Mohegan - With the amount of penalty minutes in past weeks, it's already been reinforced that the National Lacrosse League isn't all that warm and fuzzy.

Which means that just because the New England Black Wolves have lost a couple of close ones the last two games, including Sunday's 14-12 defeat against the Colorado Mammoth at Mohegan Sun Arena, that doesn't mean Wolves' coach Blane Harrison is going to pat his players on the back and say, "Get the next one."

The Black Wolves (2-5) have lost five straight and Harrison warned followed the latest defeat that there could be some changes made to the team before the March 1 trading deadline and that people who do their jobs will play and the rest might find themselves watching.

"Yeah, probably," said Harrison, asked if there would be some changes in the team before it plays next on March 14. "I don't think that should be a surprise to anybody. We still have a season to chase. We've got to make some lemonade, as they say.

"… I think it's a mental thing. How many mental mistakes are there that are costing us goals?"

The Black Wolves, who have trailed in every game during the five-game losing streak, followed the same pattern Sunday before 3,711 fans. They fell behind 5-1 in the first period on a Colorado attack led by three goals from Adam Jones.

New England then drew a spark from backup goalie Tye Belanger, whom they traded for in December, acquiring him from Colorado, in fact.

Belanger finished with 37 saves against his former team and Kevin Crowley, held without a goal in Friday night's overtime loss in Toronto for only the eighth time in his career, finished with five goals and four assists to add to the comeback effort. New England took a season-high 61 shots.

The Wolves, however, despite pulling within one goal three times in the fourth quarter, couldn't get the equalizer.

New England's Pat Saunders scored a diving goal with 2 minutes, 33 seconds remaining on assists by Kevin Buchanan and Kyle Buchanan to make it 13-12, but Colorado's Drew Westervelt rolled a goal past Belanger with 16.1 seconds remaining and the shot clock running out to push the lead back to two.

"He had a lane down underneath and he can dunk," Belanger said of the final goal. "I thought he was going to do that. … It was just little squeakers. That's a little bit of rust on my part, but I thought I was good out there. I was seeing the ball well."

New England, with the Colorado shot clock winding down, was hoping to get the ball back and pull Belanger for an extra offensive player to create a power play.

"If I knew how to stop that, I'd stop it," Harrison said of the squibber that clinched the game for the Mammoth. "If I knew how to score 'em, I'd score 'em."

Following Crowley, who took back the team lead with 17 goals, Brett Bucktooth had two goals and two assists and Jamie Lincoln added two goals and one assist. Kevin and Kyle Buchanan each had four assists.

Jones had four goals and three assists for Colorado (4-3).

Kyle Buchanan led New England with four goals in Friday night's loss, which Crowley said created some space for him to work Sunday, with the defense looking to Buchanan.

"We talked to him," New England offensive coordinator James Milligan said of Crowley's production Sunday. "We asked Kevin to step up and be a leader on this team. We can go wherever Kevin takes us, but we need our No. 1s to be our No. 1s. Consistency is one of the things we need to work on."

Harrison said the team will take a week to "decompress" before meeting in Toronto to practice March 7-8. The Wolves have games at Minnesota (March 14) and at Calgary (March 20) before returning home to meet Minnesota on March 29.

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday