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The Colorado Mammoth’s incredible comeback was fueled by an unexpected hero Sunday night in the Loud House.

Down four goals early, coach Pat Coyle decided to pull star goalie Dillon Ward in favor of Tyler Carlson as a bit of a wakeup call for his team. It didn’t immediately stop the bleeding, since the Rochester Knighthawks would pad the lead out to six goals, but it did pay off in the long run.

The rarely deployed Carlson was stellar the rest of the way, allowing just one goal in the final 36 minutes of action. As he found comfort, so did his offense, which bounced back big time in the Mammoth’s 10-8 comeback triumph.

“We weren’t moving our feet, talking, or doing any of the things that we wanted to do in the first half, but Tyler was able to get in there and played awesome,” Coyle told ColoradoMammoth.com.

Colorado ended the contest on a 9-1 run and scored the final six goals, going ahead for good with under two minutes remaining thanks to a Jacob Ruest tally. Ryan Lee found the net three times during the late surge, and Tyler Digby and Chris Wardle scored twice.

Carlson finished with 38 saves on 40 shots faced.

Halifax Swings Back

While the Halifax Thunderbirds aren’t as geographically close to Buffalo as before (when they played in Rochester), the two squads are starting to build quite the rivalry.

One week after Buffalo evened the season series with the T-Birds, Halifax struck right back with an 11-9 home win to jump the Bandits in the division standings.

Corey Small scored on a power play with two minutes remaining to put Buffalo up 9-8, but Cody Jamieson responded 20 seconds later with the equalizer. Thirty seconds after that, rookie Clarke Petterson notched the game-winning goal before Graeme Hossack sealed it with an empty-netter.

“No matter what game it is, if we’re up or down, we’re confident in the later stages of the game so we can push it to another level when other teams start to wear out,” Jamieson said postgame.

The Bandits should send a thank you card to Calgary, since the Roughnecks kept Buffalo in a tie with Toronto for second in the North Division by downing the Rock 13-10 on Sunday.

Rhys Duch, Dane Dobbie and Tyler Pace each notched five points as the Riggers won for a third time in four games. Curtis Dickson also had a hat trick.

“I thought we came out aggressive on the offensive end,” Roughnecks coach Curt Malawsky told CalgaryRoughnecks.com. “Dickson had some big goals, Pace had some big goals, and Duch was hitting his spots early. Dane Dobbie on the other side, that takes a lot of attention away from our guys and opens up our offense.”

Crawford Steals the Show

The New England Black Wolves were able to get a bit more wiggle room in the East Division thanks in part to a big-time win of their own and also because both their main competitors split the weekend.

They took care of their own business on Saturday, ending on a 3-1 run against their archrival for a 9-7 victory against the Philadelphia Wings. Callum Crawford put up five points on two goals and three assists, with both goals coming in spectacular fashion.

A day later, the Pack then got to watch the teams underneath them beat up on each other when Philadelphia scored three straight to end the game and best Georgia 12-11. Blaze Riorden had a goal and assisted on Brett Hickey’s game-winner, completing a stellar eight-point day for the Albany product.

The weekend wasn’t entirely for naught for Georgia thanks to an 11-7 victory against New York Saturday. Lyle Thompson put up seven points as the Swarm erased a 6-4 Riptide third quarter lead.

The Black Wolves end the weekend with a game-and-a-half lead on both Georgia and Philadelphia.

Seals Stay Hot

San Diego set a new franchise high for goals in a game to extend its win streak to three games.

Casey Jackson led the way, putting up his third five-goal game of the season, as the Seals dominated Rochester 19-6 on Saturday. Jackson’s success is even more impressive considering he started the season injured.

“It feels good to be back,” Jackson said. “I was nervous the first couple games to get my swing back. I didn’t have a training camp or anything, I basically had one practice. I’m starting to get back into the feel of things. It feels pretty good, especially when you win.”

The Seals are right back in the West race, currently one half-game back of Colorado for the second spot in the division.

Bouncing Right Back

Saskatchewan didn’t sulk after a loss to Toronto last week, absolutely rolling the Warriors 17-7 on Saturday.

Mark Matthews put up nine points on two goals and seven assists, Ryan Keenan scored four times with an assist and Jeff Shattler notched seven points. The Rush, now 7-3, have a game-and-a-half lead on Colorado for the top spot in the West and are three games up in the loss column on the Mammoth.

Noteworthy

Commissioner Nick Sakiewicz said the NLL will announce an expansion franchise, pushing the league to 14 teams, sometime in the next 30 to 60 days during an interview on B/R Live … Toronto’s Dan Dawson passed former Rock star Josh Sanderson to move into second all-time in career assists Sunday. He now only trails the legendary John Tavares … Callum Crawford remains the league leader in points with 76, two more than second-place Mitch Jones of Vancouver. Crawford has played two games than Jones and one less than Georgia’s Shayne Jackson, who is in third with 73 points … The Seals rocked one-off jerseys this weekend to celebrate Star Wars night.

Up Next
All times EST

Friday
Buffalo at Toronto, 7:30 p.m.
Saskatchewan at Calgary, 9:30 p.m.
San Diego at Vancouver, 10:30 p.m.

Saturday
Halifax at Rochester, 7 p.m.
New England at Buffalo, 7 p.m.

Sunday
Calgary at New England, 3 p.m.
New York at Philadelphia, 7 p.m.