Minnesota Swarm (4-3)

at
Buffalo Bandits (3-2)

February 18th, 2006, 6:30 pm CST
HSBC Arena
Buffalo, New York

Live: B2 Networks: $6.00 per game

Live statistics at: http://www.pointstreak.com

Minnesota Swarm website: http://www.mnswarm.com
Minnesota Swarm message board: http://boards.mnswarm.com/
National Lacrosse League website: http://www.nll.com
NLL message board: http://www.wingszone.com/nllmb/

Series
Overall: Buffalo 3-0
Home Overall: Buffalo 2-0
Road Overall: Buffalo 1-0
This Season: N/A
Home This Season: N/A
Road This Season: N/A

More statistics on the Swarm at Pointstreak http://www.pointstreak.com/prostats/teampl...56&seasonid=977

Standings:

http://www.pointstreak.com/prostats/standi...30&seasonid=977

The NLL All-Star Teams were announced earlier this week with starters on Monday and reserves on Tuesday. The game will be on February 25th, 2006 at 3pm CST. KSTC Channel 45 will show the game on a tape delayed basis on February 25th, 2006 at 9pm CST.

http://www.mnswarm.com/news/news.asp?news_id=143

The Swarm will have just one all-star this year. That player is team captain and defenseman #50 Ryan Cousins. Cousins, who also represented the Swarm last year, will be going to his 2nd All-Star game. He has four assists, scooped up 28 loose balls and collected 19 penalty minutes this year in six games. However, Cousins will not be playing this weekend because he will be serving a one game suspension for his involvement in a pre-game, on the field fight with Edmonton s Trent Smalley on February 3rd, 2006, a game the Swarm won in Edmonton 7-6.

The other teams in the East Division (Toronto, Buffalo, Philadelphia & Rochester) had at least three players each on the team. Goalie #93 Nick Patterson was and is extremely deserving with a 4-0 record while leading the league in goals against average (8.89) and save percentage (.828). Others who were very deserving were #24 Brock Boyle, #44 Ryan Ward, #10 Chad Culp and #19 Darryl Gibson.

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Today, #10 Chad Culp was announced as the NLL overall and offensive player of the week for his four goal and four assist effort against the Philadelphia Wings on February 10th, 2006. In that game, Culp also scored the game winning game. In addition, #93 Nick Patterson won his second straight NLL defensive player of the week for his work in the same game in which he made 41 of 51 saves. This is his third league award for he won the NLL overall player of the week award for his week 4 work against the Edmonton Rush.

http://www.mnswarm.com/news/news.asp?news_id=143

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Last week, the Swarm beat the Philadelphia Wings 11-10 at the Xcel Energy Center on Friday, February 10th. The Bandits beat the Portland Lumberjax 16-6 on Friday, February 10th in Buffalo. On the following night, the Bandits went to Philadelphia and lost to the Wings 10-9. This will be the first of three games between the teams this year.The Bandits and their fans are expecting a large and rowdy crowd Saturday as all kids under twelve get in free. Even more so, #11 John Tavares (13g -21a = 34pts in five games) for the Bandits is six points short of the career NLL points record. The record is 1,091 held by Gary Gait, who is now the coach of the Colorado Mammoth. Tavares, who has played his entire 15 year career in Buffalo, is one of top three players in the league, and is considered by many to be the best player now and some consider him the best ever in the NLL. It is practically guaranteed that Tavares will break the record on Saturday. If not, it means either Tavares got hurt really early in the game or the Swarm pulled out maybe one of the greatest defensive performances in history.

http://bandits.com/jt-countdown.cfm

With Cousins suspended, #19 Darryl Gibson and the rest of the Swarm defense will need to step it up to cover Tavares or up and coming superstar, two way player #9 Mark Steenhuis (13g 12a = 25pts). Steenhuis is considered by many to be the best all around player in the league, by that meaning, that he plays both offense and defense regularly throughout the game and at a high standard. The Swarm will want to force Tavares and Steenhuis to give the ball up as much as possible to force turnovers. That is where Swarm defenders like #23 Jon Sullivan and #16 Noah Talbot come onto the scene. When and if they create those turnovers occur, they will need to quickly outlet the ball out to #24 Brock Boyle for breakaways.

The Swarm offense will have to build on last Friday s performance. The Swarm, with their constant motion, will have to keep the Bandit defense spread out to find open passing and shooting lanes. #44 Ryan Ward (9g 18a = 27 pts) will spearhead the right side and #10 Chad Culp (12g 14a= 26pts) the left side. #22 Kasey Beirnes (7g 12a = 19pts) will continue as he did last Friday to play and score from the crease. Last Friday, the Swarm signed #18 Spencer Martin, who was released earlier in the year by the San Jose Stealth. Martin, whose brother Andrew played with the Swarm last year, is a left handed forward who was signed to create picks and screens for the offense.

#93 Nick Patterson will start a third straight game in goal with the Swarm. He will have to continue his great play this year to get the win for the Swarm. The Bandits will start #30 Steve "Chugger" Dietrich (3-2, 9.45 GAA and .820 save %) in goal who was selected as the East Division all-star reserve goalie ahead of Patterson. How convenient.

When the Swarm signed Martin last Friday, they released Mark Miyashita, who was handling face offs duties for the team. However, in last Friday s game, the Swarm lost #48 Scott Stewart probably for the rest of the season with a torn left knee. No announcement has been made yet on who will fill the roster Stewart s roster spot, but either Miyashita will be resigned or #47 Travis Hill will be activated from the practice roster.

Swarm Righties
#8 Rory McDade
#44 Ryan Ward
#22 Kasey Beirnes
#17 Sean Pollock
#48 Scott Stewart

Swarm Lefties
# 18 Spencer Martin
#10 Chad Culp
#11 Kelly Hall
#40 Jamie Taylor
#7 Tony Henderson

Swarm Defense
#50 Ryan Cousins
#16 Noah Talbot
#24 Brock Boyle
#23 Jon Sullivan
#77 Riley Kemp
#33 Shawn Summerfield
#19 Darryl Gibson
#55 Michael Kilby
#12 Eric Pacey
#28 Nolan Heavenor

Swarm Face Off
#66 D arcy Berthiaume (26 of 81, 32.1%)

Swarm Goalies
#93 Nick Patterson
#1 Matt Disher

Swarm Head Coach
Adam Mueller

Bandits Righties
#7 Jon Harasym
#15 Dan Teat
#99 Delby Powless
#97 Bryan Kazarian

Bandits Lefties
#11 John Tavares
#8 A.J. Shannon
#12 Lindsay Plunkett
#93 Kim Squire

Bandits Two-Way Player
#9 Mark Steenhuis (Rightie)

Bandits Defense
#17 Kyle Laverty
#3 Billy Dee Smith
#32 Chris Langdale
#16 Rich Kilgour
#23 Pat McCready
#27 Kyle Couling
#6 Chris White
#2 Troy Bonterre
#5 Clay Hill
#77 Jeff Shattler

Bandits Face Off
#72 Cory Bomberry (41 of 84, 48.8%)

Bandits Goalies
#30 Steve Dietrich
#60 Steve Avery
#21 Mike Poulin

Bandits Head Coach
Darris Kilgour

My prediction is Swarm 11 Bandits 10. The Swarm are looking to go at least 2-2 on their four game road trip and this is where it starts. An extremely tough game but the Swarm will be up to it as they enter the all-star break.

Next, the Swarm have a two game road trip in the east on the same weekend. The first game is Friday, March 3rd against the defending NLL champion Toronto Rock at 6:30 pm CST at the Air Canada Center in Toronto. The following night, March 4th, the Swarm travel to Buffalo to play the Bandits at 6:30 pm CST at HSBC Arena. The next home game for the Swarm is Friday, March 24th at the Xcel Energy Center at 7:00 pm against the Buffalo Bandits.