John Orsen (left) and the New York defense held Buffalo to only nine goals on Sunday at Madison Square Garden to break a four-game losing streak and salvage a weekend split. The Titans lost to the 6-0 Swarm on Friday, 16-9.
WEEKEND RECAP: NEWS & QUOTES
Minnesota, Colorado stay perfect; Roch gets first win in 4 weeks
02/11/2008
WEEKEND RECAP, NEWS & QUOTESby Darek Truesdale for NLL.com
It was a busy weekend with ten teams in action over seven games. Here's a summary of what happened:
The Minnesota Swarm and their 6-0 record are the talk of the league. Minnesota won another game in thrilling fashion, as they edged the Portland LumberJax 14-13 in overtime on Sunday. Ryan Cousins ended the contest with a goal 44 seconds into overtime. It was the third overtime game in six games this season for the Swarm. Cousins, a defenseman by trade, scored the OT winner, the second time he has done so this season. Andy Secore and Craig Point each had four goals for Minnesota, who remains one of three unbeaten teams in the NLL (with 5-0 Colorado and 3-0 Philadelphia). Peter Morgan led Portland scoring with four goals of his own.
Overtime was the theme on Sunday, as the New York Titans (2-4) won, 10-9, in overtime against the Buffalo Bandits (3-3), at Madison Square Garden. The win stopped New York's four-game losing streak and gave the Titans their first home win of the season. Casey Powell, the team's leading goal scorer, scored three goals, two of which were on penalty shots.
The Buffalo News noted that overtime has not been a kind place for the Bandits. The News noted that Buffalo lost its fifth straight OT decision and 10th in the last 11, all of which have been played away from HSBC Arena.
On Saturday, the San Jose Stealth (3-3) picked up their first home win of the season as they broke out their best scoring effort of the season in a 17-11 victory over the Chicago Shamrox (1-3). Jeff Zywicki, who has either tied or led the Stealth in goal scoring for every game this season, picked up player of the game honors with five goals and three assists in the win. He now has a league-leading 22 goals and 41 points. Rookie Frank Resetarits also had a big game, scoring four goals and an assist.
"He was playing a little tentative as all rookies do," said Stealth head coach Walt Christianson to the San Jose Mercury News. "I told him, 'They are going to leave you alone.' They are going to pay attention to Zywicki and Colin Doyle."
Mat Giles, who picked up three goals and two assists in the losing effort, led Chicago in scoring. Goalie Brandon Miller, who was replaced later in the game by Derek Collins, was under fire the whole game as he only managed to stop 31 of the 45 shots he faced.
Also on Saturday, the Rochester Knighthawks (2-3) secured their second win of the season, and their first in the last four weeks (January 11) by defeating the Toronto Rock (3-3), 11-4, in Rochester. It was a defensive battle early that took quite a turn late. After only scoring a single goal in the first half and trailing 4-2 entering through three quarters, Toronto was held off the scoreboard the rest of the game as Rochester outscored the Rock 9-0 in the fourth quarter. The Evans brothers (Scott and Shawn) each scored four goals to lead the defending NLL champions to the comeback victory. "We have one of the best offenses in the league and one goal in a half was unacceptable," said Scott Evans to Sal Maiorana of the Rochester D&C after the win.
Toronto's Josh Sanderson scored half of the Rock's four goals before his team failed to sneak one past Rochester goalie Pat O'toole in the second half.
The weekend wasn't all bad news for Buffalo. On Friday, the Bandits pulled out their second 17-goal effort of the season in routing the Calgary Roughnecks (2-3), 17-9, at the Pengrowth Saddledome. Mark Steenhuis and Kevin Dostie scored three goals each for Buffalo while Curt Malawsky scored three goals of his own for Calgary.
"They (Calgary) were hurting and short-handed, we didn't play their A team," said Bandits head coach Darris Kilgour to the Buffalo News following the win.
Also on Friday, the Minnesota Swarm dominated the New York Titans, 16-9, at Minnesota's Xcel Energy Center. Mike Hominuck and Ryan Ward notched three goals each for the Swarm as they picked up their then fifth win of the season. New York was held scoreless in the first half. At one point, Minnesota led the game 12-0 early in the third quarter. It marked the first time a league game had a 12-0 score at any point in the league's 22-season history.
Finally, on Thursday, the Colorado Mammoth (5-0) continued to stay unbeaten as they got the better of the Portland Lumberjax, 15-12, in front of nearly 16,000 fans at Pepsi Center. Though Matt Brown and Jason Wulder led the Mammoth in goal scoring with three goals each, the scoring standout of the game was Gavin Prout, who picked up a team record eight assists in the win on Thursday night.
"You don't really keep track of those types of things, so when someone tells you about three quarters of the way through the game that you have that many assists, you're relatively surprised about it," said Prout to Paul Willis of the Rocky Mountain Times after the historic night. Willis also pointed out that Prout was three assists away from the NLL record of 11, held by Derek Malawsky.
Portland's Ryan Powell had his best game of the season with four goals and an assist in the loss.
Edmonton and Philadelphia had the weekend off, but return to action this weekend. Philly will share the spotlight on Friday night with Colorado, in a battle if undefeated teams. Edmonton (0-4) and Portland (1-5) meet at Portland on Sunday, both trying to get some positive momentum going on their seasons.
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