Minnesota Swarm (6-8 H 2-4 A 4-4)

vs
Portland LumberJax (8-6 H 4-3 A 4-3)

Saturday, April 11, 2009 - 7:00 pm CST
Xcel Energy Center
St. Paul, Minnesota

Live Statistics

Minnesota Swarm Game Center

TV/Internet/Radio Coverage:

More Coverage of this game at:

Regular Season History:

These two teams met to open the season in Portland on January 3, 2009. After the LumberJax grabbed an early 3-0, the Swarm came back to win 11-7. Kevin Croswell (3-3 10.44 GAA .788 Save %) made his first NLL start and denied the Jax on 42 of their 49 shots on goal. Kevin Ross (17g 21a) made his Swarm debut with three goals and two assists. The Swarm have won three straight against the Jax in this series. The last time the Swarm hosted the Jax was on February 10, 2008, when Ryan Cousins (4g 2a) scored the game winner in overtime for a Swarm 14-13 victory to make the Swarm 6-0 to start the 2008 season.

Rosters:

Regular Season Statistics:

2009 NLL Standings

Former LumberJax With The Swarm:

• Ryan Sharp (5g 5a)

Former Swarm With The LumberJax:

• Matt Disher (7-5 10.70 GAA .794 Save %)
• Scott Stewart (10g 15a)

The Minnesota Swarm had a split of their two games last weekend. The weekend started off disastrously when they lost 18-8 in San Jose to the Stealth last Friday. The Stealth led at halftime 11-1 before the Swarm knew what hit them. Ryan Ward (20g 28a) finished the game with his 300th point in his Swarm career. The following night, the Swarm returned to St. Paul and got their first home victory in four games with a 9-7 victory over the Edmonton Rush. Croswell saved 46 of 53 shots on him and Josh Funk (1g 0a) got his first ever NLL goal in the second quarter.

The Portland LumberJax clinched a playoff spot last night in Calgary against the Roughnecks by a score of 11-9. Scott Stewart got a hat trick and Matt Disher saved 36 on 45 shots on goal. The Jax can clinch a home playoff game with a win over the Swarm tonight and still have a shot for first place.

The Swarm will be looking for their second straight victory at home on Saturday. They have not won two straight at home since 2008 when they won the first six at home that season. But if they plan to go to the playoffs, they will have to win at home since that is where they will be for the final two games of the season.

Sean Pollock (20g 33a) leads the Swarm in scoring this season. He is only two goals short of 100 for his NLL career and five short of 100 as a member of the Swarm. Chad Culp's (11g 21a) game winner last Saturday against the Rush was his 100th goal in his NLL career. Andrew Watt (6g 11a) continues his fantastic rookie season and is tied with Calgary's Tracey Kelusky with a NLL leading four shorthanded goals. Dan Marohl (16g 22a) is five points short of 400 for his NLL career and his three game winning goals this season ties him with Buffalo's John Tavares and Mark Steenhuis and Rochester's Shawn Evans for the league lead this season.

Peter Morgan (23g 21a) has been a force offensively for the Jax. He has scored two goals in 10 of 11 games this year and would have more if an injury did not keep him out of action for three games. Brodie Merrill (13g 26a) has 203 looose balls on the year. He has exceeded 200 loose balls in three of his four years and in the one year he was four short. Disher returned to action last night after missing last weekend. He looked pretty good but there were times after he made a save that he still appeared sligthly injured. Still, it looks like Disher will get the start in his first return to St. Paul since he was traded prior to the 2008 season.

The Swarm will need their offense to be pretty consistent and will need Pollock and Aaron Wilson (28g 24a) to find holes to get inside of the Jax defense. The Swarm need this game desperately to make the playoffs and the last few years they have been able to pull out those late regular season victories. Look for a low scoring affair as both teams defenses look to bash the opposing offenses.

Minnesota Swarm Promotions:

• Ladies Night - Get 30% off of all ladies apparel
• Junior Swarm Performance Team makes it 2009 debut
• First 5,000 fans get Old Dutch Chip Clip
• Postgame Party at Great Waters Brewing Company

Prediction: Minnesota Swarm 11 Portland LumberJax 10

Next Games After This Match Up

• Minnesota (6-8) vs. New York (8-6) - Saturday, April 18 7:00 pm CST
• Portland (8-6) vs. Calgary (10-4) - Friday, April 17 9:30 pm CST