Minnesota Swarm (2-3 H 1-2 A 1-1)

at
Philadelphia Wings (2-5 H 1-2 A 1-3)

Saturday, February 21, 2009 - 6:30 pm CST
Wachovia Center
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Live Statistics

Minnesota Swarm Game Center

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Regular Season History

These two rivals split their two game series last year. The Wings won in Philadelphia on February 22 when they routed the Swarm 11-1 in the fourth quarter on their way to a 17-8 triumph. In their last home victory, the Swarm jumped out to an 11-4 lead in the third quarter but the Wings rallied to send it to overtime. Sean Pollock snatched victory away from the Wings with the overtime game winner for a Swarm 15-14 win. The Wings' Athan Iannucci broke the season record for most goals in the NLL held by Gary Gait in the third quarter of that game.

Rosters:

Regular Season Statistics:

2009 NLL Standings

Former Wings With The Swarm:

• Dan Marohl
• Marty O'Neill
• Ryan Ward

Former Swarm With The Wings:

• Shawn Nadelen

The Minnesota Swarm will travel to Philadelphia to play the Wings on Saturday after playing the previous night at home against the Boston Blazers. The trip to Philadelphia is the start of a six game road trip for the Swarm that will finish on March 22 against the Colorado Mammoth. The Wings played last Friday and were held to a regular season franchise low four goals in a 8-4 at home against the Blazers. Against Boston, Philadelphia did not score their second goal until the midway through the fourth quarter. The Wings enter the game on a two game losing streak.

Philadelphia has lost a lot of offensive firepower leading up to this season. Athan Iannucci, who scored 71 goals in his record breaking year last year, has only played half a quarter due to a knee injury. Jake Bergey retired after he was taken by Boston in the expansion draft. Jason Crosbie signed as an unrestricted free agent with Toronto and Jamie Rooney was taken by New York in the Arizona dispersal draft. That quartet scored over half of the Wings goals last year, but this year, none of them score for the Wings and the Wings have not been able to come close to replace an adequate amount of that lost production.

That has left Merrick Thomson (12g 13a) and Drew Westervelt (15g 7a) as returnees from last year and Mat Giles (13g 15a), who they acquired in Chicago Shamrox dispersal draft. That trio has scored 39 of the Wings 70 goals this year. The remaining 18 runners have scored 31.

The Wings started the season rotating goaltenders Brandon Miller (2-4 12.35 GAA .770 Save %) and Rob Blasdell (0-1 12.35 GAA .744 Save %) but at this point in the season, it appears that Miller has gained #1 status. Expect him to start against the Swarm on Saturday. Miller also has done better than Blasdell historically against the Swarm including a big victory when he played with the Shamrox in the Swarm's home opener in 2007.

It appears the Swarm may have made a trade according to NLL Insider today. Preliminary reports say that 2008 NLL Rookie of the Year Craig Point (2g 6a) was traded to the Rochester Knighthawks for another righthander by the name of Aaron Wilson 9g 6a. Wilson has scored 205 goals and 162 assists in now his seventh season in the league. He played in Toronto for the Rock from 2003 - 2008 where he won two NLL Champions Cups in 2003 and 2005. He was traded to Rochester this off season. He is 28 and probably will be in the lineup this weekend. The NLL Insider report said more details could be revealed in this trade, so there may be more to come.

It looks like Swarm General Manager Marty O'Neill is reaffirming that the Swarm's future is now and the Champions Cup is definitely the goal in 2009. I think a shake up like this may be a tonic to good tidings this weekend. In 2007, after trades to acquire Ryan Sharp (0g 2a) and Mike Hominuck, the Swarm really took off and the 2008 trade to bring in Dan Marohl (7g 7a) and Keith Cromwell really helped the Swarm out when injuries were taking their toll. Marty has a good pulse on this team and probably expects a similar boost with Wilson.

The Wings meanwhile seem content to stay the status quo, at least through this weekend and that will not be enough to beat the Swarm. Their offense is limited and if contained to a half court game is borderline useless. The Swarm defense definitely has the personnel to do just that to the Wings. So with player personnel shake ups to reinvigorate the team and the return of Marohl to Philadelphia for the first time since last years trade, look for Marohl and the Swarm to prevail with much panache against the Wings.

Prediction: Minnesota Swarm 13 Philadelphia Wings 9

Next Games After This Match Up

• Minnesota (2-3) at Toronto (2-4) - Friday, February 27 6:30 pm CST
• Philadelphia (2-5) at Edmonton (2-5) - Saturday, February 28 8:30 pm CST