Sports stats



NLL Colorado Mammoth

Mammoth routs Rush

April 18, 2008 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Colorado Mammoth News Release


DENVER - The Colorado Mammoth, which had won all five previous meetings with the Edmonton Rush, took the dominance of its division foe to a higher level on Friday night.

A relentless power play and record-setting defensive performance gave the Mammoth a 15-4 victory in front of a season-high crowd of 18,301 at Pepsi Center.

The victory, by the largest margin of the season, ensures the Mammoth (8-6) will finish no lower than second place in the National Lacrosse League's West Division. The team will host a West Division Semifinal playoff game, likely to be played on Saturday, May 3.

"It was a total team effort tonight," Mammoth coach Bob McMahon said. "We weren't happy with our play last weekend and I was happy to see us respond."

The Mammoth and Rush (4-10) meet again on Saturday at Rexall Place in Edmonton at 7:30 p.m.

Colorado, which entered the game ranked fourth in the league with a 44.4 percent success rate on the power play, converted on 8-of-12 extra man chances.

Meanwhile, goaltender Gee Nash and the Mammoth defense allowed the fewest goals in team history, breaking the previous record of six. Nash finished with 31 saves on 35 shots.

Mammoth captain Gavin Prout had a game-high seven assists, bringing his league-leading total up to 63. He needs eight assists in the last two regular-season games to tie Josh Sanderson's NLL record of 71, set in 2005 with the Toronto Rock.

Jamie Shewchuk led the Mammoth with four goals and Nick Carlson added three. Brian Langtry scored twice, tying Gary Gait's Mammoth team record of 149 goals.

Jed Prossner, who also had two goals, scored with a hard shot from a bad angle early in the second quarter to give the Mammoth a 7-1 lead. The shorthanded tally prompted the Rush to replace starting goaltender Curtis Palidwor with backup Matt King. Palidwor stopped 12-of-19 shots and King came in to make 25 saves on 33 shots.

The Mammoth reeled of three power-play goals in a 2:21 span of the second quarter to extend the dominance to 10-1. Carlson then scored his second goal of the night to give Colorado an 11-1 halftime lead, marking the first time in team history the Mammoth has allowed only one goal in a half.

The Mammoth went 3-for-3 on the power play in the first quarter, helping to build a 6-1 lead early in the game.

Injuries piling up

Already missing Dan Carey (concussion) and Jim Moss (shoulder), the Mammoth took another blow Friday when Josh Sims left the game with a sprained ankle. He will not play Saturday night in Edmonton.

Check out the Colorado Mammoth Statistics

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

National Lacrosse League Stories from April 18, 2008


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