As time expired, Gee Nash pocketed another ball in the netting of his stick, securing his 46th save, nearly the only one the Colorado Mammoth didn’t need Thursday.
The acrobatic Nash carried Colorado to an 11-8 triumph over defending National Lacrosse League champion Rochester (5-7) before 16,860 at the Pepsi Center.
Following a 5-0 start, then a 1-4 crash, the Mammoth (7-4) clinched a playoff berth with five regular-season games remaining.
“It could go either way: we’ve had great games, and the next one you’re wondering where the Mammoth went,” admitted team captain Gavin Prout. “This is definitely a starting point, but Saturday at Buffalo is a tough game.”
Nash’s pregame nerves were calmed by exceptional stops during warmups and the early part of the first quarter.
“I was seeing the ball well,” he said. “I just took it shift by shift and shot by shot.”
Among a dozen point-blank saves, Nash stopped a pair of breakaways by all-star Steve Toll.
“He robbed them of many goals they should have scored,” said Prout, a Nash teammate since their boyhood in Ajax, Ontario. “He stole that game for us.”
The Mammoth led 6-4 at halftime on the strength of several hustle plays, including a sequence that started with Prout’s deflection of an outlet pass by Knighthawks goalkeeper Pat O’Toole.
In pursuit of the loose ball, Prout was flattened by Billy Greer, but teammate Rich Catton scooped up the loose ball and scored his first goal of the season.
Later, Prout absorbed a hit to the helmet on a cut through the slot, took two more strides and buried the ball for a 5-3 edge.
The Mammoth opened the third quarter with three goals in a one minute, 46-second span. Jamie Shewchuk scored the first, set a pick to free Brian Langtry for the second and used a Jason Wulder pick to unleash a submarine shot for a 9-4 lead.
Rochester 1 3 1 3 — 8
Colorado 1 5 3 2 — 11
R — Grant 4-1-5 (goals-assists-total), Scott Evans 2-1-3, Shawn Evans 1-3-4, Millin 1-3-4, Toll 0-2-2, Chapman 0-1-1, Reid 0-1-1, Greer 0-1-1, Lyons 0-1-1, Hoar 0-1-1.
C — Langtry 2-2-4, Prout 2-2-4, Shewchuk 2-2-4, Wulder 2-2-4, Gajic 1-3-4, Gill 1-0-1, Catton 1-0-1, Nash 0-2-2, Carey 0-1-1, Carlson 0-1-1. Goalkeepers — R — O’Toole 32 saves; C — Nash 46 saves.
