After earning an 11-7 victory on Friday night in Colorado, the Edmonton Rush host the Mammoth on Sunday in the second game of their weekend series.
Following Edmonton’s Friday win, they are now tied with Colorado for first place in the West Division, both at 3-2, so this game is of particular importance to both teams.
On Friday the two teams had a see-saw battle in the first half with neither team able to get more than a one-goal lead. It was a different story in the second half when the Rush went on a six-goal run to put the game away.
The Mammoth need to get this win to get back on track. After winning three straight to start the season, they’ve now dropped two in a row. The big difference has been their offense, which averaged an incredible 19 goals a game during the winning streak; they’re only scoring 10 goals per game during the current losing streak.
Their defense has been steady but unremarkable so far, surrendering 13 goals per game on the year, giving up as many as 16 to the Calgary Roughnecks in Week 2 and as few as nine to the Vancouver Stealth in Week 4.
Edmonton has taken the opposite trajectory, losing their first two before finding their momentum and winning their last three. After a little shaky play on the defensive end to start the season (23 goals against in the first two games), they have kept opponents to fewer than 10 goals in all three of their wins.
Their offense meanwhile has also been getting better and better as the season has progressed. After being held to just eight goals in Week 1, the Rush have stayed in the double digits since, including 16 against the Calgary Roughnecks in Week 4 and 18 against the New England Black Wolves in Week 5.
For the Mammoth to have a chance on Sunday, goalie Dillon Ward will have to shake the sophomore jinx and make some big stops to keep his team close.
Edmonton, on the other hand, just needs to keep doing what they have been doing: challenge every shot Colorado takes and keep giving Mark Matthews and Ben McIntosh the ball on the offensive end.
The action gets underway at 4:00 pm MT at Rexall Place in Edmonton.
