Here's my game report, as posted on my Facebook wall:
New-look squad show promise, but still outclassed by reigning champs
After a lackluster 6-10 campaign in 2009 and a flurry of wheeling, dealing and other changes in the offseason, a brand new season of Swarm lacrosse is finally here! That's the good news. The bad news is that they open with a double-dipper against the defending league champion Roughnecks, beginning with this afternoon's contest in Calgary. If you caught this game on TV or online today - or if, like me, you recorded it to watch after the insane NFC wild-card game - you already know how it all went down. If you didn't, or if you just want to know my take on the game, well, that's what this post is for.
I've been waiting for over eight months to do this, so without any further delay, let's get this game on!
First quarter: Our new faceoff man Jay Thorimbert won the opening match, but the Swarm were unable to capitalize. End-to-end action at a breakneck pace in the early going, but no goals until almost four minutes in when Josh Sanderson sent one sailing past Swarm starting goalie Nick Patterson. Minnesota answered just three minutes later, and it was a beauty. Ryan Cousins stole the ball and lobbed it ahead toward Andrew Watt as Watt dashed for the Calgary goal. The pass was behind Watt, but he reached out behind him one-handed to snag Cousins' lob with his stick and sent it rocketing past Riggers' goalie Matt King. Aaron Wilson added another one just a minute later to give the Swarm an early lead, until Calgary's Jeff Moleski, one of the league's best defenders but not exactly known for his scoring touch, went low on Patty to tie the score near the end of the quarter.
Swarm 2, Roughnecks 2.
Second quarter: The Swarm got into a little trouble this quarter. First Watt gets a holding penalty to give the Riggers their first power-play chance of the game, leading to a strange goal on a sharp-angle shot by Tracey Kelusky that went in off Patty's leg. This was the first of four straight Calgary goals to start the 2nd quarter, including two more by Sanderson. Patty was even briefly replaced by backup Kevin Croswell after getting hurt on one of the goals, but the injury wasn't serious and Patty went back in. We haven't seen much of the Swarm's rookie phenom Zack Greer yet in this game, but another of the Swarm's newcomers, left-hander Ryan Benesch, definitely made his mark in the 2nd with two goals, both from what would be called "the slot" in hockey, the area directly in front of the net. They were the Blue Crew's only two tallies of the quarter, but it was enough to keep them in striking distance going into the second half.
Roughnecks 6, Swarm 4.
Third quarter: Minnesota started the second half with 1:21 left on a power play but could not capitalize. They did cut the lead in half near the three-minute mark though, as Greer fed Callum Crawford who then put it through King's 5-hole - Greer's first NLL point. Alas, this was as close as the Swarm would get the rest of the game. Six different Riggers would score goals in the second half, including four in the 3rd quarter. Sanderson's setup of Jeff Shattler's goal was particularly impressive. Another new Swarm arrival, Sean Thomson, put away a power-play goal with 1.2 seconds left to keep his team within three.
Roughnecks 10, Swarm 7.
Fourth quarter: In this sport, a three-goal lead is usually meaningless with a full quarter to go. Unfortunately for the Swarm though, they were up against one of the league's best goaltenders in Matt King, and fittingly enough, King reigned over the game's final act, pitching a shutout while his teammates Scott Ranger and Dane Dobbie added two more insurance goals. Ranger's goal came off a Swarm defensive breakdown - a chemistry problem with all the new faces on defense, perhaps? Crawford nearly broke the shutout with an "Air Gait" play in garbage time, but it was overturned on an instant replay review.
Final score: Roughnecks 12, Swarm 7.
Closing thoughts: The final score was very similar to that of the Swarm's only game in Calgary last season (13-8), but the two games couldn't be any more different. The Riggers had already pretty much blown the Blue Crew off the turf midway through the third quarter in that contest, en route to their eventual Champion's Cup triumph. This time around, Minnesota went into Calgary with a new head coach and over a third of their roster worth of new players, and still managed to hang with the defending champs for most of the game. In the end of course, the Riggers proved too much for our boys, but there's no shame in losing to the reigning title-holders in their own barn, and tonight's contest sets up what should be one hell of a rematch Friday night... this time in
our barn!
Official game box score