New England defeats Colorado 10-6, will face Rochester this weekend in another must win
In a very important game, the New England Black Wolves (8-8) defeated the Colorado Mammoth (10-7) by a score of 10-6 last Saturday night in front of 15,303 fans at The Pepsi Center.
Prior to winning last week versus Calgary in overtime, the Black Wolves lost four straight games making every game now a playoff game for them as they head into Rochester this Saturday, April 21, on a modest two-game winning streak.
Kevin Crowley led the way for New England scoring five times against Colorado. His second goal at 11:16 of the first quarter set the veteran’s career high in goals with 46. He would tickle the twine three more times giving him 49 on the season with two games remaining.
Colorado played sloppily for most of the game. If not for Dillon Ward the game would have been a lot worse then 4-1 after the first quarter. The Mammoth were outshot 10-1 in the first seven minutes of the game. Aaron Bold was just as strong as the Mammoth started to put some offensive pressure on.
The Mammoth are already locked into the second seed in the west and will host the Roughnecks in a single-game elimination in round one of the playoffs. But even though it seemed as if they played the game to not get hurt, their offense struggled mightily. The Mammoth, who never held the lead in the game, endured three big dry spells.
It was 10:49 between their first two goals, then another 20:42 between goals three and four. The final dry spell was after they scored on the power play at 1:12 of the fourth quarter to draw within three. That would be their final goal of the contest. The Mammoth only capitalized once on three power play chances, including a five minute major.
This weekend the Black Wolves are again in a must-win situation. A win this weekend over Rochester could make the final game winner-take-all against Georgia. A loss to the Knighthawks could all but eliminate the Black Wolves, as all Georgia would need to do is beat Vancouver next weekend to clinch.
New England will be in for a big battle as Rochester has a lot on the line as well. A win for the Knighthawks will lock up a playoff spot. Should the Bandits lose in their game against Toronto, the Knighthawks would clinch a home playoff game.
In order for the Black Wolves to win this weekend, they cannot play as sloppily as they did against Colorado, and must stay out of the penalty box. New England has already won the season series. On January 13th the Black Wolves won 9-8 in Rochester, then eight days later they picked up a 11-9 win at Mohegan Sun.
