It's been a long, strange season of ups and downs for the Colorado Mammoth.

The ups of huge crowds in Denver after years of empty seats in Washington, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

The downs of barely explicable losses in New York and Ottawa.

The ups of looking like runaway division winners when the Philadelphia Wings got off to an awful start.

The down of being down 7-2 to the Toronto Rock late in the second quarter of Sunday's game, which they absolutely had to win to keep playing.

Then came the up -- the remarkable up -- of roaring back to beat Toronto 13-10 to claim the Eastern Division championship and a first-round home playoff date against the equally up-and-down Vancouver Ravens.

Blaine Manning got Toronto off to a flying start when his totally stoppable bounce shot eluded Mammoth goalie Erik Miller two minutes in. Shortly after, Del Halladay and Ted Dowling of Colorado both miscued on a rolling ball at midfloor. Steve Toll of the Rock bounced on it and hummed a pass to Colin Doyle, who buried the ball from Miller's doorstep at 4:36.

Gary Gait countered with Colorado's only goal of the quarter -- the 59th of his record-setting season, scooping the ball just inside the line and roaring in unopposed to score on Rock goalie Bob Watson. Manning had a chance to boost Toronto's lead late when he was awarded a penalty shot, but Miller shut him down.

2-1 Toronto after one.

Josh Sims tied the game at 22 seconds, capping a long, knifing crossing run. The Rock responded with five straight goals:

• Blaine Manning on a midfloor counterbreak.
• Kevin Finneran with a hopping, windmilling screened screamer.
• Colin Doyle with a head-on slot bomb. Miller gets most of it, but the ball has enough juice left to skip to the floor, and dribble diagonally into the corner of the net.
• Manning belts Miller, who coughs it up to Jim Veltman, who rips home into an empty net.
• Veltman finishes off a tic-tac-toe passing play to put the Rock up 7-2.

It's worth noting the last three goals in that sequence were all on the power play. The Mammoth was not doing itself any favors in the penalty department.

For most teams, that would be the season. But the Mammoth, just as they did the last two years as the Washington Power, weren't about to let Toronto run away from them. Sims got one back on a sizzling run, touched off by a heads-up downfloor pass from Miller, who'd been fighting for the ball far from his net, in heavy traffic. Then came history, Gary Gait with number 60, on a powerful run out of the corner with Ted Dowling blocking for him.

7-4 Rock at the half.

After the restart, it was the visitors' turn to go nuts:

• Ted Dowling, snagging and burying a rebound.
• Gait, for the hat trick, a slow-motion muscle run through two defenders.
• Al Truant, a sweeping, single-motion redirect in front.
• Dowling again, a 45-foot blaze-bomb after the Rock defense had been drawn away by a deep penetrating run by Ben Prepchuk.
• Brian Langtry, putting the Mammoth up 9-7 with a 40-foot bouncer through multiple moving screens.

Then Colin Doyle may have gotten away with one. It looked very much as though Toronto's leading goal-grabber had a foot in Miller's crease when he snagged a loose ball off the floor. He was gone from the crease a second later when he scored, but the Mammoth argued the goal should not have counted. They were more convincing at the other end half a minute later, when Prepchuk went bag from 25 feet out on a sharp angle.

10-8 Colorado after three!

This just wouldn't be a game between these two teams if the Rock didn't tie it up right away. Defender Darryl Gibson charged straight in to score with a running bouncer, unassisted at 1:33, and Doyle knotted the game at 10-10 with a 40-foot rip through traffic at 2:02.

Then came the save. Colin Doyle. Right in front. His "A" fake. Miller driven to his knees, near post. Doyle fires far post. Miller's stick loops across and up. Impossibly, the ball hits Miller's stick dead center.

And don't think it didn't matter. Langtry came right back the other way. He duped Veltman into screening Watson, and fired the Mammoth into the lead, the division title and the playoffs with a 25-foot peek-a-boo screamer at 9:58. Doyle tried, burning a knee-freezing backhander off the goalpost with just three minutes to go.

Then Colorado defender John Gallant went on a dazzling run. His shot was blocked, and he got pasted, but the rebound went straight to Prepchuk, and he buried it. No assist to Gallant because the ball touched the goalie, but no way that ball goes in without Gallant. That rules needs fixing.

All that remained was for Mammoth veteran Tom Phair to cash in an empty-netter to finish off the 13-10 win.

Amazing comeback. No big damage to the Rock, which was going to be the two-seed in the postseason regardless of today's result. But all the Mammoth need to do is beat Vancouver in Denver, and we will have an instant rematch at the Air Canada Centre on 26 April.

Has there been a more dramatic rivalry in the history of this league?

Onward!

BOX SUMMARY
                                      1  2  3  4     TOT
Colorado Mammoth (9-7)                1  3  6  3  --  13
Toronto Rock (11-5)                   2  5  1  2  --  10

COLORADO MAMMOTH              TORONTO ROCK
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS
Gait           3 - 2     5    Manning        2 - 3     5
Langtry        2 - 2     4    Doyle          4 - 0     4
Dowling        2 - 1     3    Ji Veltman     2 - 0     2
Prepchuk       2 - 1     3    Driscoll       0 - 2     2
Phair          1 - 2     3    Toll           0 - 2     2
Sims           2 - 0     2    Finneran       1 - 0     1
E Miller       0 - 2     2    Gibson         1 - 0     1
Rosa           0 - 2     2    Chapman        0 - 1     1
Truant         1 - 0     1    G Clark        0 - 1     1
Halladay       0 - 1     1    D Ladouceur    0 - 1     1
Stilley        0 - 1     1    Rubel          0 - 1     1

Shots on goal           52    Shots on goal           53
Saves made by (GA)      43    Saves made by (GA)      39
   E Miller (10)     43          Watson (12)       39
Penalties               12    Penalties                6
Penalty Minutes         27    Penalty Minutes         15
Power Play Chances       5    Power Play Chances      11
Power Play Goals         2    Power Play Goals         4
   Dowling            1          Doyle              2
   Gait               1          Ji Veltman         2
Shorthanded Goals        1    Shorthanded Goals        0
   Prepchuk           1          (None)
Empty Net Goals          1    Empty Net Goals          0
   Phair              1          (None)
Loose Balls             71    Loose Balls             78
   E Miller          10          Ji Veltman        15
   Sims               8          Toll               9
   Gallant            7          D Ladouceur        8
                                 Watson             8
Faceoffs Won            19    Faceoffs Won             8
   Hanford      (19- 6)          Toll         ( 4- 7)
   Phair        ( 0- 1)          Merrill      ( 4-12)
   Stilley      ( 0- 1)          

   *** STATS OFFICIAL BY VERIFY WITH TORONTO ROCK ***