Minnesota Swarm (2-2 H 0-1 A 2-1)

Rochester Knighthawks (2-2 H 2-1 A 0-1)

Native American Heritage Night
Friday, February 6, 2015 - 7:30 pm CST
Ho-Chunk Nation Field at The Hive
St. Paul, Minnesota

Last Update: February 4, 2015 6:11 pm Central

Live Statistics

TV/Internet/Radio Coverage:

• Universal Sports TV on February 12th at 9:00 am Central
• Channel 45 on February 7th at 4:00 pm Central

More Coverage of this game at:

Standings (02/01/15)	Overall			Division			V. Swarm
East Division	W	L		W	L		W	L		+/-
Toronto Rock	4	1		2	1		0	0		10
Buffalo Bandits	3	3		1	3		1	0		-7
Minnesota Swarm	2	2		1	1					0
New England Black Wolves	2	2		2	1		0	1		-1
Rochester Knighthawks	2	2		2	2		0	0		-3
West Division	W	L		W	L		W	L		+/-
Colorado Mammoth	3	1		2	1		1	0		16
Edmonton Rush	2	2		1	0		0	1		12
Vancouver Stealth	2	3		2	1		0	0		-14
Calgary Roughnecks	0	4		0	3		0	0		-14

y - Clinched home playoff game
x - Clinched playoff spot

Series History:

Minnesota	Overall	Home	Road	Home (2014)	Road (2014)
vs Knighthawks	5-13	3-6	2-7	0-1	0-2
vs Knighthawks_Playoffs	0-1	0-0	0-1	0-0	0-0
Total	5-14	3-6	2-8	0-1	0-2

The Knighthawks swept the three-game season series last year with two wins in Rochester and one at The Hive. The two teams opened the 2014 season in Rochester where the Knighthawks stifled the Swarm 8-6. The two teams then met for a home and home weekend in the first weekend of April. The first game of the weekend was at The Hive which saw the Knighthawks come back from a late 14-11 defecit to beat the Swarm 15-14. The following night in Rochester, Angus Goodleaf got a rare start and saved 42 of 51 shots en route to a 12-9 victory. The Knighthawks have won five straight against the Swarm including their 12-10 victory in the 2013 East Division Finals. The Swarm's last win over the Knighthawks came in February 2012 when former Swarm Evan Kirk made his NLL debut in net with a 9-6 victory at The Hive as he stopped 46 of 52 shots.

Last Weekend:

The Swarm finished their three game road trip in Buffalo last Friday night but were unable to go a perfect 3-0 on the trip as the Bandits held off a late Swarm rally to win 15-12. Down 12-3 in the third quarter, the Swarm got within three times in the fourth quarter but just couldn't close the gap entirely. Callum Crawford had two goals and six assists and Zach Higgins after being pulled briefly in the second quarter came back in later in the quarter and finished up 39 saves on 51 shots.

The Knighthawks started the season 0-2 but have won two straight inlcuding a 17-11 win over the Bandits last Saturday. After jumping out to a 10-3 lead, the Knighthawks saw the Bandits come back actually take the lead 11-10. That seemed to anger the Knighthawks as they reeled off seven consecutive goals to finish off the Bandits. Joe Walters had a career game with five goals and two assists with Dangerous Dan Dawson assisting on eleven goals without scoring one himself. Former Swarm draft pick, Angus Goodleaf, relieved Matt Zinc in the third quarter and saved eleven of twelve shots for the win.

Notes:

Quarter	Edmonton 1/10	New England 1/24	Buffalo 1/30
First	0g 0a	0g 1a	0g 0a
Second	0g 0a	0g 0a	0g 0a
Third	0g 0a	1g 0a	0g 1a
Fourth	0g 3a	0g 1a	2g 2a

• First 5,000 fans receive a Swarm cowbell courtesy of Ho-Chunk Gaming Wisconsin
• Callum Crawford is 7th in the NLL with 29 points & 4th in assists with 19
• Jordan MacIntosh is 5th in the NLL with 42 loose balls & 4th in face off wins with 50
• Andrew Suitor is 4th in the NLL with 8 forced turnovers
• Zach Higgins leads the NLL with a .785 save % and is third in the NLL with a 10.82 GAA
• It would appear that Zach Higgins has the number one spot in net for the Swarm for the forseeable future. He has started the last two games and should make his home debut this Friday. But we are talking Head Coach Joe Sullivan, which means keeping both netminders guessing until game time as to who starts and having the proverbial short leash during the game.
• I wonder how much pressure Sullivan has to play Brodie MacDonald applied to him by Owner & General Manager John Arlotta. Arlotta put a lot of effort into acquiring MacDonald and so far it has not worked out as he has expected. I say start Higgins as he has proved to be the steady influence needed in net but does Arlotta have Sullivan starting MacDonald until he is proved correct in acquiring him or if MacDonald doesn't get on track do the Swarm end up waiting too long to recognize that MacDonald just won't work. I think it is too early to shove MacDonald to the curb but how much more struggles in net with him can the team withstand while keeping in the playoff race.
• The team for whatever reason just seems to be more inspired to play for Higgins than MacDonald. I am sure they don't intend to have it occur that way but the perception sure seems that the team just looks better with Higgins.
• Higgins is 0-1 with a 14.71 GAA and .718 save % in two games in his career against the Knighthawks
• David Earl missed last weekend's game presumably due to a shoulder injury suffered against New England. His status is game to game as he is still on the active roster. If he was on injured reserve, the first level is 7 days out at least and the second level is at least 21 days out. As that is not the case, I believe this to be a game day decision as to whether he plays.
• Former Knighthawks with the Swarm: Dean Hill
• Former Swarm with the Knighthawks: Jon Sullivan, Craig Point, Scott Campbell, Scott Self, Angus Goodleaf and Aaron Wilson (IR). Former Swarm Andy Secore is an assistant head coach. Both Sullivan and Campbell played on the inaugural 2005 Swarm team.
• Dan Dawson is ninth in the NLL assists with 17.. He has played in 201 straight games in his career and is only the second player in the NLL to play in at least 200 straight games in a career
• Dylan Evans is fifth in the NLL with 46 face off wins
• Cody Jamieson last year's NLL MVP has eight goals and fifteen assists
• Matt Vinc has been named the NLL Goaltender of the Year for the past two seasons and a league record four times in his career. He is 9-4 against the Swarm with a 10.91 GAA and .772 save %. Two of his wins have come in the playoffs against the Swarm: 2008 with the New York Titans and 2013 with the Knighthawks.
• Stephen Keogh was activated off the physically unable to perform list this weekend and is expected to make his 2015 NLL debut. Last year, Keogh had his best year ever with 33 goals and 38 assists.
• Jason Noble's brother Jeremy was taken second in the 2014 NLL Entry Draft but remains unsigned. Having met him at the home opener as he watched his brother play, Jeremy stated that Denver is his home for the long-term and his number one priority is to a have solid start to a career off the floor. When he may play in the NLL is anybody's guess but it won't be against his brother on Friday night.

Prediction: Minnesota Swarm 13 Rochester Knighthawks 12

The Knighthawks are a pretty stingy team on defense and they have the three-time defending champion pedigree. One never knows if the Swarm will start hot or finish hot but they can't afford to get behind this team that is for sure. After a successful 2-1 road trip, the Swarm come back to the Hive to try to attain their first home win of the year. Solid goaltending with Higgins and I think a 3 to 4 big transition goals from the sorts of Kiel Matisz & Sam Bradman should make the Swarm fans ring their newly-issued cowbells in victory.

Team Stats	Minnesota			Rochester
	Stat	NLL Rank		Stat	NLL Rank
Goals Per Game	14.5	2nd		11.0	9th
Goals Against Per Game	14.5	7th		11.8	3rd
Shots on Goal Per Game	52.8	3rd		44.3	8th
Shots on Goal Against Per Game	53.5	8th		48.3	5th
Loose Balls Per Game	72.0	2nd		59.8	8th
Forced Turnovers Per Game	10.5	5th		9.0	7th
Power Play	31.3%	8th		50.0%	5th
Penalty Kill	58.8%	3rd		50.0%	7th
Shorthanded Goals	3	5th		2	7th
Shorthanded Goals Against	6	9th		1	2nd
Penalty Minutes Per Game	11.25	9th		27.25	1st

Faceoffs:

Personnel:

Minnesota Swarm

Runners

Goaltending

Staff

Depth Chart

Rochester Knighthawks

Runners

Goaltending

Staff

Depth Chart

Next Games After This Match Up

• Minnesota vs Toronto - Friday, February 13th, 2015 7:30 pm Central
• Rochester at Buffalo - Saturday, February 14th, 2015 6:30 pm Central