The ingredients were right Friday night for a dominating performance from the Colorado Mammoth.

It was the Arizona Sting, though, that used its own playoff aspirations to dominate the Mammoth at the Pepsi Center.

Returning home for the first time in five weeks, the Mammoth lost some of its Western Division lead with a 14-8 loss to the second-place Sting.

Colorado's lead in the division stands at 1 1/2 games, and with three games remaining, Mammoth players felt the impact of the loss instantly.

"It was the worst game we've played in Mammoth jerseys," veteran defenseman Dave Stil- ley said. "We had five goals until late in the game, and two of them were short-handed. We're not clicking right now, but we don't have to wait a week to play again.

"We'll find out what we're made of (tonight) and, hopefully, we'll turn it around."

Colorado doesn't have time to be downtrodden. For the first time this season, the team will play back-to-back games as it travels to take on the Minnesota Swarm tonight.

A loss to the Swarm would hurt Colorado's chances of holding home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, a privilege for which they are battling Eastern Division leader Rochester. The Knighthawks were idle Friday but play host to the Philadelphia Wings tonight.

Right now, putting together a full four-quarter game is foremost on the players' minds.

"I'd like to think we aren't putting things on cruise control right now," Stilley said. "We're starting to get close to the playoffs, and teams are hungry. We can't think that teams are going to lay down at all."

As the season winds down, the Mammoth has had trouble getting leads. For the third straight game since the All-Star break, Colorado allowed its opponent to forge a five-goal lead and was forced to rebound.

Only against the Toronto Rock was the Mammoth able to fully erase the deficit, and it took overtime to do it.

The Sting never let Colorado get three goals back of the lead after the first period. With Colorado down 7-3, Mike Law scored a breakaway goal to cut the lead by one, but the Sting went on a four-goal tear that carried over to the third period.

Colorado also was unable to solve Arizona goalie Rob Blasdell, the league's top-ranked netminder. The eight goals from the Mammoth were the team's lowest output this season. Blasdell finished with 38 saves.

"As much as we didn't come out to play, they played very well," said Law, who scored two second-quarter goals.

"We didn't do our game plan whatsoever. We started losing it from the beginning."

Colorado's Gee Nash struggled on the other side, and for the third straight game, he was pulled in favor of Chris Levis. Nash allowed three goals in the first quarter from just inside the zone line, which helped the Sting to a 4-2 lead.

Nash was pulled in the second quarter after allowing six goals on 19 shots and earned his first loss this season. Levis, who earned the overtime win against Toronto, never found a rhythm and allowed eight more goals.

Arizona dominated at the offensive end behind the team's usual suspects. Dan Dawson, the league's fourth-leading scorer entering the game, notched two goals and added a season- high seven assists.

Lindsay Plunkett added three goals and three assists as the Sting stopped a three-game road losing streak.

ETC: The Sting won in Denver for the first time since Jan. 18, 2005. . . . The 4-2 first-quarter deficit was the first time this season the Mammoth has trailed at home. . . . Defenseman John Gallant was scratched for a second straight time because of a lower back injury. . . . The Mammoth will face the Swarm for the first time this season and only the second time ever. . . . Colorado has posted only one three-game losing streak since coming to Denver. The team lost its last three regular-season games in 2005.

Arizona......4	4	4	2	-	14
Colorado......2	2	1	3	-	8

Goals-Assists - A, Dawson 2-7. Self 0-1, Conn 2-4, Plunkett 3-3, Veltman 2-3, Lazore 2-0, Beisel 0-1, Malawsky 1-1, Secore 0-1, Seller 1-0, MacDonald 1-0, Blasdell 0-1, McKay 0-2. C, Law 2-1, Sims 2-1, Prout 1-1, Prepchuk 1-1, Levis 0-1, Carey 0-2, Cornfield 0-1, Stilley 0-1, Shewchuk 2-0.

Shots on goal - A, 49, C, 46.

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