Riding the momentum wave of a two-game win streak, the Buffalo Bandits (3-1) poured it on in the second half and never looked back to come away with a commanding 16-9 victory over the Colorado Mammoth (1-5) on Saturday during military appreciation night at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado.
The win this evening for the Bandits is their second road victory this season and their third win overall in a row. With tonight’s loss, the Colorado Mammoth are now in the throes of a four-game losing streak.
Ryan Benesch led the Bandits to their third victory of the season as he recorded eight points on one goal, seven assists and four loose balls. Besides Benesch, Dhane Smith also had an incredible night for the Bandits as he was the recipient of the team’s 212 helmet award. Smith’s award winning performance this evening consisted of six points on four goals, two assists and eight loose balls.
Leading the way for Colorado this evening was the NLL overall points leader Adam Jones who added onto his league-leading totals with five points on three goals and two assists. In second place overall in points for the NLL this season is his teammate John Grant Jr. Grant also accrued five points on two goals and three assists.
With three overall losses out of four games to open this season, this futility prompted Mammoth general manager Steve Govett and head coach Bob Hamley this past week to make some necessary changes to their current roster in hopes of turning the 2014 season around. The Mammoth released Jamie Lincoln #44 transition and Jordan McBride #14 forward. On Wednesday, the Mammoth signed free agent Athan Iannucci #23 forward and promoted defender Mike McNamara to the active roster from the practice squad.
These new roster upgrades for the Mammoth were still not enough as they lost on Friday to the Vancouver Stealth with a 14-13 overtime road loss and now tonight with their 16-9 loss to the Bandits. Maybe there are other factors at play causing the Mammoth to accumulate these losses.
One possible reason could be the Mammoth’s schedule. The scheduling this season for the Mammoth has been especially grueling on everyone involved in the organization. The Bandits were well-rested, having arrived in Denver on Friday. The Colorado Mammoth players came into tonight’s matchup with the Bandits pretty worn down due to them playing their fourth game in nine days and second in 24 hours.
“We were running on four hours sleep,” said Colorado forward Sean Pollock. “We got into town at three o’clock this afternoon. This league’s tough. They didn’t do us any favors this weekend, but you’ve got a game to play. You’ve got a job to do and we didn’t do it.”
The Bandits capitalized on the Mammoth’s fatigue early into the game as they jumped right out of the gates to a 4-0 lead early on into the first quarter on a goal from Dhane Smith, two goals from Steve Priolo and a goal from Andrew Watt.
“You can’t spot any team in this league the number of goals we did in the beginning and expect to be on top in the end,” said newly signed Mammoth forward Athan Iannucci.
It took the Mammoth almost the entire first quarter before they would finally be able to get on the scoreboard. Drew Westervelt scored the lone first quarter goal for the Mammoth on an Air-Gait goal against Bandits goaltender Anthony Cosmo. Entering tonight’s game against the Mammoth, Bandits defender Steve Priolo had six goals in 54 games. Priolo would respond to the Westervelt goal with a hat-trick and the final goal of the first quarter for the Bandits to give them the 5-1 lead heading into the second. Mammoth starting goaltender Tye Belanger was pulled from the game after allowing that fifth goal for the Bandits. Belanger had 11 saves on 16 shots with a GAA of .688.
With Belanger pulled at the end of the first quarter for the Mammoth, Hamley placed their 2013 third overall pick Dillon Ward in net to finish the game.
Joe Resetarits scored his first career goal as a member of the Bandits to open the scoring of the second quarter. The Hamburg, N.Y. native and new off-season acquisition from the Calgary Roughnecks recorded it on a low shot that beat Colorado goaltender Ward.
After Adam Jones responded to the Resetarits goal with his own Air-Gait goal against Cosmo, newly added Mammoth active roster addition Michael McNamara (also former Buffalo Bandits defenseman) took a five-minute major for high sticking at 2:05. The Buffalo Bandits in that five minute span were unable to take advantage of the opportunity and that penalty kill momentum helped fire up both the Colorado Mammoth and the Pepsi Center crowd.
Colorado went on a 4-1 run with two goals from Grant Jr., one from Jones and one from Sean Pollock to help close the gap to a one goal 7-6 Bandits lead. Dhane Smith would tally his second goal of the evening after the Mammoth run to keep the Mammoth at bay with an 8-6 Bandits lead heading into halftime.
Dhane Smith took charge in riding the Bandits’ wave of momentum into the second half. Almost four minutes into the third quarter, Dhane Smith would complete his natural hat trick on a give and go goal from Mark Steenhuis and a rocket over the shoulder of Mammoth goaltender Ward.
Dhane Smith’s teammates would finish riding the momentum wave by going on a 4-1 of their own with goals from Kevin Brownell, Mark Steenhuis, Ryan Benesch and Andrew Watt to keep the lead further out of the Mammoth’s grasp and ending the third quarter with a 14-7 lead. The lone Mammoth goal in the third was scored by the newly acquired Iannucci.
Jones and Iannucci cut into the Bandits seven-goal lead to make it 14-9 to start the fourth quarter. But, the Bandits answered back with two goals of their own from Steenhuis and Resetarits to make it a 16-9 game.
Bandits’ goaltender Anthony Cosmo held the Mammoth scoreless over the last 12:30 in the fourth quarter to seal the victory. Cosmo earned his third victory of the season with 32 saves on 41 shots with a GAA of .791.
Buffalo returns home for a Saturday, January 25th 7:30 pm faceoff against the back-to-back defending NLL champion Rochester Knighthawks.
