Defenses Shine in 7-5 Mammoth Win Against Swarm
Interviews with Mammoth Head Coach Pat Coyle, goaltender Dillon Ward, and Swarm Head Coach Ed Comeau
Photo Credit: Kyle Hess/Georgia Swarm
Defenses and goalies dictated the narrative in Saturday’s rematch between the Colorado Mammoth (3-2) and Georgia Swarm (2-3) at Gas South Arena, with the Mammoth getting revenge with a 7-5 win in enemy territory.
Nearly 49 minutes of play passed before an even strength goal was recorded by Shayne Jackson, one of only two settled goals scored all night. Transition and special teams were where success had to live, with both teams potting a pair of power play goals, a shorthanded marker, and the Mammoth aggressively pushing the pace for a pair of fast break tallies.
Part of the penalty troubles for the Swarm was Jeff Henrick’s 5-min. major for an illegal cross check on Jack Hannah late in the second quarter, knocking Hannah sprawled flat on his stomach and clearly in immense pain. He left for the locker room and didn’t return until minutes into the third quarter, tripling his jersey number from 33 to 99 since his original sweater bore the aftermath of that hit, one which left him needing stitches in his chin and missing some teeth.
After scoring the first goal of the game, the Swarm trailed from the second quarter on. Jackson’s even strength marker in the fourth got them within one, but a Swarm defensive breakdown left Thomas Vela all alone with a lane straight towards goalie Brett Dobson, and Vela potted the game-winner shortside, the only 5-on-5 goal for the Mammoth. Colorado weathered an unsettled goal from Georgia’s captain Jordan MacIntosh and battened down the hatches for the final stretch, with Warren Jeffrey scoring an empty net goal to end the game, 7-5.
Mammoth goalie Dillon Ward finished the night with 39 saves for an .886 Sv%. Jalen Chaster’s 3 PTS (3A) led the visiting team in scoring, as seven different Mammoth players recorded a goal in the win.
Dobson was the busier goalie and finished the night with 50 saves and 6 goals against, giving him an .893 Sv% and strengthening his early case for Goaltender of the Year. Lyle Thompson also led his team with 3 PTS (1G, 2A), as Jackson was the only multi-goal-scorer in Saturday’s contest.
Photo Credit: Kyle Hess/Georgia Swarm
Mammoth Head Coach Pat Coyle
What's the immediate feeling following such a defensive battle like that?
I’m tired. I can't imagine how the players feel. That's a grind. But I don't know, I sort of feel that's sort of the identity I think that we want to be, man. It feels like that's how we were when we were successful in the past, a lot of it was on our defense and our goaltending. I love the new guys that we've brought in. It's funny how just, you know, I think there's a bit of addition by subtraction, like, taking a few guys out of lineup, and then the new guys that come in, and it just elevates everything. So, it's nice. Defense is awesome.
That addition by subtraction, is that just on the defensive end that you're talking about?
No, I say it's on the O, too. And the O, we're still figuring things out. I'm sure the league knows, but their (Georgia’s) defense is really good, too. They make you play fast, they're all big. Like, if you look at the stats of how big they are — and their goaltending is fantastic, too. So, I think we did a great job. We had a lot of good looks. We just didn't finish.
Yeah, it felt like early on, you guys really had an emphasis on dictating the pace, really pressuring unsettled and then transition all game long. Was that kind of the plan?
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, we want to play fast. Under control, but we want to play, like, a high tempo game, and our defense is stepping up a lot and taking away time and space, so for sure. I feel like we got more athletic this year. But I feel that's the way the league is going, you know, the league, the games are so much faster than they were before. So we’re just part of that, I think.
Do you think that kind of factors into the fact that it about 49 minutes for an even strength goal to get scored?
Maybe a bit. I think part of it's the goaltending. 5-on-5, it's funny, like the beginning of the season, the scores were low, and then the last weekend, the scores started getting higher and higher, and you sort of think the O is starting to figure it out, you know, like, it takes them a few games to sort of gel, and that's obviously not the case tonight. But, yeah, I don't know. I don't know if we're going to score as many goals as we did last weekend. I think Andrew Kew being in the lineup, he’s usually good for a couple goals, so that'll make a difference.
Any update on him?
I think he's close, he's close.
When Hannah took that stick to the face, did all the blood kind of necessitate replacing the sweater?
For sure. He got a bunch of stitches in his chin, two teeth knocked out, so, yeah, it was bad.
When you saw him go down, what was the thought going through your mind, like another guy getting seeming to get injured?
Maybe in the back of your mind, but I think if you're really into the game, you're just, okay, what are we gonna do about that, and how bad is it? And it looked like when he got up that it's just sort of all like surface damage, you know? It looked bad, but I think he was okay, so we knew he was coming back.
So, final one for, you’ve got Halifax ahead, losing the back end of their doubleheader tonight 16-9. They’re going to be going back to their barn, and you guys are heading there. How do you build off of this where you're trying to get the offense to be cohesive despite all the injuries and everything?
I think how we felt the last two games, like, after the game — as a player, I remember games like this where you come into the dressing room, and you're gassed. You're just in, you have blood on your knees, and you're sore, but there's nothing better than that feeling, and you sort of know what it took to feel that way, you know what I mean? And I feel like that is, that's like a drug, like you want more of that. So, if you can sort of get everyone like, wanting that drug, I think we'll be fine.
Photo Credit: Kyle Hess/Georgia Swarm
Mammoth Goaltender Dillon Ward
Off the top, what’s your immediate reaction to that defensive battle?
It's kind of indicative to how we have to play, right? We're not gonna be able to rely on just one guy. We're just gonna have to go out there and battle and make sure that we're executing our game plan, and things will kind of take care of themselves.
It certainly seemed like you guys on the defense were executing that, really choked up the middle, were positioned really well off of those rebounds. Just what was really working for you guys tonight?
Yeah, I don't think it's any secret, you know, our defense wants to take up a lot of space, force them into bad angle shots or shots from far out, right, and protect the middle of the floor. I thought we did that really well. When they had a couple of looks from the inside, I able to make a couple saves. Overall, our defense played extraordinarily well and forced them to take a lot of shots from that they probably didn't want to take, and we came out successful.
You see Hannah go down before half and everything, you're not sure how severe all of that is, but what's the message throughout the game to eventually get the result that you got?
We just got to keep executing, keep grinding. Like I said, we can't rely on one person, and obviously, you know, Jack is a huge piece for us, and it sucks to see him leave for a little bit. It was great to see him come back, but we can't change our game plan, we can't change our message. We just have to go out there, grind, and make sure that we're taking care of business.
I'd be remiss if I didn't ask. What was the thought process on chasing the ball ahead of the MacIntosh goal?
From what I saw, they only had one guy pressing, and my plan was to pick up the ball and kind of flick it to space over top of MacIntosh’s shoulder where we had three guys and they had none. Obviously, I have an unlucky play with Timmy (Tim Edwards), taking me out there, but I thought I was going to be able to kind of put it to space for our guys to get it.
Tim picking up the tab tonight?
I hope so.
Last one for you, you guys stay on the road, head to Halifax. They dropped the back end of their double header this weekend. How do you use a game like today’s and the last one, kind of build on that momentum and make sure that it carries?
Yeah, I think the great part is we won two different games, right? We won a shootout last week, and we won a defensive grind this week. So, it shows that we can win different ways. They're a very veteran team. They're a team that's kind of been on that cusp and looking to take that next step to be a championship team. So, we know they're going to be coming out hungry. We're going to have to take care of ourselves and make sure that we're ready for their offensive power.
Photo Credit: Kyle Hess/Georgia Swarm
Swarm Head Coach Ed Comeau
Lyle's not hurt, right, like, no more than normal in an NLL season?
I mean, he's not hurt.
He's always banged up.
Yeah, he's banged up. He plays hard. He gets a lot of attention. Would he like to be healthier? Sure. I think that would be the right way to say it. Is he 100 percent?Probably not, but a lot of guys aren’t 100 percent, right? Once you get into the season, and especially now when we’re in a stretch where we're going to play a bunch of games.
The thing that I noticed from tonight's game, the penalty stuff doesn't help you guys, your offense can't rhythm or anything. It really felt like you guys were trying to manufacture anything. Trumble played a couple O shifts, MacIntosh primarily played out the front door. Were you trying to do anything to get some success on that right side, one that's not working at this point?
I thought tonight we had some good chances. Dillon Ward was really good. The last game, we scored seven 5-on-5 goals where we swung the ball, we made things happen. I thought their defense blocked a ton of shots. I'm curious to see what the number is; it seemed like a lot. We said from the beginning, we knew our left side was going to be really solid. We had to find the right mix, and we're still working on that. Mac played a whole bunch of O tonight, and he moves bodies, pushes people around, and yeah, so it's a working progress. I think there's a number of teams in the league that would say the same thing about their offense with some of the lower scoring games, right? People are still trying to figure stuff out.
Is MacIntosh doing too much right now?
No. Mac's a great leader, and Mac wants to win. If we told Mac he had to go in the net and play goal, he would do that for us. He’s one of our oldest guys, but he's probably in the best shape of anyone on the team in terms of conditioning. He logs a lot of minutes. He's always logged a lot of minutes. We're asking him to let those minutes be a little bit different, but I don't think we're overtaxing him. I think he'd say he'd probably want to play a little more if he could.
So, look ahead, you guys got Calgary. It's gonna be in Edmonton, so technically a home game for you guys, but really more of a neutral site. At this point, it feels like the defense that you guys have is solid, not that you're not going to prep for Calgary, obviously you're gonna do that, but the systems that you have in place and the way Dobson’s playing right now, there's not really a worry there. What's the message to the offense? How do you try and right the ship as soon as you can?
It's easy to settle for shots, right? And if we're settling for shots, outside shots, and that's all we're taking, then you become easy to defend, and it becomes harder to defend against the transition for the other team. We took a lot of outside shots, a lot of which didn't get through. We didn't get the balls on net. We didn’t find a way to get them through to the net. Playing with energy, playing with some speed — I thought we looked a little sluggish out there tonight offensively, like we didn't run into picks. In this game, the teams are so good that if we're not playing with energy, things just don't click. So, we’ve got to play faster and play harder. We've got the guys to do it. We’ve got to find a way to get the ball to the net. I thought that was a big difference tonight. We got outshot. I don't know what the total was, but it was was substantial. At one point, I looked up, and—
It was like 47-31 or something at the end of the third.
Yeah, and I don't think we only took 31 shots at goal. I bet we took 60 shots at the goal and just didn't get a bunch through and missed the net. So, we have to we have to find a way to make it happen.
