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Minnesota Swarm Dominate in Showdown with Black Wolves

January 24, 2015 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Minnesota Swarm News Release


UNCASVILLE, Conn. - The scoring never stopped for the National Lacrosse League's Minnesota Swarm (2-1) in the team's 19-13 win over the New England Black Wolves (2-1) at Mohegan Sun Arena on Saturday night.

The Swarm did not have to pull off a mighty comeback to record its second victory of the season, and their 19 goals marked the most in the regular season since posting 21 against Buffalo on April 6, 2013. Minnesota scored early, building a 6-2 advantage in the first, and maintained the lead throughout a majority of the contest until a little slip up in the second quarter. After giving up five straight goals to the Black Wolves, the Swarm stormed back with four goals right before halftime to regain the lead at 10-8.

Minnesota's scoring came from several different sources including forwards Shayne Jackson (4g 3a), Callum Crawford (3g, 4a), Miles Thompson (2g, 5a) and transition player Jordan MacIntosh (3g, 2a). Jackson, Crawford and Thompson tied for the game lead in points with seven each; Thompson's five assists and seven points marked career-highs.

"It's great, that's what we're going to need all year," said Jackson on the Swarm's balanced scoring attack. "It's not going to be just one guy scoring four or five a night, it's going to be balanced everywhere. Guys like Crepinsek got two tonight and that's huge for us so we're going to need everyone all pulling in the same direction all year so hopefully we can keep it going."

The Swarm not only had forwards putting numbers up on the scoreboard, but several defenders helped in Minnesota's scoring dominance. Defenders Alex Crepsinsek (2g), Jordan Houtby (1g, 2a) and Kiel Matisz (2a) added points to the scoreboard to take down New England and give the Black Wolves its first loss of the season.

"Guys on the bench just get so excited when a defender scores because they're not supposed to," Swarm coach Joe Sullivan said. "They're actually kind of out of their element so when they score it's a huge momentum lift for the rest of the team."

Swarm goaltender Zach Higgins started in goal for the first time this season and received his second win of the season. Higgins recorded 41 saves with 54 shots on goal. A total of 15 players for the Swarm tallied points in the win, including 12 players with two or more points.

"I think we were just running the floor well and timing was right and everyone was on tonight it seemed like," Crepinsek said. "... I think this group is really starting to come together and it's nice to see already at the beginning of the season that we're improving every game out there. It's really a tight-knit group. I think it's just going to get better from here on out."

Minnesota is now 2-0 on the road this season and will finish up its three-game road trip in Buffalo next weekend on Friday, Jan 30.

The Swarm will return to Ho-Chunk Nation field at Xcel Energy Center on Feb. 6 at 7:30 p.m. CT to face the Rochester Knighthawks for Native American Heritage Night. The Swarm is proud to announce that 50-percent of all new season ticket revenue -- all purchases between Jan. 3 to Feb. 5 -- will be donated to Make-A-Wish Minnesota. This special offer can be found online by visiting www.mnswarm.com/seasontickets or by calling 1-888-MN-SWARM.

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