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A hot start couldn’t help the Saskatchewan Rush down the stretch in a 12-6 loss to the Colorado Mammoth Saturday at SaskTel Centre.
Saskatchewan scored three goals in the opening five minutes and nine seconds before the Mammoth woke up and outscore the Rush 12-3 in the rest of the game.
Head coach Derek Keenan felt his team rested on the lead.
“We stopped playing,” Keenan said. “I think we thought it was going to be easy and we had a good start and then we stopped playing. It’s as easy as that.”
Schematically, Keenan felt all the plays were there, just not the execution. Missed chances on offence coupled with a Mammoth team making the Rush pay turned Saturday into a long night.
“It seems like when we had a breakdown, (the ball) ended up in the back of our net,” Keenan said.
Ryan Keenan scored at the side of the net 35 seconds into the game.
A Rush power play made quick work of the just over two minutes later. Ben McIntosh scored a dozen seconds into the man advantage at the side of the net after a slick pass from Mark Matthews.
Two minutes and 15 seconds later, Matthews unloded a long distance shot to widen a 3-0 lead early.
That momentum wouldn’t last.
“Maybe we thought we were going to run away with this one and they didn’t have any quit. They came back and punched us pretty quick in the mouth after that,” McIntosh, who scored his 200th goal in the loss, said after the game.
After 4-2 Rush lead after the first quarter, but five unanswered Mammoth goals in the second period would give Colorado a 7-4 at halftime.
Led by Chris Wardle, Eli McLaughlin and Ryan Lee, the Mammoth needed limited chances to pile up the lead made worse by a long-distance bounce shot that sneaked through the legs of Rush goalie Evan Kirk.
The onslaught continued in the second half when the Mammoth scored another four consecutive goals in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach for good.
Wardle ended the game with five goals. McLaughlin netted three goals to go along with four assists. Lee registered one goal and six assists in the win.
Making matters worse for the Rush is navigating a tricky start to the schedule.
After opening the season on Dec. 14, the team had a two week break before a trip to New York on Dec. 28. Another two weeks off before the team traveled to San Diego last week, making Saturday’s game the first time the Rush played in consecutive weeks.
“It’s not great, but we’re not going to use that as a crutch,” Keenan said. “Tonight we just didn’t have it.”
Now Saskatchewan has another two weeks off before hosting the Mammoth for a rematch on Feb. 8.
“Especially after a game like that – you want to get back out there,” McIntosh said of the rematch. “It’ll be nice when we get into a rhythm.”
In an usual twist since moving to Saskatchewan five seasons ago, the Rush haven’t won a home game since April 27, 2019.
“That’s not like us. Typically, we’ve been a pretty good home and road team over the years. It’s disappointing for us and I’m sure it’s disappointing for the fans,” Keenan said.
