Luckily, Lucy and Gus Langtry are too young to understand the anguish their father, Brian, will be feeling for the next seven days until he steps on the floor for another National Lacrosse League game. Langtry’s angst stems from another frustrating outing by the Colorado offense Saturday night in an 11-9 loss to Edmonton before 16,734 fans at Pepsi Center.
“Now I have another week of hell,” Langtry said. “Every minute will be hell until the next game. It is so painful. And then you see these fans, always supporting us, cheering us when we’re down by five goals.”
The Mammoth responded, drawing within one goal with 9:51 remaining, but Edmonton’s Dan Teat scored with 2:44 left to end the threat.
Chris Levis, the ex-Mammoth backup goaltender, made 43 saves for the Rush (2-2), dropping Colorado (1-2) to fifth in the West Division standings.
Coming off the worst output in its seven-year history, a 14-5 loss to Portland on Jan. 10, the Mammoth fired offensive coordinator Russ Heard and replaced him with Dan Perreault.
Head coach Bob McMahon felt that Perreault made inroads, but he pointed to the bottom line. “We have to finish around the net,” he said.
Langtry and captain Gavin Prout spoke of how tightly they are gripping their sticks.
“I live and die with every shift,” Langtry said. “It’s hard when you know you’re losing because of the offense.”
Langtry was 0-for-11 Saturday.
“You want to be a leader, but when you’re going 0-for- whatever, you feel like you’re not doing your job, so you feel like shutting up,” he said.
Prout said: “We have new players, a new style, and some shooters who normally don’t struggle are struggling, and then you have no confidence. At the end, with nothing to lose, we put everything on the floor, and it showed how well we can work together. So we have to build on that fourth quarter (comeback).”
Goaltender Gee Nash suffered tightness in his back and was replaced for the second half by Andrew Leyshon.
Edmonton 3 4 2 2 — 11
Colorado 2 2 1 4 — 9
Edmonton — Benesch (3 goals-5 assists-8 points), Teat 3-4-7, Secore 2-2-4, Wulder 1-3-4, Self 1-0-1, Floris 1-0-1, Bennett 0-2-2, Seller 0-1-1, McNish 0-1-1, McElroy 0-1-1, Quinlan 0-1-1, Hawksbee 0-1-1.
Colorado — Prout 2-2-4, Rosyski 2-2-4, Carey 2-0-2, Shewchuk 1-2-3, Prossner 1-1-2, Leveque 1-0-1, Langtry 0-3-3, Ethington 0-2-2, Carlson 0-1-1, Gajic 0-1-1.
Goalies — Edmonton, Levis, 43 saves; Colorado, Nash 12 saves, Leyshon 16 saves.
