The Week 5 contest between the Vancouver Warriors and the Colorado Mammoth may have been the most wild game in recent history, ending in a 12-11 OT win for the Mammoth.
I am going to try my best to portray this to y’all, but I highly suggest you rewatch this one. Let’s start from the top, and we’re sorry in advance, Vancouver faithful. Vancouver jumped out to a five-goal lead in the first 4:58 of game play. Hot start, right? Should probably be a win, right? Oh, please hold. Vancouver then proceeded to score all 11 of their goals in the first half. Colorado, the never-say-die club that they are, proceeded to shut out Vancouver in the third, fourth, and overtime period, to get their first victory of the year 12-11. For all of you who are numbers and math people, that scoreless streak for the Warriors was a total of 34:17. Let’s get to the action.
As we said, Vancouver had the best start a team could ask for. Five-straight goals in such little time, against a world-class goaltender such as Dillon Ward, is almost unheard of. Goal scorers in that run were Kevin Crowley twice, James Rahe, Riley Loewen, and Adam Charalambides. Zed Williams finally stopped the bleeding for Colorado, but Crowley had the answer 30 seconds after for his hat trick. Crowley’s third also chased Ward from the game for the second time in the first ten minutes of the first quarter. Williams got his second and was followed up by Jordan Gilles’ first, but once again, Crowley had the answer with his fourth. No, you didn’t miss something, this is still the first quarter. Connor Robinson notched his first to close out the frame. 7-4 Warriors after one.
Surely you can figure out that the second quarter for Colorado was not pretty either. Crowley continued his phenomenal game with his fifth, but Tyson Gibson answered with the Mammoth’s only goal in the frame. Vancouver scored three-straight going into the half, two from Charalambides, both on the power play, giving him the hat trick, and the other from Keegan Bal. 11-5 Vancouver at the break. Stunned silence at the Loud House. Little did Vancouver know, the fun was over.
“Coach gave us the green light to shoot the ball,” said Crowley. “I was lucky to find my spots early. The most important goal is the next one, and that’s the mentality going forward.”
Well Kevin, sorry to disappoint, but that didn’t exactly hold true.
The goaltender situation for Colorado was a bit messy in the first half. Ward, between his two stints, stopped 3 of 8 in 8:42 of game play. Tyler Carlson came on in relief and struggled a bit, but as we know, he really settled in in the second half. As for Vancouver, Aaron Bold was stout in the first half, but clearly had a rough second.
Cue the 34:17 Vancouver scoreless streak. Credit where credit is due, Colorado came out a completely different team in the second half. Are you ready for more numbers and times? Here we go. The Mammoth scored four goals in the third quarter to Vancouver’s zero. The scorers for Colorado were Gibson, his second, Robinson twice, giving him a hat trick, and Eli McLaughlin. All four of those goals were scored in 1:17. Time between goals was 49 seconds, 19 seconds, and nine seconds. All of a sudden it was 11-9 Vancouver after three and the momentum had flipped.
The fourth quarter was a defensive and goaltending masterpiece from the Mammoth. Carlson was stout and the Mammoth offense did exactly what their defense needed them to do. Only two goals were scored in the frame, one from Tim Edwards at the 14:50 mark, and one from McLaughlin at the 5:52 mark. After 60 minutes, we were deadlocked at 11. Why wouldn’t there be overtime in a game like this?
The intensity in the overtime period was through the roof. The Loud House regained their infamous nickname and the boys were buzzing. Bal and the Warriors thought they won it, but after review it was a crease violation and we played on. At the 10:47 mark of OT, Robinson came streaking off the bench, received a pass and fired a missile past Bold for the winner. Ball Arena is probably going to need some construction due to the cracks in the roof from it nearly blowing off. Your final from the Loud House, 12-11 Mammoth. Let’s all catch our breath.
Players of the game for Vancouver were Crowley (five goals), Charalambides (3+4), and Bal (1+4). Bold had the tale of two halves in net, stopping 40 of 52. For Colorado, Robinson (4+3), Williams (2+4), and McLaughlin (2+2) led the way. Carlson was sensational in the second half, stopping 27 of 33 in 55:31 of game play.
“That’s what I’m here for, right?” said Carlson after the game in a televised interview. “If Dillon has a blip, that’s what I’m here for, to be a rock wall behind him. I just feel like we settled down and we started playing our system.”
Colorado (1-2) assuredly wants to forget about the first half of that game, but not the result. They travel to Buffalo (1-2) for an NLL Finals rematch this Saturday at 7:30pm. Vancouver (1-3) is the opposite. They have to remember everything they did in the first half, but forget the second. They have a week off to make it right before they travel home to take on Calgary (1-2) on January 13th at 10pm.
