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MAMMOTH GET RUSHED IN HOME OPENER

Edmonton grabs first win of 2010 with 14-13 win in Colorado

01/16/2010

By Ron Knabenbauer for NLL.com

Down by two goals and protecting an empty net, the Colorado Mammoth were on the verge of sending Saturday night's game into overtime.

After forward Jaime Shewchuk scored with 33 seconds to play in regulation, Colorado regained possession at midfield with seconds remaining and an open Edmonton Rush net on the other side.

The eventual shot would get blocked, giving the Mammoth their second straight loss as they fell to the Rush 14-13 in front of 15,178 in attendance in the team's home opener at Pepsi Center on Saturday night.

"We knew we had to get two," said Colorado head coach Bob McMahon on the final minute of the game. "I think we hit two or three posts before we finally got one, and we just happened to chew up so much time in getting the 13th. It would have been nice if one of those first ones went in, then we might have had another minute to get the 14th goal, but at least they battled right down to the end."

Forwards Brian Langtry and Ilija Gajic both had seven point nights for Colorado with Langtry finishing with three goals and four assists while Gajic finished with four goals and three assists in his second NLL game.

On the Rush (1-1) side, forward Ryan Ward led Edmonton in scoring with a seven point night as well with tallying four goals and three assists. Andy Secore and Dean Hill also had good nights for the Rush with both finding the back of the net three times in the victory.

In his return to Denver, Rush forward Gavin Prout was held without a goal, but did add a game high seven assists. The former Mammoth captain was honored in the first quarter with a video tribute, and was cheered when he was put on the jumbotron screen afterwards.

After being down 10-6 in the beginning of the third quarter, the Gajic brothers of Ilija and Alex took over the game, contributing four goals in a five goal run to give Colorado their first lead since the early stages of the first quarter. Ilija would get three red lighters in the run while younger brother Alex would get one. Forward Cliff Smith would also contribute a goal in the run.

The older brother Ilija said that his teammates helped him get open during the run and that allowed him to capitalize on his chances.

"I felt like my shooting was getting a little bit better as the game went on," Gajic said. "I was getting a little lucky there, but my teammates spread the floor open for me at that point of the game. When you get your chances like that you have to capitalize on them when your team is working that hard for you."

Edmonton would answer back with a four goal run of their own, just enough to hold off the late Mammoth rush.

After being held scoreless in the first period of their season opener against the Stealth, the Mammoth wasted no time in getting on the board first against the Rush as Langtry scored 56 seconds into the game to give Colorado the early one goal lead.

After firing 11 shots and not getting a single goal in last week's game, Langtry said that he wanted to have a better outing then the one that he had in Washington.

"When I have the first goal of the game, I usually have a pretty good game," Langtry said. "If I don't score early then I usually don't score. That is the way it's been. I wanted to come out and play better because I didn't play well last week."

The Rush would answer Langtry's opening goal with two of their own from Hill and Ward before Colorado's Shewchuk tied the game at two apiece. Edmonton would outscore Colorado 7-4 in the rest of the first half.

Goaltender Andrew Leyshon got the nod in net for the Mammoth after Curtis Palidwor was injured in the first half of last week's game. McMahon said Palidwor will be out six to eight weeks after having surgery on the oval bones around his eye on Thursday.

Leyshon would finish the game with 23 saves from 37 Edmonton shots while his counterpart on the other side, Matt Disher, would stop 41 of Colorado 54 shots.

Colorado did get the better part of Edmonton in the special teams department, capitalizing on four of their eight power plays. The Rush went 2-for-6 with the man advantage

Next up for the Mammoth is a pair of road games on back-to-back nights beginning with the Minnesota Swarm next Friday Jan. 22 at 8:35pm ET, before heading to the city of brotherly love to take on the Philadelphia Wings on Saturday at 7 pm ET.

The Rush's next game will be their home opener on Saturday Jan. 23 against the Buffalo Bandits at 9 pm ET.