Mammoth Even Season Series Against Swarm with Late 13-12 Win
Goalie dichotomy; Toron <bleeping> Eccleston
Photo Credit: Georgia Swarm
It’s hard to beat the same team twice in a season, a lesson the Georgia Swarm (5-4) were reminded of Friday night at Gas South Arena. A relentless Colorado Mammoth (6-4) evened the season series with a 13-12 win, as Ryan Lee netted the game-winning goal with 38 seconds left in the contest.
The game started off with the Mammoth taking advantage of an incoming Swarm penalty. 6-on-5, Connor Kelly ripped a long-range shot shortside. It was a short-lived lead, with Miles Thompson taking advantage of being forgotten by the defense and scoring a slick behind-the-back goal alone on the doorstep on the very next possession. An incredible diving wraparound goal from Bryan Cole gave the Swarm their first lead of the night. Colorado had the final say of the quarter, rattling off a trio of goals from three different players to put the visiting club up 4-2.
Defensive adjustments from the Swarm frustrated the Mammoth for most of the middle frames. While they struggled to get outside shots to stop being blocked by Swarm defenders, Swarm forwards did their damage with a trio of settled markers — one scored 4-on-4, a nifty two-man game from Shayne Jackson to Cole — and a power play tally. The outside shot finally fell for Colorado with a long-range dart from Connor Robinson a step outside the restraining line. Halftime came with the Swarm up 6-5.
“I take a lot of pride in my shooting. I think that’s the offseason of just — it’s fun to shoot as hard as you can, so over time, you kind of start to aim and place those,” Robinson said. “Credit to Will (Malcom), he set an amazing pick there to give me that little extra separation to get my hands free and get that shot off. Dobber’s (Brett Dobson) a good goalie. I hit my spot. Stick was hot tonight, which was nice, all eight guys on the O.”
Photo Credit: Kyle Hess/Georgia Swarm
Eli McLaughlin potted a pair of goals within 56 seconds of one another to start the third quarter, the first streaking off the bench and the second settled as he threw a wealth of stick fakes while dodging down the alley before finding the shot he wanted. The Mammoth lead was again short-lived, with Cole’s one-handed underhand shot with his non-dominant hand tying things up on the next shift, kicking off a three-goal run for the home team. Malcom hammered home a power play goal to cut the differential in the third quarter, the Mammoth down 9-8.
Fresh off being named the NLL Rookie of the Week last weekend, Toron Eccleston face dodged his defender to return the Swarm to a two-goal lead early in the fourth. But the Mammoth offense found another level of resiliency, tying the game up off a nifty behind-the-back power play goal from Zed Williams and a streaking Ryan Lee transition marker off the bench. Eccleston matched his opponent’s indefatigable pressure, recording his hat trick to retake the lead. Kelly’s second long-range dart tied things up once again, so Eccleston answered by worming his way through the Mammoth defense in a sneaky transition play and his second consecutive game scoring four goals.
After coincidental minor penalties were awarded in the final five minutes, Williams took advantage of the free space with a bouncer past Dobson, tying the game at 12 apiece. Three-and-a-half scoreless minutes of lacrosse ticked away in the dying minutes of regulation, with neither side gaining an inch. After weathering a final Swarm power play, Lee called game with a low shot at the 38-second mark. The Swarm got the final possession but were unable to capitalize 6-on-5. Colorado got their revenge with a 13-12 win.
Lee’s 8 PTS (2G, 6A) led his club in scoring, followed by Malcom and Robinson with 6 PTS (2G, 4A) the same way. Dillon Ward earned the win with key saves late in the game, finishing the night with a .765 Sv%.
“When it wasn’t working is maybe there’s one or two guys attacking and the other three aren’t really involved in it,” Mammoth head coach Pat Coyle said postgame about what worked in his offense’s balanced production Friday night. “It was amazing how when we attacked and pulled out and got the ball going to the other side — a lot of our goals were pass pass pass. I think that’s when we’re at our best, is if they’re going to overplay certain guys, then we just move the ball. We have a bunch of guys that can score. Just how we move the ball and our feet, I thought we did a good job.”
The Swarm were led in scoring by Eccleston’s 7 PTS (4G, 3A) — he has 15 PTS (8G, 7A) in his last two games. After him in scoring were Miles (2G, 3A), Lyle Thompson (5A), and Jackson (1G, 4A) with 5 PTS apiece. Dobson finished the night with 32 saves and a .711 Sv%.
“I thought our offense, not having Andrew (Kew) tonight, I thought we still generated well,” Swarm head coach Ed Comeau said. “We had lots of shots, and I thought our defense played pretty good. A couple of things we’ve got to clean up at the end, but that’s the NLL. One-goal game that could have bounced our way, and it didn’t got that way, and we move on and focus on the off week, try and get healthy a little bit and get rested up and focused on our next game in Toronto.”
Photo Credit: Georgia Swarm
Goalie Dichotomy
When asked about their general immediate thoughts of a win or loss postgame, most NLL coaches talk with a 50-foot view in mind — the offense did this, defensively we played like that, etc. Coyle did no such thing postgame. When asked his overall thoughts after the Mammoth earned their sixth win of the season, his response was immediate:
“Dillon Ward. I sort of feel that’s what allows us to be resilient. That’s maybe what was missing last year, that we sort of came to rely on for years there is like Dillon always gives you a chance to win. He was awesome tonight. It’s the first thing that I always think of.”
Ward’s .765 Sv% Friday night is the third lowest save percentage in a single game for him this season, but that number doesn’t do justice to the incredible game he had, making numerous saves no netminder has any business making. The fact that he made them regularly was salt in the wound for Swarm forwards. Highlighting his prowess was a save on an Eccleston rebound. Ward had made an initial save on a laser from Lyle, the rebound going directly up the middle towards the sponsor patch in front of the crease. As he was wont to do, Eccleston appeared in the middle of the defense and scooped the loosie. Seeing the danger in front of him, Ward tried to get back from his low position to the cage, but his legs gave out from under him, and he ended up on his rear with his arms and stick flailing above him to try and potentially stop any shot against. That potential was made reality, as his left arm soaked Eccleston’s shot and kept the game at 6-5.
“Dude, it’s ridiculous,” Robinson said about Ward’s standout save. “You’ve just got to shake your head as a shooter. Like there’s no way they should have stopped that, but Dillon does. And then even in the fourth quarter where he loses his stick, we’re down, and the D guys just grind, and they’re flying around, causing tipped passes, turnovers, Wardo loses his stick. At the end of the day, we find a way. It’s just Mammoth lacrosse, which is awesome.”
Ward is having one of his best NLL seasons in his 11-year career. Entering Friday night, he had a 10.72 GAA, .800 Sv%, and 9.74 GSAA, and as Coyle noted, his strong play compared to the previous season is no doubt why the Mammoth have flipped last year’s script on its head.
On the other end of the floor, Dobson is going through a rough stretch for the Swarm. His third season started off with promise but has hit a rough stretch in the new year, skewing his season numbers — the 24-year-old has an 11.84 GAA, .770 Sv%, and -3.89 GSAA, numbers that will go in the wrong direction after Friday’s stats are factored into them.
During the Swarm’s four-game winning streak to start their 2024-25 campaign, Dobson was stalwart between the uprights, boasting a 10.13 GAA and .802 Sv%. Since the calendar year changed, his fortunes have, as well, evidenced by his 13.59 GAA and .730 Sv% since January.
Dobson’s young career already boasts an impressive resume filled with championships and accolades most goalies only dream of, one he shores up by the work he puts in as a student of the game, but at the end of the day, he’s playing in the best professional lacrosse league in the world and is still so young. The Swarm have confidence in him righting the ship, but figuring how to get the keel pointing straight down under the water is a task Comeau and his coaching staff have to solve.
“Brett’s a really good young goalie, and I think part of it for him is really focusing on — he studies a lot of shooters, and I think sometimes he might be studying too much, right?” Comeau said. “You’re kind of expecting something, and someone shoots in different. The guys down here (in Georgia), they shoot during the week, so we need to work on some shots with him, and I think it’s just confidence. Sometimes the one save or one shot can just turn a goalie’s confidence around. So I think for him, it’s just being focused and putting the work in, making sure he’s ready mentally and ready physically. Defensively, too, some of the shots we’re giving up are shots that we said these are the ones that we want to give up, so we’ve got to find a way to either tweak how we’re playing that or we’ve got to get those saves.”
Toron <bleeping> Eccleston
The best part about being the owner/operator/sole employee for my lacrosse media company is (a) I get to write whatever I want to write about and (b) I can swear if I want. I’m taking advantage of those facts now:
Toron Eccleston is that fucking guy.
No player has impressed me as much as he has the past two weekends, as the rookie has seemingly found his NLL groove in his third and fourth professional lacrosse games. He has arguably the heaviest shot on the Swarm, a quick step like a matchbook was lit under his foot, plays the two-man game exceptionally well with the other lefties, and he’s a threat from inside and outside. At 6-foot-4, 210 pounds, a lot of the focus on his game ahead of the 2023 NLL Entry Draft was on his size, an asset he’s able to use to great effect.
But the Calgary, Alberta native’s size and heavyweight shot are mere accessories to Eccleston’s best ability: His ability to get open at will. The 24-year-old seemingly disappears from a defense’s radar and pops up either in the dirty areas with defenders seemingly surprised he’s there or with no one around him further out with all the time and space he needs. And it’s not something he does once or twice a game — he does it once or twice a quarter in ways I’ve never seen another player do with such regularity.
Last weekend in Las Vegas, Eccleston routinely found himself on the doorstep with defenders crashing towards him in a panic, a magician appearing in the middle of a crowd. You could chalk it up to Vegas’s defense not playing that well, not really having a solid scout on him; Colorado wouldn’t make the same mistakes.
That wasn’t the case Friday night, as the Mammoth defense were finding out too late that Eccleston was in dangerous spots to do damage against them often. As well as he played against them, Coyle viewed it as a pick-your-poison situation, noting they prevented Lyle from finding the back of the net.
“He’s a good player,” Coyle remarked. “He’s long. It’s almost like what I was saying about our O. If we don’t step out on him and take away his outside shot, then he goes underneath. He actually beat us from outside, and he beat us from inside. That’s a hard guy to play against.”
Just because he’s not shy about trading away talent doesn’t take away from the fact that Swarm owner and general manager John Arlotta does a damn fine job at drafting. Ryan Lanchbury, Ethan Walker, and Robert Hudson are recent examples of first-round Swarm draft selections that are some of the best position players on their new teams. Eccleston is the latest example of selecting a player who profiles to be a star in the NLL and is delivering early results in his Swarm tenure.
“We’re happy to mark him down for four or five every game," Comeau said postgame about his burgeoning rookie forward. “That would be awesome. I think he’s worked really hard. I don’t want to say we’re surprised, but I think he just had to get a little comfortable in his first couple of games and get his feel. He’s a big guy who moves well. He’s got a quick step and gets to the middle. We sometimes say that big guys sometimes get open more than other guys, and he’s just put himself in the right spots. I thought he shot the ball really well tonight, shot to the shooting plan. Hopefully, we continue to get him getting those opportunities. He’s been really good, really shown what he can do in this league.”