Sports stats

Minnesota Swarm Face New England in East Division Battle

January 23, 2015 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Minnesota Swarm News Release


SAINT PAUL, Minn. - The Minnesota Swarm (1-1) will be looking for its second win of the season this Saturday, Jan. 24 against the New England Black Wolves (2-0) at Mohegan Sun Arena. Faceoff is set for 6 p.m. CT. Minnesota is in the midst of a three-game road trip that started with a 14-10 come-from-behind victory against the Edmonton Rush on Jan. 10. Fans can watch this weekend's game for free online at UniversalSports.com (U.S.) and NLLLive.com (Canada).

Minnesota is coming off a road victory against the Rush where the team faced a 9-3 deficit late in the third quarter; the Swarm finished the game on an 11-1 scoring run. It was the first win of the season for Minnesota and proved this year's squad can hold itself together even against very difficult odds.

"Being down 9-3 in a place like Edmonton, against such a great team, it was definitely nice to see us be able to respond and have our veterans kind of bring guys along with them," Swarm coach Joe Sullivan said. "Now our young guys have just got that much more confidence going into the rest of the season so it was really good."

A major portion of the scoring this season for Minnesota has come from forwards Shayne Jackson (5g, 6a), Callum Crawford (5g, 8a) and rookie Miles Thompson (6g, 2a). Both Crawford and Thompson recorded hat tricks against the Rush, and Thompson's game-winning goal landed him a spot on SportsCenter's Top 10 Plays.

"He's [Thompson] been a real pleasure to be around and to coach," Sullivan said. "He makes everybody on the floor better and he's everything you would expect with a player that came in with those kind of accolades."

Minnesota will have to be on its toes facing the Black Wolves who are off to a hot start in their first season in New England after the team moved from Philadelphia this summer. The Black Wolves are coming off two straight wins at home, and goalie Evan Kirk has recorded a combined 84 saves in net. Forwards Kevin Crowley (7g, 9a) and Kyle Buchanan (7g, 5a) lead the Black Wolves in scoring.

"We're going to put our best foot forward and we know that we are facing a real jazzed up team," Sullivan said. "...We'll go out and play our game and see how it plays up against what New England throws at us."

The Swarm and New England will meet four times this season, and this will be Minnesota's first ever visit to Mohegan Sun Arena. The Swarm will travel to New England again on Saturday, March 28 and will host New England twice, the first on Saturday, March 14 and the second on Friday, April 3. Minnesota will conclude its three-game road trip against Buffalo 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.



National Lacrosse League Stories from January 23, 2015


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Minnesota Swarm Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central