Wings lose to Colorado Mammoth, 12-10

After notching their first win of the season last week, the Wings fell to the Colorado Mammoth, 12-10, Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center..

The Wings received criticism this week after they traded their 2018 first-round pick, Chris Cloutier, to the Buffalo Bandits for Ryan Wagner. Cloutier was one of the Wings’ top scorers and an integral piece to the offense. The team was averaging 12 goals a game before the trade, but they made the deal to shore up the defense.

Coach Paul Day summed up effort against the Mammoth by saying he needed more from his players.

“I don’t think we got a full 60 minutes from everybody,” he said. “Guys usually play hard all night, and then we had some guys that were just passengers tonight. We’re not nearly good enough to have 19 guys not going 110 percent.”

The Wings (1-7) came out of the gate attacking Colorado, scoring the first three goals of the game. Forward Blaze Riorden got on the board first, with 3 minutes, 8 seconds gone in the first period. Next was a goal by defenseman Steph Charbonneau in transition. The third goal came as Kevin Crowley spotted Josh Currier running behind the net. Currier tipped the ball in over the top of the net to give the Wings a 3-0 lead at the 5:19 mark.

With his team up, 3-1, heading into the second quarter, Riorden boosted the lead to 4-1, only 51 seconds into the period. But the Wings accumulated five penalties in the period, opening the door for Colorado to build some traction. The Mammoth scored three consecutive goals to take a 5-4 lead into the break.

Currier scored twice within the first seven minutes of the third quarter, but the teams went back and fourth into the fourth quarter, before the Mammoth (2-5) finished things off with goals by Eli McLaughlin and Kyle Killen.

Riorden and Currier each scored three goals to lead the Wings.