Minnesota Swarm
0-0 (Home 0-0 Road 0-0)

at
Chicago Shamrox
1-0 (Home 1-0 Road 0-0)

The Holy Three-Leaf Clovers, Michael Kilby,
the Shamrox are lucky charmless edition of Minnesota Swarm lacrosse

January 13th, 2007 7:00pm CST
Xcel Energy Center aka The Hive
St. Paul, Minnesota

TV/Internet/Radio Coverage:

Live: B2 Networks: https://www.b2livetv.com/bp/nll.htm $6.00 per game
Minnesota Swarm website: http://www.mnswarm.com/
Minnesota Swarm message board: http://boards.mnswarm.com/forums/
Chicago Shamrox website: http://www.chicagoshamrox.com/
National Lacrosse League website: http://www.nll.com/
NLL message board: http://www.wingszone.com/nllmb/

Series:

This is the first meeting between the two teams. This is now the Swarm’s closest rival geographically in the league. Both teams will play each other again in Hoffman Estates, a suburb of Chicago, at the Sears Centre on February 24.

East Division Standings - W, L, Goal Differential

1. Chicago Shamrox 1-0 +3
2. Rochester Knighthawks 1-1 -2
3. MINNESOTA SWARM 0-0 0
4. Toronto Rock 0-0 0
5. Buffalo Bandits 0-1 -1
6. Philadelphia Wings 0-1 -1
7. New York Titans 0-1 -3

West Division Standings - W, L, Goal Differential

1. Colorado Mammoth 2-0 +9
2. Edmonton Rush 1-0 +1
3. Portland LumberJax 1-0 +1
4. Calgary Roughnecks 0-0 0
5. San Jose Stealth 0-1 -3
6. Arizona Sting 0-1 -4

The Minnesota Swarm are the last team to start their regular season as they take on the expansion Chicago Shamrox. The Swarm are 1-1 in regular season openers; however, they’re 0-2 in home openers and have never won at home in the month of January. Meanwhile, the Shamrox won their regular season opener on January 6th, 15-12, over fellow expansion rival, the New York Titans at their home at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. With the win, the Shamrox now lead the East Division by themselves. Coincidentally, the Swarm also won their franchise’s first ever regular season in 2005 against the Rochester Knighthawks, 12-11 in Rochester. That win gave the Swarm their only lead in the division by themselves in their history.

The Swarm (8-8 in 2006) are starting their third season relatively intact from the previous playoff season, where they lost 11-10 to the Buffalo Bandits in the first round. Only forward Scott Stewart (3g 2a), who finished last season on the injured reserve after being acquired mid-season from Portland, is the only player who was not on the active roster at the end of last season. General Manager Marty O’Neill has a reputation for making a lot of deals; however, he has either showed an immense amount of restraint or he is extremely optimistic about the players he has put together over the first two years of the team.

The only change is with the coaching staff. Duane Jacobs takes over as the third head coach in Swarm history. Last year’s coach, Adam Mueller, is taking over the expansion New York Titans. A prolific scorer in his NLL career, Jacobs played for three teams from 1993 to 2003. He scored 181 goals and notched 186 assists which include the playoffs and was Second Team NLL All-Pro from 1996 - 1999. He won a championship as a player with Rochester in 1997. The last two years, Jacobs was an assistant head coach with the Buffalo Bandits. O’Neill also will be assisting Jacobs on the bench replacing Paul St. John, who was not retained. Derek Moffat returns for his third season as an assistant.

The Swarm have solid depth offensively heading towards the season opener. Kelly Hall (16g 9a in only eight games) is a player the Swarm will need to get goals in the net this season. A force on power plays, Hall led the league in power play goals in 2005 with 19 goals. When he played, the Swarm went 5-3 and the offense was starting to pick up. Hall; however, has had issues with bone spurs in both of his feet which ended his season prematurely. He played in one of the two exhibition games in December, scoring one goal and four assists in an encouraging performance. Ryan Ward (19g 47a) will take the point for the Swarm offense and expect him to feed Chad Culp (20g 35a) and Kasey Beirnes (24g 28a) often along with Hall.

The Swarm return their second ranked defense practically intact led by two-time all-star and captain Ryan Cousins (2g 6a). Andrew Biers (4g 8a) was acquired mid-season in 2006 and quickly fit in well with the team. A transitional player, Biers can play both offense and defense well with a lot of energy. Expect Biers with a full season in Minnesota, to make quite an impression this year. Overall, Jacobs is looking for all players on the Swarm to be more proficient in both ends in order to take advantage of the team’s stamina and speed.

Jacobs has not identified who will start in goal on Saturday. Both Nick Patterson (6-2 10.40 GAA .790 Save %) and Matt Disher (2-6 10.92 GAA .773 Save %) are worthy to get the nod. Patterson, who was named an NLL Second-Team All-Pro last year, started against both of last year’s expansion teams, Portland and Edmonton, last year so that maybe a clue as to who will start. He is a vital cog to the future of the team and I would imagine O’Neill and Jacobs would want to highlight him in the opener. Disher, did well last year, coming off the bench in relief. So if things don’t go well to begin with, don’t be surprised if there is a quick hook.

The Shamrox have built a base with defense as a foundation. Former Swarm Darryl Gibson (0g 1a) along with Cam Woods (0g 1a) leads the unit. Against the Titans, the Shamrox got hit with numerous penalties which often put them shorthanded. Of the Titans 22 power plays, the Shamrox stopped 15 of them and collected three short-handed goals. They won’t mind roughing the Swarm up with the likes of Drew Candy (1g 11 PIM) and Woods (8 PIM), so the Swarm will have to keep their composure when attacked.

The Shamrox have a mix of experience and youth on offense. Experience lies with Jason Clark (2g 4a), Chris Panos (3g), Mat Giles (5a) and former Swarm Jon Harasym (5a). Youth is served with first-round draft pick Josh Wasson-McQuigge (3g 1a), Cody Jacobs (2g 2a) and Bill McGlone (3g). Most of these players have pretty good size so Cousins and company will have their hands full. Panos was issued a game misconduct on Saturday and maybe suspended for this game.

While the Swarm have two fantastic goalies they rely on, the Shamrox are all in with Brandon Miller, who saved 46 of 58 shots last Saturday night. Miller was the Shamrox’s first pick in the expansion draft as they started to build their team.

History is not on the Swarm’s side when opening at home as noted above. This year history will change as I forecast a Swarm victory by the score of 13-10. The Swarm will need to improve at home to be a factor in the East and this is where it starts.

The Swarm will have the following promotions on Saturday:

• First 10,000 fans receive a KARE 11 Opening Night White T-shirt
• NASCAR driver Reed Sorenson on hand for ceremonial face-off presented by FujiFilm
• Halftime features the Flippenout Trampoline Show at halftime

KARE-11’s sports anchor, Eric Perkins has signed with the Swarm to play a shift or maybe more on Saturday. He has been working out and is looking forward to giving it his all. He, along with KARE-11 and the Swarm, will donate ticket sale proceeds to Courage Center.

The Hive, the official unofficial Minnesota Swarm fan club, will once again hold their pre-game tailgate, which is open to all. The location is the parking lot at the intersection of West Seventh Street and Kellogg Boulevard. It is right across the street to the north of the Xcel Energy Center and to the east of the River Centre Holiday Inn. The tailgate starts around 4pm and ends at 6pm. Brats are the specialty of the chef and everyone is welcome to chip in with food and drink. All tailgates this year will start three hours before game time and end one hour before game time. News about the Swarm tailgate can be found on the Swarm Message Board (http://boards.mnswarm.com/forums/).

Minnesota Swarm

Head Coach: Duane Jacobs
General Manager & Assistant Head Coach: Marty O'Neill
Assistant Head Coach: Derek Moffat

22-F-R-Kasey Beirnes
18-D-R-Andrew Biers
10-D-L-Brock Boyle
50-D-R-Ryan Cousins
19-F-L-Chad Culp
1-G-L-Matt Disher
11-F-L-Kelly Hall
73-F-L-Dean Hill
47-D-R-Travis Hill (FO)
77-D-L-Riley Kemp
55-D-R-Michael Kilby
15-F-L-Spencer Martin
8-F-L-Rory McDade
6?-F-L-Ashton McLean
39-D-R-Mark Miyashita (FO)
12-D-R-Eric Pacey
93-G-R-Nick Patterson
11-F-L-Eric Perkins
17-F-R-Sean Pollock
48-F-R-Scott Stewart
23-D-R-Jon Sullivan
16-D-L-Noah Talbot
40-F-L-Jamie Taylor
44-F-R-Ryan Ward

Chicago Shamrox

Head Coach: Jamie Batley
Assistant Head Coach: Bobby Keast
Assistant Head Coach: Steve Evans

25-D-L-Drew Candy
13-F-L-Jason Clark
43-G-R-Derek Collins
7-D-L-Kyle Dupont
19-D-L-Darryl Gibson
27-F-R-Mat Giles
16-F-R-Jon Harasym
41-D-R-Zach Heffner
11-D-R-Mike Hobbins
21-D-L-Brad Holbrough
88-F-L-Cody Jacobs
9-D-R-Bryan Kazarian (FO)
26-D-R-Mike Kirk
91-D-R-Corey Leigh
4-D-L-Carter Livingstone
?-F-R-Matt Marchildon
33-F-L-Bill McGlone
35-G-R-Brandon Miller
10-F-L-Phil Montgomery
63-D-R-Thomas Montour
55-F-L-Chris Panos
18-F-R-Josh Wasson-McQuigge
22-D-L-Cam Woods