The Calgary Roughnecks kicked off their title defense with a 12-7 victory over the Minnesota Swarm at Pengrowth Saddledome. The Swarm will be seeking revenge in Week Two, as the matchup moves to Xcel Energy Center.
SWARM LOOK TO EVEN UP IN HOME OPENER
Minnesota hosts Calgary, aim to return favor from opener
01/14/2010
Swarm set to host Roughnecks in Round TwoBy Josh Chalmers for NLL.com
The Minnesota Swarm (0-1) host the Calgary Roughnecks (1-0) in their home opener for the 2010 NLL season. The game will take place at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul at 8:35pm ET on Friday night. It's the second consecutive meeting between the two teams this season.
In the first game, the Roughnecks were carried by the strong play of forward Josh Sanderson, who chipped in with four goals and six assists en route to a 12-7 win in Calgary over the Swarm.
"Josh comes to compete every game he's in, and he's certainly delivered on his promises of being prepared and throwing down a great game," said Roughnecks head coach Dave Pym.
"With that said, he knows that he can still be a lot better in order to contribute to the overall performance of our offense."
Sanderson's first weekend performance of 10 points was tied for the highest point total in the NLL, matched only by Toronto's Colin Doyle (1G, 9A).
Minnesota coach Mike Lines was happy with his team's first half in the opening matchup, but said they need to improve in the second.
"We couldn't answer their second run and that's the bottom line. We had a lot of fundamental mistakes," said Lines. "Our defense had breakdown after breakdown."
Lines said that the errors can be linked to a lack of chemistry on the team.
"There are a lot of new guys playing with each other that haven't played with each other before. It's going to take a while to get things to where they should be," he said.
Forward Ryan Benesch, formerly of the Edmonton Rush and Toronto Rock, led the Swarm in the first matchup with two goals and three assists. The game was his first with the Minnesota team.
"It's tough for anybody to walk into a new team with a new system," Lines said. "I think he did a good job, he's starting to mesh with the other player's pretty well, on floor and off floor."
For the Roughnecks, forward Kaleb Toth will miss his second straight game with a hamstring issue sustained in practice for last week's game. This week's game will mark the second of three games the teams will play this season. The third matchup will be on the Roughnecks' home floor at the Pengrowth Saddledome on Friday, March 26.
Friday night's game can be seen live on the NLL Network at NLL.com.
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