Minnesota Swarm (4-0) 14 San Jose Stealth (2-3) 12
The Ex-Culp-atory Evidence Favors the Swarm
Saturday, February 2, 2008
San Jose, California
Attendance: 3,895
The Seven-Headed Monster that is the Minnesota Swarm offense has been clicking all year. One of the heads that tends to get
overlooked is the player with #19 on the back of his helmet. That player is Chad Culp (6g 8a) and for a Swarm
record fifth time in his career, Culp got the goal to lead the Swarm to a 14 -12 victory. With 2:59 left, a battle for a loose ball high
in the air in the Swarm defensive zone landed near the face off circle. Culp, coming off the bench, corraled the ball in his
stick and scampered all alone on Stealth goaltender Aaron Bold and put it over his right shoulder to put the Swarm up to stay at
13-11.
The game started slowly for the Swarm as the Stealth jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter.
Sean Pollock (7g 11a) finally put the Swarm on the board at the 8:47 mark of the first as he drove to the net on Anthony Cosmo.
Even with Pollock's goal, the Swarm offense just wasn't in sync and San Jose clearly controlled the flow of the game.
The second quarter begun much the same for the Swarm as the Stealth continued to be the better team especially when scooping up
loose balls. With the Stealth up 3-1, Craig Point (8g 13a) got the Swarm's second goal as he trailed
a breakaway led by Pollock and Jon Sullivan (2a). Curtis Hodgson got a shorthanded goal to answer
Point's goal to put the Stealth up 4-2 but Culp got his first goal of the night when he got a pass from Point after rotating to the
top of the key. Still the Swarm couldn't keep up as the Stealth extended their lead to 6-3 but the Swarm finished the first half
strong with two goals. The first was when Point grabbed the ball off the boards behind the net and found
Andy Secore (8g 14a) waiting on the crease. The Swarm called a time out with eleven seconds left and pulled goaltender
Nick Patterson (4-0 11.88 GAA) for the extra attacker. The plan worked well as Point got the
ball top right and shot a laser past Cosmo with a second left cutting the Stealth lead at half to 6-5.
The Swarm needed only eighteen seconds in the third quarter to go down a man putting the Stealth on the power play. Zywicki
again beat the Swarm defense to the net and the Stealth were up 7-5. After that, the Swarm finally arrived to play with three
goals in one minute and 49 seconds. First it was Secore scoring from the top of the key after the Stealth just finished killing a
Swarm power play. Ryan Ward (11g 11a) joined the goal scoring as he beat Andrew Guindon one on one to
the net. Ward then came back to set up a successful pick and roll with Pollock scoring at 6:04 of the third to give the Swarm
their first lead of the game at 8-7.
The 8-7 lead for the Swarm was intact to start the fourth quarter. Both teams exchanged goals to start the quarter with Ward
scoring for Minnesota and Colin Doyle for San Jose. That set up Secore who grabbed the ball off the boards behind the net and
used an "Air Gait" move, moving left to right to make the score 10-8. Cam Sedgwick cut the lead to 10-9 before
Travis Hill (1g 1a) lost his helmet and head. First, T. Hill lost his helmet in the corner against Sedgwick then continued playing
without it by continously slashing Sedgwick. That earned T. Hill a double minor and the Stealth's Zywicki made the Swarm pay as
he earned a goal on both minors to put the Stealth back up 11-10 with 7:40 left in the game.
After finally getting a lead, the Swarm had let it slip away foolishly but the question is how they would respond. Well, is
the answer. Dean Hill finally got in the scoring column to tie the game as he got a feed on the crease
from Point on the other side. Then the Swarm finally showed a bit of transition flash as T. Hill redeemed himself by scooping
a loose ball and finding a streaking Ryan Sharp (5g 1a) who rocketed his shot off Cosmo's left glove.
Sharp's goal produced a goaltending change for the Stealth as they went from Cosmo to Bold. That set the stage for Culp's game
winner. Zywicki scored his fifth of the night to bring the Stealth back to within one at 13-12 but it wasn't enough as
Mike Hominuck (1g 8a) found Ryan Cousins (5g 1a) when the Stealth
had an extra attacker on the floor to try to tie the score. When Cousins got the ball, Bold had his back turned to Cousins as he
tried to get back to the net but was too late as Cousins' shot beat him to it.
Minnesota is now in first place by themselves in the East Division. They continue their best ever start in team history and
are a perfect 3-0 on the road. Point continues his quest for NLL Rookie of the year as led the Swarm with two goals and five
assists. Ward and Pollock each had two goals and four assists. Secore got his first Swarm hat trick finishing with three goals
and two assists. With 22 points, Secore has now tied his career record in points that he set last year in 14 games with the
Arizona Sting. Cousins 50th game as a Swarm, the most ever, will be coming up on Friday against New York. Last weekend against
Rochester, Ward became the first Swarm player to pass 200 points and after last night's game, Ward has 207 points as a member
of the Swarm. Patterson was strong throughout the game making 44 saves on 56 shots. Doyle led the Stealth with three
goals and eight assists and Zywicki had five goals and four assists.
Minnesota will finally return home this weekend as they will invite two opponents to the X. First, they will take on the
New York Titans (1-3) on Friday, February 8th at 7:00 pm CST. Secondly, they will meet the Portland LumberJax (1-3) on Sunday,
February 10th at 3:00 pm CST. The Stealth next play on Saturday, February 9th at 1:00 pm CST against the Chicago Shamrox (1-2).
Game Statistics
Box Score
Minnesota Swarm Game Center
| # | Minnesota |
G |
A | Pts |
PIM |
PPG | SHG |
S |
LB | FO |
|
# | San Jose |
G |
A | Pts |
PIM |
PPG | SHG |
S |
LB | FO |
| 9 | Craig
Point | 2 |
5 |
7 | 2 |
0 |
0 | 7 |
8 |
0-0 |
|
7 | Colin Doyle |
3 |
8 | 11 |
0 |
1 | 0 |
9 |
5 | 0-0 |
| 17 | Sean
Pollock | 2 |
4 |
6 | 0 |
1 |
0 | 5 |
4 |
0-0 |
` |
9 | Jeff Zywicki |
5 |
4 | 9 |
0 |
3 | 0 |
12 |
10 | 0-0 |
| 44 | Ryan Ward |
2 |
4 |
6 | 0 |
0 |
0 | 11 |
0 |
0-0 |
|
15 | Luke Wiles |
0 |
4 |
4 | 2 |
0 |
0 | 20 |
4 |
0-0 |
| 21 | Andy
Secore |
3 |
2 | 5 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
8 |
1 | 0-0 |
|
23 | Gary Rosyski |
2 |
1 | 3 |
0 |
1 | 0 |
11 |
3 | 0-0 |
| 19 | Chad Culp |
2 |
2 | 4 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
4 |
1 | 0-0 |
|
29 | Cam Sedgwick |
1 |
1 | 2 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
3 |
2 | 0-0 |
| 90 | Mike
Hominuck | 0 |
3 |
3 | 0 |
0 |
0 | 2 |
3 |
0-0 |
|
13 | Peter Veltman |
0 |
2 | 2 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
3 |
2 | 0-1 |
| 26 | Ryan
Sharp | 1 |
0 |
1 | 4 |
0 |
0 | 2 |
3 |
0-0 |
|
6 | Curtis Hodgson |
1 |
0 | 1 |
0 |
0 | 1 |
2 |
6 | 0-0 |
| 50 | Ryan
Cousins | 1 |
0 |
1 | 2 |
0 |
0 | 2 |
0 |
0-0 |
|
44 | Anthony Cosmo |
0 |
1 |
1 | 0 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
0-0 |
| 73 | Dean Hill |
1 |
0 |
1 | 0 |
1 |
0 | 6 |
0 |
0-0 |
|
2 | Paul Dawson |
0 |
0 | 2 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
1 |
5 | 0-0 |
| 23 | Jon
Sullivan | 0 |
1 |
1 | 0 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
5 |
0-0 |
|
3 | Tim Booth |
0 |
0 | 2 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
1 |
3 | 17-26 |
| 47 | Travis
Hill | 0 |
1 |
1 | 4 |
0 |
0 | 1 |
4 |
0-0 |
|
4 | Andrew Guindon |
0 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
1 |
0-0 |
| 12 | Eric
Pacey | 0 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
0 | 1 |
2 |
0-0 |
|
11 | Kyle Sorensen |
0 |
0 | 2 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
5 | 0-0 |
| 16 | Noah
Talbot |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
2 | 0-0 |
|
20 | Shaydon
Santos |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
1 | 0-0 |
| 20 | Kyle Ross |
0 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
8 |
0-0 |
|
21 | Steve Holmes |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
9 | 0-0 |
| 28 | Darren
Halls | 0 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
2 |
4-10 |
|
25 | Eric Martin |
0 |
0 | 4 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
10 | 0-0 |
| 31 | Kevin
Croswell | 0 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
0-0 |
|
34 | Luke Hinton |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
2 | 0-0 |
| 39 | Mark
Miyashita | 0 |
0 |
0 | 4 |
0 |
0 | 1 |
5 |
6-17 |
|
55 | Steve
Panarelli |
0 |
0 | 2 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
4 | 0-0 |
| 93 | Nick
Patterson | 0 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
0-0 |
|
77 | Aaron Bold |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
0 | 0 |
0 |
0 | 0-0 |
| # | Minnesota | MIN |
GA | Saves | Shots |
|
# | San Jose | MIN |
GA | Saves | Shots |
| 93 | Nick Patterson | 60:00 |
12 | 44 | 56 |
|
44 | Anthony Cosmo | 54:25 |
12 | 21 | 33 |
| 31 | Kevin Croswell | 0:00 |
0 | 0 | 0 |
|
77 | Aaron Bold | 5:33 |
1 | 2 | 3 |
| | | |
| | |
|
| Empty Net | 0:02 |
1 | | 1 |
| Scoring by Quarter | 1 | 2 |
3 | 4 | F |
| Minnesota | 1 | 4 |
3 | 6 | 14 |
| San Jose | 2 | 4 |
1 | 5 | 12 |
| Team Stats | Power Play | SHG |
PIM | LB | Saves/Shots |
SOG |
SOFF |
Face Offs |
| Minnesota | 2/4 | 0 |
20 | 48 | 44/56 |
37 |
13 |
10/27 |
| San Jose | 5/7 | 1 |
14 | 72 | 23/37 |
56 |
6 |
17/27 |
| Scratches | | |
| | |
| Minnesota | Chris Courtney | Rory McDade |
* Justin Norbraten | Colin Achenbach | Nick Inch |
| San Jose | Tyler Richards | Frank Resetarits |
Tom Johnson | Todd Fairlie | Zach Heffner |
* - Justin Norbraten is credited incorrectly for playing for the Swarm on Pointstreak.
| 
