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NLL's Swarm falls to Calgary, 13-10

March 28, 2009 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Minnesota Swarm News Release


St paul, mn - The Minnesota Swarm (5-7) was defeated by the Calgary Roughnecks (9-3) 13-10 Saturday night in front of 12,364 at the Xcel Energy Center. F Aaron Wilson led Minnesota with seven points (3-4=7), rookie F Kevin Buchanan added six points (3-3=6) and G Nick Patterson made 29 saves in the loss. F Kaleb Toth led Calgary with six points (2-4=6) and G Matt King made 33 saves for Calgary, who out-scored Minnesota 6-2 in the fourth quarter to claim victory.

After falling behind 6-0 in the first match-up on February 6th, Minnesota knew a strong start was important and it jumped out to an early lead as D Jon Sullivan scored on a breakaway at just 1:05. "We were focused coming in and we played well considering the injuries we have, "said Head Coach Duane Jacobs. "I don't know if we could have played any better." T Devan Ray tied the game at 7:04 before Kevin Buchanan (8:29) and D Kevin Fines gave Minnesota a 3-1 lead. F Dane Dobbie ended the quarter with a goal for Calgary to cut the Swarm lead to 3-2 after the first quarter.

Minnesota took control early in the second quarter, opening up a 5-2 lead on Buchanan's second goal of the game and F Kevin Ross's goal at 5:28. The Swarm was not unable to gain momentum, however, as penalty trouble struck Minnesota. D Travis Hill and D Josh Funk received minor penalties at 8:43 to give Calgary a 5-on-3 advantage. The Roughnecks took advantage, scoring on both the 5-on-3 power-play and 5-on-4 power-play and trailed just 5-4. Each team struggled to take control from there as the tight-checking game saw limited opportunities. Minnesota's leading goal scorer, Aaron Wilson, put Minnesota back up two at 12:13, but the Roughnecks once again responded with a goal from D Mike Carnegie to cut the Swarm's lead to 6-5 at halftime.

Minnesota has been a strong second half team this season, but it was Calgary that tied the game just 34 seconds into the third quarter with Dobbie's second goal of the game on the power-play. The Swarm responded with Wilson's second goal of the night on a delayed penalty a 5:58 and just 18 seconds later Buchanan gave Minnesota a two-goal lead at 8-6. Scoring chances continued to be at a minimum for both sides though and penalty trouble again hit the Swarm. With F Colin Achenbach off for Unsportsmanlike Conduct, F Tracey Keluski scored the fourth power-play goal of the game for Calgary to cut the deficit to one after three quarters.

The Roughnecks finally broke open the tight game in the fourth quarter, scoring five consecutive goals to take a 12-8 lead. "We just had a couple lapses and they're too good to have lapses on." Jacobs said. "You can't ask for any better chances then we had; they were able to score on theirs and we weren't able to score on ours." With a four-goal deficit, Wilson and F Sean Pollock scored late for Minnesota to cut the lead to two, but a major penalty to F Ryan Sharp allowed Dobbie to score his team leading fourth-goal of the game to finish with a 13-10 victory. Minnesota out-shot Calgary 43-42, the lowest shot total for the Swarm since its 10-7 victory over San Jose on January 10th (39 shots). Minnesota went 4-for-7 on the power-play while Calgary went 5-for-10 and added one short-handed goal.

Minnesota plays two key games next weekend, at San Jose on Friday before returning home Saturday to host Edmonton. "Our season will probably be determined next weekend with both games." Jacobs said. "San Jose is our first step and we have to win that game if we have any chance of making the playoffs."

Swarm single game tickets are on sale now at the Xcel Energy Center Box Office and all Ticketmaster locations, by calling 888-MN-SWARM or by visiting www.mnswarm.com. Swarm Single game tickets are available in all price categories and range from $13.00 to $65.00.

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