Minnesota Swarm (4-0 H 1-0 A 3-0)

vs
New York Titans (1-3 H 0-1 A 1-2)

The I Think I Saw the Titans Mascot in "Spaceballs" Edition of Minnesota Swarm Lacrosse

Friday, February 8, 2008 - 7:00pm CST
Xcel Energy Center
St. Paul, Minnesota

Live Statistics

Minnesota Swarm Game Center

TV/Internet/Radio Coverage: None

Webcast: B2 Networks $7.00 per game

More Coverage of this game at:

Swarm v. Titans History:

Last year, the Titans made their NLL debut and played the Swarm twice. In a home and home series on February 17 and 18, 2007, the Swarm swept the Titans. The Swarm won the first game in New York 15-14 on a Sean Pollock (7g 11a) game winning goal. The next night, the two teams met in St. Paul where the Swarm prevailed 17-14 after scoring a Swarm record 13 goals in the first half.

Rosters:

Regular Season Statistics:

2008 NLL Standings

Former Titans With The Swarm:

Former Swarm With The Titans:

• Anthony Kelly (Practice Squad 2006)
• Adam Mueller (Former Swarm Head Coach - 2006)
• Paul Stewart (Former Swarm Director of Scouting)

Minnesota Swarm Promotions:

• Date Night
• The first 5,000 fans will receive a tube of Swarm Chapstick
• The first 5,000 fans of legal drinking age will receive a Swarm Performance Team magnet

Dean Hill v. Craig Point - Who's winning the side bet?

The Swarm return home after a successful two game road trip. The last game of the road trip was in San Jose where the Swarm rallied for six goals in the fourth quarter for a 14-12 victory. Andy Secore (8g 14a) recorded his first hat trick for the Swarm and Chad Culp (6g 8a) got the game winner.

This weekend they have a rarity for a NLL team - two home games on the same weekend. I refer to it as "The Swarm Getting Some Tit(an)s and Jax Weekend". The Swarm will host the New York Titans on Friday and then host the Portland LumberJax on Sunday.

The Titans arrive in Minnesota on a three game losing streak. In their last game, they opened their home part of their schedule against the San Jose Stealth. In the 12-7 loss, they only scored one goal in a five on five situation. The other six goals included five on the power play and one on a penalty shot by Casey Powell.

The Titans bring a powerful power play offense to the X but a powerless even strength offense. They have scored 44 goals this season in four games but only 17 have been even strength. The rest includes 24 power play goals, two shorthanded and one penalty shot goal. The Swarm in comparison have scored 47 of their 60 goals at even strength, which is more than double the amount the Titans have scored even strength and more than the Titans have scored combined in any fashion this season.. Even with the prowess of the Titan power play, they will be going up against a strong penalty killing unit in Minnesota which as has killed 19 of 30 power play opportunities. Their leading scorer is Casey Powell (10g 14a) who has a variety of moves the Swarm will have to watch for. Ryan Boyle (3g 16a) and Pat Maddalena (6g 11a) are great passers who have yet to really heat up yet. Mike McLellan (10g 5a) leads the league in power play goals with eight.

The Swarm defense had a tough time last Saturday defending Jeff Zywicki and Colin Doyle of San Jose. The problem for the Stealth was that the Swarm did well against the rest of their team. That will be key against the Titans as well, to limit the damage to no more than two Titans. Look for Noah Talbot (1a) and Jon Sullivan (2a) to keep Powell, Maddalena and Boyle at bay. The Titans have been vulnerable against teams with good transition games so look for two or three transition goals.

The Swarm will have their work cut out for them at the face off circle with Jamie Hanford (70/99 on faceoffs) drawing for the Titans. Look for the rotation of Darren Halls (15/36) and Mark Miyashita (18/46) to counter Hanford this Friday. Halls has been seeing his face off role increase recently as Miyashita gets more time on defense.

The Titan defense has continued to struggle but it definitely is much improved over last year having decreased their goals against from 14.5 per game to 13.5 per game this year. Jordan Hall (5g 11a) was selected first overall in the 2007 Entry Draft and in his rookie season he has impressed with his ability on both sides of the floor. Matt Vinc (1-3 13.50 GAA .726 Save %) is the starting goaltender for the Titans and is one of youngest in the league. The Titans sent Curtis Palidwor to Edmonton in the middle of last season to hitch their wagons to Vinc, who like Nick Patterson (4-0 11.88 GAA .770 Save %) is only 25 years old.

Don't be surprised that we see the Swarm play some players that haven't seen action much this year. Rory McDade has yet to see action this year but expect him to be in the line up on the left side this weekend. The problem is who you take out: Culp, Secore, Dean Hill (7g 5a) or Mike Hominuck (1g 8a). Oh yeah, what about Colin Achenbach? The guy from Minnesota I think finally gets to make his NLL premiere this weekend. This is the weekend to try to experiment to see what the coaching staff can expect out of these guys who maybe needed later this season if there is an injury. After this weekend, the Swarm will not have time to experiment because they will need all their top guns on deck for the three game road trip with two visits to Buffalo and one to Philadelphia.

The Titans have a tough weekend as they will host the Bandits on Sunday at Madison Square Garden. A split will be huge this weekend for them especially if they win at home. So is there a chance that backup goaltender Erik Miller starts for the Titans in one of the games this weekend. Maybe, but I think Mueller goes with Vinc as much as he can, so expect Vinc to start. No matter who starts in goal, look for the Swarm to impress in front of the home fans. Their offense should work well and often as it takes them to victory. So come Sunday against Portland at 3:00 pm CST at the Xcel Energy Center, the Swarm should be 5-0.

Prediction: Minnesota Swarm 18 New York Titans 12