Top rookies Zack Greer (right) of the Minnesota Swarm and Matt Beers of the Washington Stealth went toe-to-toe Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center. The Swarm won the contest 16-12, giving the Stealth its first loss of 2010..
PERFECT NO MORE AS SWARM SLIP PAST STEALTH
Tim Campeau scores four goals as Swarm ruins dreams of perfection
02/13/2010
By Brett Bowker for NLL.com
The Minnesota Swarm (2-4) handed the Washington Stealth (6-1) their first loss of the season Saturday night, winning 16-12, in front of a crowd of 8,952.
Minnesota was led in scoring by Tim Campeau (4G), forward Ryan Benesch (3G, 3A) and forward Jay Thorimbert (3G). The Stealth were led by forward Lewis Ratcliff with four goals and one assist and forward Rhys Duch with two goals and three assists.
Minnesota quickly jumped to a 5-1 lead in the first quarter until Stealth transition player Paul Rabil made a hard dodge to the cage and scored off a crease dive making the score 5-2 at the end of the quarter.
At the end of the first quarter, the game's intensity turned up. Stealth goalie Tyler Richards and Swarm forward Sean Pollock dropped their gloves and started a brawl that cleared both benches.
Pollock was penalized for game misconduct, fighting and roughing infractions and was ejected. Stealth defender Mike Grimes was ejected as well for the bench clearing brawl.
The game's physicality increased throughout the second quarter. Washington face off specialist Jamison Koesterer was knocked into the restraining wall after a face off and was down for sometime. Despite the injury, Koesterer still won 22 out 32 face offs.
Washington was awarded a few power play opportunities, but failed to gain any substantial momentum. However, they maintained their composure, getting their offense moving as forward Lewis Ratcliff tallied a hat trick.
Minnesota maintained their lead after getting their two-man pick-and-roll offense flowing. Goals from Swarm forwards Aaron Wilson, Ryan Benesch and Jay Thorimbert kept Minnesota ahead, 8-6 at halftime.
The Swarm took charge of the game during the third quarter. Forward Tim Campeau scored his forth goal with ten-minutes to play. Minnesota's defense was firing on all cylinders as they continued to force the Stealth to take low percentage shots and prevented the highest scoring offense any momentum.
"We've out shot teams in the past, but never finished, we spread the ball and made a well rounded offense tonight," said assistant coach Aimee Caines.
Near the end of the forth quarter, in what turned out to be a game sealer, a shot ricocheted toward the Stealth defensive end. Washington goalie Tyler Richards went to make a play on the ball and was leveled by forward Jay Thorimbert. Thorimbert then picked up the loose ball and scored on an empty net to make it 15-10 and sent the home crowd into a wild frenzy.
Forward Callum Crawford made a top ten highlight, when he caught the ball as he entered Minnesota's offensive end and pulled a twister move around his defender and bounces it past Stealth goalie Tyler Richards.
For the rest of the game, Washington failed to make any headway to make an adequate comeback, despite two last minute back-to-back goals from forward Jeff Zywicki and defender Curtis Hodgson.
It was a rough game for both teams. Minnesota amassed 13 minutes of power play penalties while Washington had eight minutes of power play penalties. However, Minnesota accumulated over sixty minutes of total penalty time despite the score, many for game misconduct penalties.
"It was a really important win for us, besides the fact they were 6-0, it was because it's a division game. We got to climb our way out of the cellar right now, with two more division games up next for us," said Caines.
Minnesota will host the Colorado Mammoth (2-4) on Saturday, February 20 at Xcel Energy Center at 8:35 pm EST. Washington heads back home to play the Calgary Roughnecks (2-3) at the Comcast Arena on Friday, February 19 at 11 pm EST.
© 2010 National Lacrosse League. The team names, logos and uniform designs are registered trademarks of the NLL.