Minnesota Swarm (5-5 H 1-3 A 4-2)

at
Colorado Mammoth (5-4 H 2-2 A 3-2)

Sunday, March 22, 2009 - 7:00 pm CST
Pepsi Center
Denver, Colorado

Live Statistics

Minnesota Swarm Game Center

TV/Internet/Radio Coverage:

• Altitude: Dish Network Channel 410 & DirectTV Channel 681
• Altitude 2: Dish Network Channel 445 & DirectTV Channel 682

More Coverage of this game at:

Regular Season History:

These two division rivals met at the Xcel Energy Center on February 7. In that game, the Mammoth pulled away with a 5-1 fourth quarter to beat the Swarm, 13-8. That was the Swarm's third straight loss. Gavin Prout (13g 29a) led the Mammoth with three goals and three assists. The Swarm were led by Ryan Ward's (18g 19a) two goals and three assists. This weekend's game in Colorado will be the first time ever the Swarm play in Denver during the regular season. Their first three match ups were in St. Paul, all won by the Mammoth. The Mammoth and the Boston Blazers (0-1) are the only teams the Swarm have never beaten. With the Swarm in fourth and the Mammoth in third, the Swarm need this win to prevent the Mammoth from winning this series and earning the tiebreaker over the Swarm.

Rosters:

Regular Season Statistics:

2009 NLL Standings

Former Mammoth With The Swarm:

Former Swarm With The Mammoth:

• Ray Guze

The Swarm will arrive in Colorado on a three game winning streak, with all the wins coming on the road. Last weekend, the Swarm traveled to Philadelphia and beat the Wings 13-12 on Dan Marohl's (16g 19a) goal with 4.4 seconds left in the game. Originally, the Swarm were to play in San Jose on Saturday night, but that game was moved to April 3 about a month ago.

The Mammoth stayed in third place in the West with a 14-11 victory over the Stealth last weekend in San Jose. The Mammoth will play in Calgary against the West Division leading Roughnecks on Saturday nigtht before returning home to host the Swarm.

Nick Patterson (3-3 12.27 GAA .739 Save %) appears to have regained the starting job with his performances against Buffalo and Philadelphia. His played his first complete game since the San Jose game on January 10. During that time, Patterson had been relieved in all three of his starts by Kevin Croswell (2-3 10.89 GAA .784 Save %).

With the trading and free agent deadline in the rear view mirror, the rosters are frozen. That has left the Swarm with a potential dilemma for the rest of the season. Teams in the NLL will make sure to add a third goaltender to either the active or practice roster by the time the free agent deadline is reached. The Swarm are the only team in the NLL not to have done this year. Marty did sign Brad Favero (1g 2a) to the practice roster at the deadline to max out that roster at three but I can't see Favero being the emergency goaltender. What I am getting at is if Patterson or Croswell go down with injury or suspension that prevents either from dressing, who would be back up goaltender for that game or games. Marty must feel extremely confident not only in the ability of Patterson and Croswell to play well the rest of the season but to stay healthy at the same time. If either goes down for an extended period of time, who do you think is emergency goaltender? I don't know who it is and not knowing if any Swarm runner has experience in the net, I could imagine seeing Marty turning to somebody like Eric Pacey (0g 3a). Pacey is pretty quick, has good size like Croswell, appears rather flexible and maybe quietly radical enough to play the position. The odds are against this situation happening but there is a possibility.

Ian Rubel (0g 0a) joined the team this week for the stretch run replacing injured (0g 4a). Before Halls went down, Swarm Head Coach Duane Jacobs played at least three lefthanders on defense in each of those games and I am not counting two way threat Andrew Watt (5g 9a). I wouldn't be surprised to see Rubel start this week or against Calgary the following weekend by the latest.

Travis Hill (1g 4a) has been a terror on face offs during the winning streak. In those three games, Hill has won 51 of 74 face offs and with Halls out, Hill will be counted on heavily to continue that. He will have a tough match up this weekend with Matt Leveque (4g 2a) who not only won 13 of 21 against the Swarm last month, he also got a key goal off the face off late in the third quarter.

The Mammoth have had some tough injuries to deal with. Their latest appears to be All-Star defenseman Bruce Murray (0, 4), who dislocated his kneecap knee last weekend in San Jose. Their starting goaltender Gee Nash (1-1 13.49 GAA .696 Save %) succumbed to a back injury early in the year, and Nenad Gajic (3g 2a) was lost early in the year with a knee injury, which has limited their transition game. Dan Carey (5g 7a), their best lefthanded scoring threat, has been sidelined with concussion issues since January but may make his return to the line up this weekend.

Andrew Leyshon (4-2 10.12 GAA .785 Save %) has been a nice story for the Mammoth. Last year, he was released by Calgary before the season started and did not play. He earned a back up role in Mammoth camp this year behind Nash to start the season. However, with Nash sidelined, Leyshon has taken the number one role in net for the Mammoth and done quite well with it, earning a trip to the All-Star Game. Last month, he saved 41 of 49 shots by the Swarm when the two teams met.

Gavin Prout (13g 29a) and Brian Langtry (22g 25a) are the headliners on offense for the Mammoth and if you can limit the damage to just them, you should do well. Last month, the Swarm did not do that and were burnt by secondary scorers Gary Rosyski (7g 22a) and Jamie Shewchuk (10g 18a), who each got two goals and two assists against the Swarm.

The Pepsi Center aka The Tar Pit, just like the X, has not seen their home team in action for over a month. Like the Swarm, the Mammoth have struggled at home this season, which makes around the 17,000 fans they average per game quite perturbed. The reception for the Swarm will be quite hostile with those facts in mind. Of course, it is not like the Swarm are unused to hostile and large enviroments, they have conquered three of them (Toronto, Buffalo & Philadelphia) during the winning streak. The Mammoth are the third team they will have played this year that beat them earlier in the season. The first two were Buffalo and Philadelphia and the Swarm avenged those losses and the Swarm plan to do the same this weekend.

Prediction: Minnesota Swarm 14 Colorado Mammoth 13

Next Games After This Match Up

• Minnesota (5-5) vs Calgary (7-2) - Saturday, March 28 7:00 pm CST
• Colorado (5-4) at Philadelphia (4-7) - Saturday, March 28 6:30 pm CST