                      
|
Friday, March 26, 2010 - 4:00 pm CST
|
| West | W | L | GB | +/- | East | W | L | GB | +/- | |
| Washington | 7 | 3 | - | 15 | Orlando | 6 | 4 | - | 14 | |
| Edmonton | 6 | 4 | 1.0 | -15 | Toronto | 6 | 5 | 0.5 | 30 | |
| Calgary | 6 | 4 | 1.0 | 24 | Boston | 6 | 5 | 0.5 | 4 | |
| Minnesota | 4 | 5 | 2.5 | -5 | Rochester | 5 | 5 | 1.0 | -8 | |
| Colorado | 2 | 7 | 4.5 | -31 | Buffalo | 5 | 6 | 1.5 | -11 | |
| Philadelphia | 3 | 8 | 3.5 | -17 | ||||||
| Minnesota | Overall | Home | Road | Home-2010 | Road-2010 |
| vs Calgary | 2-4 | 1-1 | 1-3 | 1-0 | 0-1 |
| vs Calgary-Playoffs | |||||
| Total | 2-4 | 1-1 | 1-3 | 1-0 | 0-1 |
| Numerical Roster | Picture Roster | Stats |
| Goaltenders | Defense (Left) | Defense (Right) | Forwards (Left) | Forwards (Right) |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|||
 |
||||
 |
||||
 |
||||
| General Manager | Head Coach | Assistant | Assistant |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Roster | Picture Roster | Stats |
| Goaltenders | Defense (Left) | Defense (Right) | |
| 30-Matt King | 14-Jeff Moleski | 37-Andrew McBride | |
| 33-Mike Poulin | 26-Craig Gelsvik | 20-Bruce Codd | |
| 55-Michael Kilby | |||
| 16-Mike Carnegie | |||
| 24-Scott Carnegie | |||
| 10-Curtis Manning | |||
| 15-Rob Kirkby | |||
| 80-Peter McFetridge | |||
| Transition (Left) | Transition (Right) | Forward (Left) | Forward (Right) |
| 7-Rob Van Beek | 40-Nolan Heavenor | 19-Josh Sanderson | 9-Kaleb Toth |
| 4-Devan Wray | 44-Dane Dobbie | 71-Scott Ranger | |
| 77-Jeff Shattler | 8-Craig Conn | ||
| 28-Mark Scherman | 17-Tracey Kelusky |
| President & General Manager | Head Coach | Assistant | Assistant |
| Brad Bannister | Dave Pym | Rod Jensen | Curt Malawsky |
The last time we saw our heroes from our local professional indoor lacrosse team, the Minnesota Swarm (4-5), they were snared in a diabolical trap that only Batman in the campy 1960's TV series could get out of. Unfortunately, the Swarm were not Batman as the Jokers, Penguins and Riddlers of the Philadelphia Wings (3-8) used a dastardly third quarter trap that foiled anything the Swarm had in their utility belts.
After there second March weekend off doing whatever professional indoor lacrosse teams do on off weekends, the Swarm embark on the Alberta Clipper to the province of Alberta, where some of the people are looking for independence. For the Swarm, their opponents in their first two game weekend of the season are staying in the NLL and are directly above the Swarm in the West Standings. Friday night they play the Roughnecks (6-4) in Calgary. The following morning they hop a bus to the Alberta capital in Edmonton to play the Rush (6-4) on Saturday night.
As of right now, there is no public word on when or if Minnesota's captain, Ryan Cousins, will return to the line up. He has missed the last two games as he is doing his best Dennis Leary impression training to become a firefighter. If he does not come back this weekend, who will rally the defense after giving up a season high 20 goals in their last game. Will it be Eric Pacey and Jon Sullivan who have been with the team since day one or maybe Scott Self, who has been on the league's top defensemen for the last six years but is only in his first Swarm season. Like earlier in this season in the first home game against Colorado, the Swarm were victimized by the Wings' transition. They will have to slow the other team up to have a better chance at victory.
With Dan Marohl back in the line up, the Swarm have had to juggle the offense a bit when it was hitting their stride in the February home games. The time off this month has not helped get the spark back but they will need to find it rather quickly this weekend. With Marohl in the lineup, the Swram have rotated Zack Greer and Kevin Ross in and out of the line up. Both will probably at least play once this weekend but is that the way to go. The Swarm are investing the future into Greer and getting him continued playing time for the rest of the season is probably more important than rotating him in and out with Ross.
Noah Talbot is expected to break Jon Sullivan's Swarm consecutive game streak against Edmonton where we expect him to don the blue and gold for the 52nd straight game. Talbot has been a fixture defending top right-handers for the Swarm since 2006 and there is no reason to expect him not to continue. I think I even predict a goal this weekend for Noah for the first time since 2007.
I would not be surprised to see both Nick Patterson and Kevin Croswell get a start each this week in net. I expect Nick to start in Calgary as that is the more crucial of these highly crucial games due to the tiebreaking issues.
Calgary is coming into this game off a huge road win in Orlando by the score of 13-6. Right now the series between Swarm and Roughnecks is tied at one game each with the decisive game to decide season series supremacy tonight. The Roughnecks will be without Tracey Kelusky and Kaleb Toth, two of their big time scorers. Kelusky suffered a concussion from a controversial hit in last week's game in Orlando and Toth is out indefinitely with a knee injury. With both of those players out, that means the Swarm can probably focus a bit more on stopping Josh Sanderson, who has lit up the Swarm with six goals and twelve assists in two games this season.
This is the third game between the Swarm and Roughnecks. Both won at their own barns earlier this season and a win for either team will clinch a crucial playoff tie breaker. Minnesota has lost three straight in Calgary since winning their first ever match up in Calgary in 2006. With Kelusky and Toth out, that makes the defensive corps job for the Swarm much easier. However, they are only 1-4 on the road this season and it is needless to say, but the Swarm are not coming into this game at a high. But my gut says vengenence for the past game for the Swarm and they come up huge with a win
