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Thankfully for the legion of Colorado fans, the Mammoth decided to wake up and smell the playoffs in the fourth quarter last night, riding two goals from both Gavin Prout and Jamie Shewchuk to a 10-9 win over the Edmonton Rush and the fourth and final spot in the Western Division postseason.

With the teams tied 5-5 after the first half, a defensively-dominated third quarter saw the Rush go up 6-5 as only Andy Secore was able to find the back of the net. Prout pulled the Mammoth into a 6-6 tie early in the fourth, but Edmonton’s Jimmy Quinlan struck while shorthanded to put the Rush back in front.

Enter Shewchuk and his first of the game, making it 7-7 on the powerplay. The Mammoth took their first lead of the quarter six minutes later when Gary Rosyski buried a feed from Brian Langtry and Shewchuk, but in pesky Rush fashion, 16 seconds later Callum Crawford made it a tie game. Another 16 seconds later Shewchuk passed off to Prout for the 9-8 lead, with Prout returning the favour just over one minute later, assisting on the Shewchuk goal that put the Mammoth in front 10-8 and ended up being the game-winner. Mike MacLeod would score for the Rush with 34 seconds remaining but it wasn’t enough to end the Mammoth’s seven year playoff streak.

In addition to Prout and Shewchuk’s four pivotal points, the Mammoth got two goals and one assist from Tyler Crompton and the older Chris Gill, Rosyski scored one and assisted on three, and Langtry put up one and two. Andrew Leyshon stopped 30 of 39. For the Rush, Chris Levis made 41 saves while Andy Secore scored four and assisted on two, and Dan Teat set up five goals.

The Mammoth will face the Calgary Roughnecks in the first round of the playoffs.

• Rush flushed: Edmonton Sun
• “[Prout] had to step up in the fourth quarter. He wasn’t good in the first three.” Edmonton Sun

Calgary Roughnecks 12 Portland Lumberjax 9

The Lumberjax began a long crawl back from an 8-2 deficit in the third quarter last night, but too little too late just doesn’t cut it against the number one team in the league as the Calgary Roughnecks took the 12-9 win to end their season 12-4.

Josh Sanderson scored one and assisted on seven to lead the Roughnecks, while Jeff Shattler, Scott Ranger and Tracey Kelusky each scored three. Kaleb Toth added four assists. Matt King stopped 43 in net while Bruce Codd picked up 11 looseballs in front of him.

For the Jax, Peter Morgan scored two and Matt Flindell made 41 saves including 24 in the first half. The Roughnecks are set to host the Colorado Mammoth in the first round of the playoffs, while the Jax will welcome the San Jose Stealth.

• “We tried to tell ourselves it meant a lot, but the game didn’t mean a lot.” Oregonian

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