Sting Down Colorado, 15-12, Clinch Playoff Berth
by Andrew Nordmeier
April 10, 2005 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Arizona Sting
The Arizona Sting clinched its first-ever playoff berth with a hard-fought 15-12 win over the Colorado Mammoth Saturday night at the Glendale Arena.
When Arizona held a 13-12 lead with four minutes play, the Sting (8-6) turned to assistant captain Dan Dawson to get them over the hump. Dawson scored the game's final two goals in a 41-second span and iced the win over the 8-7 Mammoth.
First, Dawson buzzsawed his way through the Colorado defense, spun out of a check from a Mammoth defender and beat Colorado netminder Gee Nash high to give Arizona a two-goal cushion.
On Arizona's next possession, he bull-rushed the Nash's net and wasn't going to let a pair of Mammoth defenders get in his way. Dawson split between them, beat Nash again, and gave Arizona a three-goal lead with 2:24 left.
"Dawson's been our go-to guy all year and tonight's no different," Arizona head coach Bob Hamley said.
Although Colorado pulled Nash for the extra attacker, they didn't take any high quality shots and saw time, the game, and their tie-breaker with the Sting tick away.
"I thought it was a great lacrosse game," Hamley said, "It was intense, there was definitely a playoff atmosphere."
Combined with Calgary's 14-9 loss to Buffalo Saturday night, here's how the Western Division looks following this game.
Calgary's the king of the mountain 9-6, Arizona is a 1/2 game back at 8-6 while Colorado sits at 8-7. Next weekend, Calgary hosts 11-3 Toronto, Colorado heads out to Rochester to meet the 9-6 Nighthawks and Arizona has a home-and-home series with 4-10 Anaheim.
If the Sting wins one of its two games, they will lock up a home play-off game in the first round, most likely against Colorado. Should Arizona sweep Anaheim and Calgary loses to Toronto, the Sting will win the division and get a first-round bye. That would force Colorado to travel to Calgary in the first round. Calgary has tie-breakers over both playoff teams while Colorado is on the short end of those same tie-breakers.
"Every game from here on out is a playoff game." Hamley said. "Things are up for grabs."
The Sting played like a team that was hungry for the playoffs and didn't want to back into the postseason. They came out very strong in the first quarter, holding Colorado off of the board for the first 9:43. They got strong goaltending from Mike Miron who stopped 49 of 61 shots in the winning effort. Arizona didn't get caught often in transition and played a solid game on both ends of the floor.
Jonas Derks (three goals, four assists) and Pat Maddalena (one goal, five assists) led Arizona to victory. Dawson had a hat trick to go with two assists. Lindsey Plunkett added a Woolery with his two-and-two effort while Craig Conn lit the lamp twice in the win.
On the other side of the ledger, Gary Gait led the Mammoth with a six-point night (two goals, four assists). Randy Daly and Brian Langtry added hat tricks while Dan Stroup rang up a Woolery in the losing effort. Nash stopped 36 of 51 Arizona shots he faced.
Arizona finished 3-of-7 on the power play while Colorado was a perfect 3-of-3 with the man advantage.
Notes:About 30 Mammoth fans made the drive down from Denver, travelling all night Friday to make it to the arena about an hour before the game started...Colorado outscooped Arizona 95-85 in the loose ball division...Gary Gait led all players with 13 shots on goal...Paid attendance was 6,735.
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National Lacrosse League Stories from April 10, 2005
- Rock refuse to lose - Toronto Rock
- Wings Rocked By Toronto 14-13 - Philadelphia Wings
- Toronto to Host 2006 All-Star Game - Toronto Rock
- Toronto to Host 2006 NLL All-Star Game - NLL
- Sting Down Colorado, 15-12, Clinch Playoff Berth - OSC Original by Andrew Nordmeier
- Anaheim Storm Fall Short in Overtime Against Minnesota - Anaheim Storm
- Rock Take Down Wings in Second Game of Series - Toronto Rock
- Buffalo gets revenge - Calgary Roughnecks
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
