a Dan Carey goal and a second Danowski goal in the fourth to make the final 14-5.

"They were pretty hungry and aggressive tonight," added coach McMahon. "They were 0-2 and knew that falling to 0-3 would be a tough start to recover from. It was a learning experience for everyone tonight. It's just tough to come back from a ten goal deficit in this league."

The two debut goals by Danowski led the Mammoth in scoring. Carey pitched in with an assist to go with his goal, while Brian Langtry and Bryan Safarik each scored a goal for Colorado. Portland got a hat trick plus three assists from forward Ryan Powell. Peter Morgan and Derek Malawsky each scored two goals and added a combined four assists. Brodie Merrill tallied a goal and two assists in the win.

Colorado has next week off before facing the Edmonton Rush on Saturday, January 24 at Pepsi Center. Tickets for all Mammoth home games are on sale now at the Pepsi Center box office, all Ticketmaster retail centers, online at Ticketmaster.com and by phone at 303.830.TIXS or 719.520.9090.

Check out the Colorado Mammoth Statistics

• Discuss this story on the National Lacrosse League message board...

National Lacrosse League Stories from January 10, 2009


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central