Mammoth Improves to 2-0 after Victory in Arizona

[Sonny]

GLENDALE, AZ --- The Arizona Sting fell to the defending NLL Champion Colorado Mammoth on Friday night by a score of 10-6 at Jobing.com Arena. After jumping out to an early 2-0 lead, Arizona was unable to find any offensive rhythm against the stellar Mammoth defense, scoring only four times in the game's final fifty-seven minutes. Sting forward Craig Conn, who tallied 2G-2A-4P in the loss, was surprised at the lack of offensive production accumulated by his squad.

"I definitely didn't think we'd have any problems scoring this season," said Conn. "I give a lot of credit to Colorado's defense, but the bottom line is we didn't get the job done out there tonight. There's definitely a lot to work on for us, that's for sure."

Dan Dawson opened the game with a goal 1:01 into the first period, taking a feed from Peter Lough and wiring a shot to the back of the Mammoth net for the Sting's first goal of 2007. Fellow All-Pro Craig Conn followed with a goal of his own 1:57 later to make the score 2-0 in favor of the home team. Sting goalie Rob Blasdell made a big save off of Mike Law midway through the quarter to preserve the two-goal advantage for Arizona. Jeremy Cornfield beat Blasdell at the 8:57 mark of the opening frame to put Colorado on the scoreboard. Cornfield's tally proved to be the final goal of the period, and the Sting closed their opening quarter of the season with a 2-1 advantage.

The Mammoth opened the second period with a goal off the stick of sophomore forward Dan Carey. The Sting regained the lead shortly thereafter, as Lindsay Plunkett took a feed from Craig Conn and beat Mammoth goalie Gee Nash low to make the score 3-2. Colorado's Josh Sims tied the match at three apiece with 8:16 remaining in the first half. In the second quarter's final minute, both Dan Carey and Josh Sims registered goals to put the Mammoth up 5-3 at the end of the first half.

The Mammoth came out strong in the third quarter, beating Blasdell twice (on goals by Law and Carey) to take a 7-3 lead. Andy Secore's first career NLL goal pulled the Sting to within three, and Dan Dawson's second tally of the game cut the Colorado lead to two 6:27 into the third period. After some quality chances at both ends of the turf, the Mammoth scored the game's next goal courtesy of Josh Sims to pull ahead 8-5 at the end of the third period.

Brian Langtry opened the fourth quarter with his seventh goal of the season to put his team up by four 0:24 into the period. On the power play, Craig Conn unleashed a rocket of a shot that beat Nash to earn the star forward his second goal of the game and pull the Sting back to within three of the Colorado lead at the 5:44 mark. With 4:29 remaining in regulation play, Dan Carey netted his fourth goal of the game, diving from behind the Arizona net and sneaking a shot past Blasdell to give the Mammoth a 10-6 lead.

Sting Head Coach Bob Hamley was disappointed in his team's performance Friday night.

"We really wanted to win this game for all the great fans that came out to support us," said Hamley. "Colorado is a great team and they showed everyone tonight that they haven't lost anything since their championship season a year ago."

When asked to find a bright spot in the discouraging loss to their divisional rivals, Hamley pointed to his defensive unit and starting goaltender Rob Blasdell, who made 34 saves in the loss.

"Rob is our staring goalie and we have a lot of confidence in him," said Hamley. "I thought our defense played very well as well – when you can keep a guy like Gavin Prout from scoring any goals, you know you're doing something right, so we'll have to build on what we did well and try and fix the areas that were problematic for our game against San Jose next week."

By virtue of Friday night's loss, which was officially sanctioned ‘Guaranteed Win Night', all fans in attendance that retained their ticket stub are entitled to receive a complimentary ticket to the Sting's game against Edmonton on February 18. Tickets to the match can be obtained by visiting the box office at Jobing.com Arena during regular business hours.

Next up for Arizona is a game against the San Jose Stealth on Saturday, January 13, at HP Pavilion. Game time is 7:30 pm PST.