The Colorado Mammoth hosted the Calgary Roughnecks at Ball Arena Saturday night in the first of two matchups this season. Both teams were coming off losses in Week 13 – the Mammoth dropping a home game to Las Vegas, and Calgary losing to Rochester. The big news of the week centered around Calgary acquiring goaltender Nick Rose in a trade with Toronto. Unfortunately, Rose’s debut did not go as planned, with the Mammoth getting an 11-8 win to improve to 7-5 on the season. Colorado has a bye next week, then plays at Philadelphia in Week 16. The Roughnecks drop to 6-6 going into a home-and-home series with the league-leading Buffalo Bandits the next two weeks.
All Mammoth in the first half
The first quarter was all Mammoth, as Will Malcom (5:46) opened the scoring. Eli McLaughlin followed with back-to-back goals (6:34; 7:25) to make it 3-0. Thomas Vela (14:06) and Tyson Gibson (14:42) then scored in the final minute and Colorado led 5-0 after one quarter of play. Calgary finally got on the board in the second quarter with markers from Curtis Dickson (2:58) and Tyler Pace (7:30). But Malcom countered with his second (11:36), and Ryan Lee (12:58) restored a five-goal lead for Colorado. The Mammoth took a 7-2 edge into halftime.
Mammoth keep Roughnecks at bay
The Roughnecks got a pair of goals from Tanner Cook (1:35; 4:21) and Curtis Dickson’s second (14:33) in the third quarter. However, the Mammoth countered with Lee’s second (2:28), McLaughlin’s hat trick goal (4:59), and Vela’s second (11:39) as the lead remained at five goals, 10-5 after three quarters. Calgary closed the gap to three when Cook (4:32) and Pace (5:32) scored a minute apart in the final quarter. McLaughlin netted his fourth (10:15) to make it 11-7. The Roughnecks could only muster one more goal, courtesy of Dane Dobbie (13:07) as the Mammoth prevailed. These teams meet again on the final weekend of the regular season.
Other Stats of Note
Roughnecks: Cook (3g, 2a); Pace (2g, 2a); Curtis Dickson (2g, 2a); Dobbie (1g); Haiden Dickson (3a); Jesse King (2a)
Mammoth: McLaughlin (4g, 1a); Lee (2g, 5a); Malcom (2g, 1a); Vela (2g, 1a); Gibson (1g, 2a); Connor Robinson (5a)
Nick Rose (CGY): 46 saves, including the 7,000th of his career; Dillon Ward (COL): 49 saves
Justin Inacio (CGY): 15-23 faceoffs
Power Play: CGY 0 for 5; COL 0 for 2
