The Colorado Mammoth erased a 6-1 deficit at the half to come from behind and defeat the Vancouver Warriors 11-7 on Friday night in their home opener.
The Warriors dominated the first half, mainly through transition. Owen Grant is making an early push for Transition Player of the Year with three transition goals—two in the first quarter and his hat trick marker in the second.
It was a stark contrast to the Mammoth, who had Connor Robinson listed as a healthy scratch. The defense looked out of place at times, which did not bode well for starting goaltender Dillon Ward. Meanwhile, the Mammoth offense had spurts where they just didn’t seem to be on the same page.
However, it was a tale of two halves. After going down by five, the Mammoth outscored the Warriors 10-1 in the second half. Colorado was led by Connor Kelly, who scored four goals in the second half, and Zed Williams, who added three goals.
Ward finished the game stopping 35 of 42 shots, while Aiden Walsh stopped 32 of 43 shots in the loss.
And a big milestone for the Mammoth’s Eli McLaughlin. With two assists in the game, he moved into second in Mammoth history with 318 helpers, overtaking the great John Grant Jr.
First Quarter
Vancouver got off to a quick start, with Marcus Klarich opening the scoring 2:44 into the game.
Grant’s transition game then came alive. He put one past Ward at 8:01 on the clock and followed that up by causing a turnover in the defensive end and scoring on transition at 9:41 to give Vancouver a 3-0 lead.
The Mammoth finally got on the board with 1:01 left in the quarter when Thomas Vela found the back of the net, as Colorado trailed 3-1 at the first break.
Second Quarter
The Warriors widened their gap by outscoring the Mammoth 3-0 in the second quarter.
Adam Charalambides scored off a feed from Keegan Bal with 4:44 left in the first half. Grant continued to show off his speed, scoring his third transition goal with 2:54 remaining.
Bal added a marker of his own on the power play with three seconds left on the clock, as the Warriors held a 6-1 lead.
Third Quarter
Yet, we’ve seen this song and dance before from the Warriors. They jump out to a large lead and let it slip away. While on paper this is a much-improved team, Vancouver “Vancouvered” themselves once again.
Kelly opened the third-quarter scoring at the 2:26 mark on the power play. Williams followed that up just over a minute later, and suddenly it was a 6-3 game.
Bal scored his second of the game with 4:11 to try and stop Colorado’s momentum.
However, Kelly scored off a feed from Robert Hope with 9:01 left in the third, and Williams rounded out the scoring with 2:28 on the clock, as the Mammoth trailed 7-5 heading into the fourth quarter.
Fourth Quarter
The wheels fell off completely for the Warriors in the fourth quarter, as they were outscored 6-0.
Williams drew first blood 35 seconds into the fourth, and Kelly scored on the power play at 2:47 to tie the game 7-7.
Kelly would find the back of the net again 2:10 later, and that would stand as the game winner.
https://twitter.com/MammothLax/status/1862738870065865089
But the Mammoth weren’t done yet. Vela scored his second with 3:32 on the clock to put Colorado up by two. Jordan Gilles added another to make it 10-7 before the fireworks went off.
Ryan Lee scored with 10 seconds on the clock, and tempers flared by the benches. The Warriors’ Jackson Suboch was in the middle of it all. He racked up 37 minutes in penalties during the melee, including three game misconducts, fighting, and leaving the players’ bench. Including a delay of game penalty he had earlier in the fourth quarter, Suboch racked up a total of 39 penalty minutes in Friday night’s game.
The following is clips from the post-game press conference:
Top Scorers
Colorado Mammoth
Connor Kelly, 4g 3a
Zed Williams, 3g 1a
Will Malcom, 4a
Vancouver Warriors
Owen Grant, 3g
Keegan Bal, 2g 1a
Adam Charalambides, 1g 1a
Kevin Crowley, 2a
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