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West Division First Round Playoff Game
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| West Division Semifinals | ||||||
| 4-Minnesota Swarm (5-11) | at | 1-Washington Stealth (11-5) | Saturday, May 1 | 9:30 pm CDT | ||
| 3-Edmonton Rush (10-6) | at | 2-Calgary Roughnecks (10-6) | Saturday, May 1 | 2:00 pm CDT | ||
| East Division Semifinals | ||||||
| 4-Boston Blazers (8-8) | at | 1-Orlando Titans (11-5) | Saturday, May 1 | 6:35 pm CDT | ||
| 3-Buffalo Bandits (8-8) | at | 2-Toronto Rock (9-7) | Saturday, May 1 | 6:30 pm CDT | ||
| Minnesota | Overall | Home | Road | Home-2010 | Road-2010 |
| vs Washington | 1-1 | 1-0 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 0-1 |
| vs San Jose 2005 - 2009 | 4-1 | 2-0 | 2-1 | ||
| Total | 5-2 | 3-0 | 2-2 | 1-0 | 0-1 |
| Numerical Roster | Picture Roster | Stats |
| Goaltenders | Defense (Left) | Defense (Right) | Forwards (Left) | Forwards (Right) |
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| General Manager | Head Coach | Assistant | Assistant |
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| Roster | Picture Roster | Stats |
| Goaltenders | Defense (Left) | Defense (Right) | |
| 00-Tyler Richards | 25-Eric Martin | 6-Curtis Hodgson | |
| 33-Matt Roik | 23-Mike Grimes | 11-Kyle Sorensen | |
| 2-Matt Beers | |||
| 13-Brett Manney | |||
| 24-Chris O'Dougherty | |||
| 77-Tyler Codron | |||
| Transition (Left) | Transition (Right) | Forward (Left) | Forward (Right) |
| 18-Kyle Hartzell | 9-P:aul Rabil | 42-Lewis Ratcliff | 67-Jeff Zywicki |
| 47-Jason Bloom | 29-Cam Sedgwick | 10-Rhys Duch | |
| 39-Jamison Koesterer | 4-Peter Morgan | 15-Luke Wiles | |
| 16-Joel Dalgarno | 19-Kory Kowalyk | ||
| 8-Tom Johnson |
| General Manager | Head Coach | Assistant | Assistant | Assistant | Assistant |
| Dave Locker | Chris Hall | Dave Evans | Mike Lum | Dan Stroup | Art Webster |
Your local professional indoor lacrosse heroes, the Minnesota Swarm, are getting a do over this season. After going through a regular season that saw them tie for the worst record in franchise history (5-11 also in 2005) and finishing the season with a six game losing streak, the Swarm are getting a reprieve from the Commissioner. They actually clinched a NLL playoff spot with the most ever losses for a NLL playoff team in history and worst record for a NLL playoff team since the league went to 16 games in 2002, That stellar resume earned them a trip to visit Everett, Washington to play the West Division regular season champions, the Washington Stealth (11-5) on Saturday Night, May 1 at 9:30 pm CST.
The two teams split their two game regular season series with the home team winning both times. Washington won at home on February 5 by a 12-9 score and the Swarm handed the Stealth their first loss of the season dropping them to 6-1 with a 16-12 win at The Hive. Kevin Croswell started his only game of the season in the home victory over the Stealth making 28 saves on 40 shots. The win also was marked by the bench clearing brawl started by Stealth goaltender Tyler Richards who blatantly attacked Sean Pollock from behind.
The post season history for the Swarm is not too spectacular. They are 0-3 with two losses in Buffalo in 2006 and 2007 and a 2008 home loss to New York. They return to the playoffs this year after missing last year with a better record than this year.
Only nine active roster Swarm players have played for the Swarm in a playoff game.
Swarm captain Aaron Wilson is the only player to have won a NLL Championship. Scott Self, Richard Morgan and Noah Talbot have made it to the championship game. Tim Campeau, Ryan Benesch, Jay Thorimbert and Callum Crawford have played in at least one playoff game. That leaves the following players with no playoff experience: Josh Funk, Joe Cinosky, Kevin Ross, Zack Greer, Andrew Watt and Sean Thomson and Croswell, who dressed but did not play in the Swarm 2008 playoff game.
The Swarm line up for this weekend is pretty set based on what Head Coach Mike Lines has drawn up over the past month. The player that is a question mark is Sharp, who may or may not be available due to his duties as a police officer. If he makes it to Everett, expect him to play. Patterson will get the start in net this Saturday even though we already mentioned that Croswell started in the win over the Stealth in February.
The league's highest scoring team (211 goals), the Stealth, will get to play against the Swarm who tied Colorado with the most goals given up this season with 201. Lewis Ratcliff scored a league leading 46 goals this season. Rhys Duch and Jeff Zywicki will work together scoring on the right side. Tyler Richards and Matt Rock have alternated starts this season in net. My guess is Roik will get the start in net as he is the more veteran net minder. The Stealth are also a relatively young team in the league but they did advance to the West Division Finals last year.
Some may say the Swarm are due to win one with the way the games have been finishing of late, but they have been due in each of the last six games. They do get away from playing East Division teams who they went 0-6 against this season and 0-4 in the last four games to finish the season. The team after the Titan game last weekend was the most frustrated I have ever seen especially with the way the game finished. One may wonder how they can top last weekend and pull out another loss right at the end. It would have to be quite extraordinary for sure. Even with the frustration, players after the game were already looking ahead to the Stealth and they like their chances against them. They know they can play with the Stealth and they know they can definitely beat them. Getting away from The Hive may be the best thing for the team, right now. Gives them the chance to loosen up a bit and bond together in a game few are expecting much of anything from them.
As we all know, the Swarm are the best three quarter team in the NLL this season and if only they could add the other quarter, they would be unstoppable. Even with the loss last weekend, I thought they played pretty well against a very strong Titans team. Patterson has played pretty well this season and the big three in Wilson, Crawford and Benesch continue to rip up opposing net minders. It maybe just a matter of someone else stepping up just enough to get them over the hump. A big game from Pollock, Thorimbert building on a strong April in the face off circle, a goal or two on transition from somebody like Watt and maybe Greer getting zeroed back in on the corners of the net could be enough to get the Swarm past the Stealth.
This Swarm team has the potential to be very good next year but I think they need to win Saturday night at least to have that chance to prove it. A loss I think may derail that as I think it may make the Arlottas rethink who they want to run the team next year. One more win I think helps keep a lot of players in blue and gold next year and keep the potential on track. Compared to the last Swarm teams that made the playoffs, this has the most playoff experience which starts with Wilson, who has done a lot of winning in his career. I think his playoff experience is something that can help this team out in a leadership role that maybe was missing with Ryan Cousins in the three previous playoff games. I see the Swarm actually getting behind early in the game as the Stealth crowd gives the enemy some early juice. The Swarm come back strong in the middle part of the game with some timely power play opportunities. Then the game is on in the fourth, where the Swarm finally learn from past mistakes by not letting up, cutting to the net more and staying more focused. It will be dramatic as Patterson staves off a late Stealth flurry of shots but the Swarm should be going to Alberta next weekend.
