<div align="center">SMJHL Today: Game 11
St Louis Scarecrows @ Colorado Mammoths
Final Score: 3-1 </div>

Hello again, SMJHL fans! Welcome to another installment of SMJHL Today. I'm excited to showcase a team that this show rarely talks about in the Colorado Mammoths. In this game recap, they hosted the struggling S29 Four Star Cup Champions, the St Louis Scarecrows; entering the game, the Crows had lost 4 of the last 5. Ultimately in this matchup, the Mammoths absolutely stifled the Scarecrows, winning the game 3-1.

Team Preview
The Mammoths entered this game with a 5-4-0 record. They scored 21 goals in those first 9 games, which is slightly below average in today's SMJHL. The key for them in this season's early phase is that they pulled out 2 wins against their big division rivals, the Kelowna Knights. Those wins will prove important during the playoff seeding race; additionally, they are undefeated against the Eastern Conference. Led by a team of sophomores, it's time for Colorado to really make a name for themselves in S31. Here are their Keys to the Game:

• Get the puck to Svensson. Colorado's first line plays about 20 minutes per game, which is only worth noting because their second line ALSO plays about 20 minutes per game. With that sort of split time, Martin Svensson is averaging 0.5 goals per game through 14. That's a solid average; he needs to hold his line together consistently for Colorado to keep being successful.
  
• Get the power forwards involved. The Mammoths don't really set themselves up to get checks from the back end; their goal is to bring the pain on the offensive side of the puck. That means big hitters Frontdoor McGraw and Colt Hagan need to continue upping their physical presence. It helps with possession, which leads to more shots and bringing that GPG average up.
  
• Keep the defense up. The Mammoths are easily the best defensive team in the league. Through 14 games, they're letting up less than 2 goals a game. Who's to credit for that? Well of course, from a raw stats point of view, there's Ekaterina Rudnikova in net. Her name is as difficult to say as she is great between the pipes. A lot of it, though, comes from SEVEN defenders having more than 10 shot blocks. If you can't hit the net, how are you gonna score on these guys?
  

The St Louis Scarecrows entered this game with a 4-5-0 record. Though that's not far off from what the Mammoths did to this point in the season, the Crows are hardly enjoying the offensive success from previous years. With stars like Eugene Feist and Sebastian Strange moved on, it's time for some of the rookies and sophomores to step up and do what they need to do. Fortunately for St Louis, they've only dropped 2 games so far to their own division, which bodes well for what the end of the season could mean for the Crows. They haven't been scoring, and their defense has been lackluster as well; on the [still dim but] bright side, since nothing is working, it can only get better for them. That, of course, requires sticking to their Keys to the Game:

• Get scoring from all three lines. There hasn't been anyone on the Crows who's broken out as the leading scorer. Although Joe Kurczewski had a great preseason, he only has 5 goals through 14 games in this young season. Thus, it's imperative that Kurczewski, along with Dos Diablo on Line 2 and Nate Akeson on Line 3 need to make scoring a top priority.
  
• Somebody help Rivet out! It's really hard to see Portland Admirals prospect Kelly Rivet struggling out there to keep everybody together. While sporting a rating of -3, he does a little of everything - 7 assists, 22 hits, and 19 shot blocks in 14 games. He's doing all he can on the defensive end; it's time for other defenders to step up!
  
• The rookies have to do more. There's no denying that the Crows lost a lot of key players from their cup run two seasons ago. The truth of the matter, though, is that this happens to every SMJHL team. GMs Ryan King and Chris Crutchfield need to utilize their rookies to the best of their ability, because as of now only Max Weber has broken the 5-point barrier through 14 games. That doesn't spell success in this league.
  

Plays of the Game
We will get to one key play, but first, here's an interesting stat. As I mentioned at the top of the show, this game was a true showcase of the Mammoths' defensive strengths. Any offensive chance that St Louis tried to conjure up was thwarted by the back end with relative ease. Even though the two teams tied with 23 shots on net, it could have been much more, as the Mammoths had 10 shot blocks. St Louis had only 5; that, to me, was a key difference in the game.

To add even more evidence to the difference between these two differences is our highlight of the game; this sequence which led to the go-ahead goal in the second period was a true showcase of the defensive woes St Louis has been having this season:

"...Here's the draw after Dabkowski was called offside. It goes to Svensson for the Mammoths. He gets the puck to Taro, who moves it across the blue line. Randy Bobandy staring down Taro from the back of the formation. Taro RIPS ONE -- misses the net completely. Bobandy races for it ... Vince Garland recovers it for the Mammoths and they reset! They wheel it back around to Svensson and he's at the point. Bobandy REALLY should have been on that puck immediately. He swings the puck to McGraw. McGraw to Svensson ... he mishandles it! Abercrombie is there but he can't handle the puck. Svensson recovers - McGraw's open! To McGraw ... ONE TIMED-- SCOOOOOOOORES!!! WHAT a sequence by Colorado. Their continued offensive pressure - along with St Louis' two HUGE miscues - led to them breaking the tie right here. I wouldn't be surprised if that's all it took here, folks. St Louis looks deflated and confused, and now Rivet's thrown his stick over the boards."

The Crows only managed 9 shots from that point on, and none of them were a challenge for Colorado's goalie. It was truly a depressing game for any Crows fan to watch. Frustration penalties (3 total for STL) after that go-ahead goal took away any possible momentum. Ultimately, Walter Krysak had another goal in the 3rd, making the final score 3-1 Mammoths.

Three Stars
Now we'll take a closer look at our three stars of the game:
★ - Martin Svensson - No mistake here by the press box; Svensson was everywhere in this game. With a goal and an assist on 5 shots and just under 18 minutes of ice time, he had a great showing. He also won exactly 50% of his faceoffs, key for any high-scoring line (13/26).
★★ - Ekaterina Rudnikova - You have to give the goalie of the winning team in such a defensive game some sort of honor. She saved 22 of 23 shots and kept her team out of trouble. Her only mistake was on one of the first shots of the game to boot!
★★★ - Taro Eichelele - Who better to award third star honors than Svensson's linemate? Taro had 2 assists and an uncharacteristic 3 hits; the physicality proved very important in dominating the forecheck and getting more shots on net.

Other Key Performances

• For how poorly St Louis played as a whole, Danny Foster did solid; with a 0 rating, a game-high 4 hits, and a shot block, he didn't let anything by him all game.
  
• Derrick Glover's abysmal night in the faceoff circle could have honestly been the difference. Just 7/20 (35%) is NOT going to cut it.
  
• Harambe, the linesman for today's game, was honored after the game for his service over the years. It was truly heartwarming to see.