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Game 106 - COL @ STL Season 40
#1

Mammoths 3
Scarecrows 8

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Good evening, and welcome to the Post-Game Show for game 106 of the season. We had a game here for two periods and change before the St. Louis Scarecrows exploded for four goals in a span of 5:14 and never looked back as they beat the Colorado Mammoths 8-3.

The Scarecrows, always an offensive threat this season, found a deadly rhythm and surged after rallying to tie, then pull ahead in the second. Discipline was one root cause - the Scarecrows converted 3 of 7 power plays. From how these goals unfolded, the motto of the night seemed to be "we take those."

Story of the Game

First Period

The most even 20 minutes of action on the night, in terms of goals and chances. Ti-Guy Emond, a stay-at-home defenseman, picked up his first goal of the season for Colorado 21 seconds into the game. Luuk Kraaijkamp had passed along to Anders Christiansen, whose shot missed the net. Emond recovered the loose puck from by the blue line, figured he could take a swing at it and pocketed the puck from the left point. Emond seemed astounded that worked, and Kraaijkamp and Christiansen were the first to embrace him.

Emond's instant stardom on the night would be short-lived, however. He was penalized for interference at the 4:56 mark. With 13 seconds left in that penalty, the Scarecrows' DeMaricus Smyth ended the power play early with a goal. He had relayed the puck to Elias Svensson earlier as the Scarecrows broke out of their own end before dishing off to Otis B. Driftwood. Driftwood had two good hacks at the puck, and though Grim Wastlund blocked both, he captured neither. Smyth recovered the second rebound and snapped the loose puck into the top-shelf three-hole to tie it at 1-1.

St. Louis would get their second advantage shortly after. Markus Meliodas hit the penalty bench at 9:47 for high-sticking after being just a little too careless with where his blade was around Gottlieb McZehrl. The Scarecrows didn't take too long to convert this opportunity, however. Carter Manning won the attacking-end face-off and went one-two with Daniel Karlsson. Manning's shot missed the net, though Paddy O'Sullivan recovered and whipped the puck low and across Wastlund's body to pull St. Louis ahead 2-1 after 22 seconds of 5-on-4 play.

Not to say St. Louis didn't have a little hiccup that opened the door for the Mammoths. Smyth was a little too enthusiastic to jar Baron O'Beefdip after teammate Paddy Kane-Rielly had picked O'Beefdip's pocket. With Smyth in the box at 16:08 for roughing, the Mammoths set up for their first and only power play of the night. They took even less time to answer the call to charge. After Florence Clijsters won the attacking face-off, he flipped back to Xavier LaFlamme for a one-timer that hit Brady McIntyre. Kire Yelkrab recovered the blocked shot and fired away twice on-net, with defenseman Michael Fischer blocking the first try before Yelkrab recovered and sank the second shot, the first on-net attempt of the power play and the only one the Mammoths needed to level the game at 2-2 at the 16:16 mark, 8 seconds into the power play.

Yelkrab rode so high on the first goal, he helped himself to another 28 seconds later. He had recovered a loose puck and passed off to Emond, who dished to Clijsters. After it missed the net, Yelkrab took advantage similar to how he did recovering his own loose puck and snapped it five-hole to bring the Mammoths back into the lead 3-2 at 16:44.

Quite a messy period, with power play goals and loose-puck chances abounding. St. Louis outshot Colorado 11-9, though the score reflected 3-2 for the Mammoths at the break.

Second Period

DeMaricus Smyth made it a brace 44 seconds into the third period. Driftwood lugged the puck into neutral ice, passed off to Kane-Rielly and he and Smyth broke away on a 2-on-1, going tic-tac until Smyth decided he had a good chance and found he was right, dropping it just past Wastlund's glove on the 1-2 hole border, evening the score again at 3-3.

Not much else went on most of the period aside from saves back and forth except for Meliodas picking up his second minor penalty of the night for a cross-check at 4:51 and Kade Ryley of Colorado sitting out two for roughing.

Paddy Kane-Rielly entered the goal column late in the second at the 16:07 mark. He took advantage of another missed shot. Driftwood set up Dermot Lavelle, whose shot sailed over the crossbar and into the glass before Kane-Rielly stuffed the loose puck on the wraparound. St. Louis outshot Colorado 13-6 in the second.

Third Period

We had a game for about one or two minutes longer before the doors blew wide open.

Paddy O'Sullivan craved for more and got more with his second goal. Jack Daniels picked off the puck in neutral ice and laid it off to O'Sullivan before he played pinball with it along with McZehrl and Driftwood. It went down and back to O'Sullivan before he teed up and found twine to extend the Scarecrows' lead to 5-3 at the 1:00 mark in the third.

Carter Manning didn't find satisfaction in a two-goal lead, as no team should. O'Sullivan recovered a Colorado dump-in, beating out chasers before relaying to Daniels. He went Driftwood to Manning, who caught Wastlund a hair too slow trying to defend the four-hole. 6-3 St. Louis at 1:56, and that was all Colorado management could stomach out of their starting keeper. Chris Partridge relieved Wastlund before the next puck drop.

The Mammoths' woes didn't stop with a change in-net. Cash Savage had been binned for roughing after getting too chippy with a check on Tony Snow. About halfway through the penalty, Fischer fed McIntyre, whose shot missed just wide and rebounded to DeMaricus Smyth. Smyth skated to the crease's edge and faked out Partridge into cheating toward the near post. Smyth popped it in by the far post and notched his first hat trick of the season, letting his teammates swamp him as the hometown St. Louis crowd gleefully threw their straw hats to the ice like frisbees 4:14 into the third as they sensed this game was well in-hand.

Two minutes later, Matěj Eliáš attacked the net after Snow picked off a neutral-ice pass and fed him. Eliáš was efficient on this attack and notched his goal for the night, picking up the A for Snow in addition at 6:14.

Other than additional penalties to O'Beefdip for holding Smyth a bit too tight on his jersey and Emond for his second penalty of the game for holding Driftwood in a similar manner, the Mammoths struggled the rest of the game to even shoot to give themselves a chance at a comeback. St. Louis outshot Colorado 11-3 in this period as the Scarecrows suffocated the Mammoths after they ran off Wastlund.

Honorable Mentions

Mammoths Kire Yelkrab - On almost any other night, a brace would be cause to give a player a Star mention. Yelkrab's lightning two goals in as many shots in the first period set Colorado up to compete in this game and gain confidence they could keep up with the then-best team in the J. With two hits and a blocked shot, he tried to be everywhere and could only do so much to help.'

Mammoths Ti-Guy Emond - It is something special for a defensive-focus defenseman to score a goal. And to score it just as the fans got settled into their seats for the game, 21 seconds in, was something else. Pitch in an assist as well, throw out five hits, and he was out on patrol in the defensive end, too, even if it did get him in trouble a couple of times.

Three Stars of the Game

Scarecrows Paddy Kane-Rielly - Kane-Rielly did a little of everything a center is responsible for and did it well. A goal and an assist, a hit, a blocked shot and a team-best 18-10 record on the face-off dot (only the Mammoths' Meliodas had a better percentage, going 13-7), Kane-Rielly had his role covered and helped the hay-bale machine keep chugging in the shadow of the Gateway Arch.

Scarecrows Otis B. Driftwood - Notice this man's name came up a lot in the report. 5 assists from his defenseman position, +2, threw a couple shots on, threw a couple of hits and blocked a shot as well. FIVE assists, though. It's almost criminal he wasn't first with all his playmaking. However...

Scarecrows DeMaricus Smyth - ...how can you deny a hat-trick scorer the first star? He got in there, too. 8 shots on-net, threw two hits, got a stint in the box, too. Smyth's relentless attack throughout the night helped the Scarecrows plug away as they usually do. He helped St. Louis almost double up Colorado in shots, 35-18, and his hat trick helped build a demoralizing mountain for Colorado to climb.

Final Thoughts

Colorado stuck around well enough in this game until St. Louis blasted them away. The keepers in this game looked like they need to sharpen their loose-puck awareness, especially after a shot misses the net. Just because a shot misses doesn't mean the threat's over. Most of the goals tonight came from capitalizing on quick shots from loose pucks. Penalties killed early on, though with Colorado amassing more, it hurt them more as a result.

I might have tried to at least pull Wastlund a goal earlier than they did. Colorado left this game needing a lot to work on, especially since at this stage, they were floating around a tight pack from 3rd to 7th and only had more games to come against St. Louis and Kelowna, the top two teams.

St. Louis had their moments of exposure, though they limited late opportunities and took great advantage of their time a man up, especially early on. It's a great night on the attacking end when the opponents give their starting goalie the hook, and they showed they are relentless still after Smyth capped off his hat trick against a fresh keeper.

That concludes our Post-Game Show here. Good night, and we'll see you next time.

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#2

Stopping the Power Play
This one was an absolute doozy, and it's hard to say who truly "won" this part of the game. Colorado played an absolutely absurd fourteen minutes whilst down a man in this game and their penalty kill lines simply feel apart when faced with that challenge. They found themselves in a problematic situation early, yielding power play goals to DeMaricus Smith and Paddy O'Sullivan on each of their first two penalties. With the game out of hand late in the third period they allowed another, but killing a penalty there would not have won them the game. St. Louis, on the other hand, allowed a goal on their singular penalty kill chance. Given that Colorado allowed three goals to St. Louis' one, I'm going to go with quantity over efficiency here and say St. Louis came out ahead by not putting themselves in bad spots.

Shot Efficiency
You don't need a maths degree to figure out which was the more accurate club in this one. St. Louis got goals from five different players, including a hat trick from DeMaricus Smith and a two-goal performance from Paddy O'Sullivan. With eight goals on 35 shots in the game, they scored an absolutely bonkers 22.8% accuracy in this one. Colorado may have lost by a large margin, but they were highly effective in their own right. On just eighteen shots they were able to hit net three times thanks to Kire Yelkrab and Ti-Guy Emond. Their 3-for-18 shooting gives them a 16.7% efficiency for the night. It's no 22.8%, but that kind of accuracy would win you a game on most nights.

Getting in the Way
The shots were flying in this game and there were blocks aplenty to be had. Colorado blocked eleven shots, with Troy McClure (4) leading the way. Blaine McElroy and Wuma Duce also contributed two blocks a piece. Their 11 blocks are what stood between St. Louis and eleven more shots for a highly accurate team. St. Louis were all over the place in this one, blocking fourteen shots. Brady McIntyre led the way with four, but Carter Manning, Gottlieb McZehrl, and Michael Fischer helped out with two each. Their fourteen blocks curbed Colorado's potential shot total of 32 to an actual total of 18. With Colorado sniping the net in this one, those blocks might have played a huge role in stopping a potential shootout.

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