Mammoth take a bite out of the Rush

The Saskatchewan Rush’s home floor woes continued on Saturday night when they fell 12-6 to the Colorado Mammoth at Co-op Field at the SaskTel Centre.

Saskatchewan got off to a quick start by jumping out to a 3-0 lead. Ryan Keenan opened the scoring 35 seconds into the game and Ben McIntosh and Mark Matthews added power-play markers.

Chris Wardle and Josh Sullivan got the Mammoth within one, but Jeff Shattler made to 4-2 for the Rush to end the first period.

The wheels fell off for the Rush as the Mammoth would go on to a five-goal run. Scoring for the Mammoth was Eli McLaughlin with two, Wardle with two and Joey Cupido to make it 7-4 Mammoth at the half.

“I think we thought it was going to be easy and we had a good start and then we stopped playing, simple as that,” said Rush head coach and general manager Derek Keenan.

“We had too many defensive breakdowns, we didn’t play hard enough on offense. I thought we had a lot more grit and energy the second half but when you get down a few of them with the goaltending they have they are tough to come back on.”

Warren Jeffrey would open the scoring in the second half for the Mammoth. Ben McIntosh stopped the bleeding with his second goal of the night and his 200th career goal.

“It seems a little bittersweet after a loss like that but maybe in a couple of days I can reflect on that,” McIntosh said.

Colorado would put together another run on four goals between the third and fourth quarters with two goals from Wardle and single goals from Ryan Lee and McLaughlin to make it 12-5. Shattler would add a later marker to rough out the scoring.

With the win, the Rush and Mammoth move into a tie for first in the West Division with the Rush at 3-2 and the Mammoth at 4-3.

Top Scorers
SSK
Ben McIntosh (2g, 1a)
Mark Matthews (1g, 2a)
Jeff Shattler (2g)
Robert Church (2a)
Connor Robinson (2a)

COL
Eli McLaughlin (3g, 4a)
Robert Lee (1g, 6a)
Chris Wardle (5g)

Shawn Slaght

Shawn Slaght has been a sports reporter across the Canadian prairies for over 10 years and has experience covering everything from junior hockey to World Cup skiing to all levels of lacrosse. He is the Saskatchewan correspondent for All Lacrosse All The Time.