Gavin Prout has occasionally struggled in his dual roles as a prolific scorer and a playmaker in his four seasons with the Mammoth.
Increasingly, the passer is taking over, as evidenced by Prout’s franchise-record eight assists Thursday night in Colorado’s 15-12 National Lacrosse League win over the Portland LumberJax before 15,910 at the Pepsi Center.
It was the highest-scoring game of the season for the Mammoth (5-0), which is off to its best start in its six-year history.
Prout missed all nine of his shots, dropping his average to 1.0 goals a game, which is half of his career average. Although the NLL assist leader (with 28) joked that goal scorer might not be part of his label, he was clearly pleased to involve his teammates.
The Mammoth captain took the greatest pride in setting up Matt Brown for his first goal in a Colorado uniform. Brown, a former University of Denver player and current assistant coach, scored three goals and made three assists in place of Brian Langtry, who is recovering from a broken finger.
Brown had not cracked the lineup since going scoreless in the Dec. 29 season opener.
“He’s never sulking,” Prout said. “He deserves to play; we’re just so deep, it’s tough. I like the fact that Matty Brown was one of my assists in his first goal as a Mammoth.”
In a league in which players work all week at other jobs and are limited to one team practice, Brown’s stickwork after the layoff was impressive.
“I’m lucky because at DU I get to shoot on goalies,” Brown said. “Even though it’s 6 by 6 (field lacrosse), I still get to have my stick in my hand. We’re all like that, we all keep our sticks in our hands all week long because we have a passion for this game.”
After gaining an 11-5 lead in the opening moments of the third quarter, Colorado allowed a 4-0 run that chased goalkeeper Chris Levis, who was replaced by Gee Nash. The defense, bolstered all night by Bruce Murray’s work on Portland all-star Dan Dawson, killed a five minute penalty that ended early in the final period to seal the win.
Portland 4 1 5 2 — 12
Colorado 5 5 4 1 — 15
Portland — Powell 4-1-5 (goals-assists-total), Malawsky 2-1-3, Martin 1-5-6, Stapleford 1-1-2, Stewart 1-1-2, Codron 1-1-2, Merrill 1-0-1, R. Morgan 1-0-1, Dawson 0-3-3, P. Morgan 0-2-2.
Colorado — Brown 3-3-6, Wulder 3-2-5, Gajic 2-4-6, Carey 2-2-4, Prossner 2-1-3, Bloom 2-0-2, Shewchuk 1-3-4, Prout 0-8-8, Gallant 0-2-2, Moss 0-2-2, Ethington 0-1-1.
Goalies — Portland, King 18 saves, Eliuk 17 saves; Colorado, Levis 24 saves, Nash 15 saves.
