A Washington Stealth Fan Blog
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Congratulations to the Portland Lumberjax for their win over the Colorado Mammoth Thursday, March 20, 2008 (16-15). The Jax started the game out very physical, seemingly overpowering the smaller Mammoth team. The second half lent itself more to the Mammoth style of play with a lot of back and forth action. The game was exciting to watch from beginning to end and the crowd of 6,182 was really into it.
The key difference in this game though was the atypical lackluster performance by Gee Nash in goal for Colorado. Nash is a spectacular goalie, one I curse every time my Stealth go against him. Against Portland however, Nash seemed slow to react to the ball and saves he normally makes he missed. Nash faced 63 shots on goal and had 47 saves on the night. I expected more from the western division All-Star starter.
One other disappointment for me was the way Ryan Powell (Portland) acted when he went after Bruce Murray (Colorado). RP locked up with Murray on the crease, shoving Murray in the face. As soon as RP realized who he had gone after, he backed down and would not fight Murray, even after Murray threw down his helmet and gloves. I have to say that while it was probably smart for Powell to not go up against Murray, as Powell would likely have been pummeled, I was disappointed he refused to fight. If you are going to talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk.
Each team had players that were expected to produce that did. Dan Dawson of Portland (4G, 2A) provided much needed leadership for the Jax offense and even played through what looked to be a serious ankle injury in the fourth to finish the game. This was the best game I have seen Dawson play in a Lumberjax uniform, if not numbers-wise, then through his leadership on the floor. For the Mammoth, Brian Langtry was on fire with 9 goals and 4 assists. Congrats to Langtry on an outstanding game; it was if the goalies were not even there when Langtry shot and his long sought-after diving-behind-the-back goal was incredible. Langtry deservedly received MVP of the game honors.
Portland moves to 4-7 and Colorado to 6-4.