After finishing in second place in the NLL West Division the Colorado Mammoth’s season came to an end last weekend with an 11-6 loss to the Calgary Roughnecks in the first round of the playoffs.
Following two years where the Mammoth finished below .500, their 9-9 record was certainly an improvement, but the early exit from the postseason has to be considered disappointing.
Colorado got off to a torrid start, reeling off three wins to open the year and scoring a whopping 57 goals in that time. The remainder of the season was a bit of a mixed bag, with occasional lapses on both the offensive and defensive ends.
Colorado was held to nine goals or fewer in six games, including a five-goal game against the Rochester Knighthawks in April. On the other end, they gave up 14 or more goals six times, including 17 goals surrendered to the Toronto Rock in March.
But when they were on, they were really on. In their nine wins, they were a plus-35.
There were some significant individual performances in 2015 as well.
Adam Jones led the team in scoring with 93 points and 51 goals, both easily career highs. John Grant Jr. had yet another fine season, with 91 points. Along the way, Junior moved up into second place in NLL history in both goals and points, passing Gary Gait and Colin Doyle, respectively.
Defender Robert Hope set a rookie record by causing 28 turnovers and rookie netminder Alex Buque posted outstanding numbers (9.36 goals against average, .808 save percentage) when called into duty following an injury to starting goalie Dillon Ward.
After acquiring rookie forward Jeremy Noble from the Rochester Knighthawks at the midpoint in the season (Noble had refused to report after being selected second overall in the draft), he recorded 39 points in nine games to finish fourth in Mammoth scoring, including a seven-point outburst in his very first game.
With great performances from so many young athletes, things look bright for Colorado going forward. Strength on both sides of the ball should mean continued improvement for years to come.
