Mammoth 4th Quarter in Colorado
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17, 811 fans showed up for game one of the 2008 NLL season and although the Mammoth Fans had a scare, they eventually went home happy. The Mammoth overcame an 8-4 deficit to score 6 straight goals enroute to a 10-9 victory. NLL refs have a tough job – especially with rules changing every year- so I try not to bash them. However I thought that they were “whistle happy” on Saturday and the game’s turning point was a double minor against Curt Malawsky at the end of the third quarter. With the score 8-5 for Calgary and seconds remaining in the quarter, Calgary forced a turnover deep in the Colorado end. After a couple of quick passes Curt Malawsky was in alone on Nash. The buzzer went seconds before his shot beat Nash and referee Rick Lum correctly waived off the goal. However he also gave Malawsky a minor for “delay of game” and an additional minor for “unsportsman like” (which I’m sure Malawsky earned). Given the crowd noise, how quickly Malawsky shot after the buzzer, and the fact that it was a harmless inside shot; I was very surprised that he got a penalty. Jamie Shewchuk scored 2 goals while Malawsky was in the box and the momentum was all Colorado’s for the rest of the game. The Mammoth went on to score a short-handed goal, an even strength goal and another power play goal. Gee Nash also came up big in the last minutes of the game to preserve the victory.
While he was generally happy with the effort, Calgary coach Troy Cordingly felt that his team ran out of gas. “We did a great job killing penalties, mostly because of Chugger, but it caught up with us in the 4th quarter”.  Calgary was without veteran defender Andrew McBride and face off man Devon Wray who will both be back for their next game on January 12th at home to San Jose. Coach Cordingly said that Scott Ranger (2 goals, 1 assist) was his best forward and also said that rookie Dane Dobbie (1 g, 1 a) made some “big league decisions” and has earned a spot in the starting lineup for the next game. Dan Carey scored 2 goals and 5 assists to lead Colorado and former Roughneck Jason Wulder had 3 goals including the game winner. The next Mammoth game is January 12th when they host Edmonton.
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