NLL Week Six: Minnesota Swarm vs Rochester Knighthawks

Game two of the series for this season is packed with story lines. The Swarm are coming off of a huge OT win at home just two nights ago, but the Knighthawks won the first matchup by coming from behind to beat the swarm 16-14 eight days ago. The Swarm sit at 2-2 while the Knighthawks are 2-3. For the Knighthawks, getting to .500 would be a big step and it would mean dropping the Swarm below .500. It's a little early but in a nine team league that being over .500 will be huge come playoff time. Both teams are young teams with veterans and players with only a few years serving big roles, both teams can score in bunches with the Swarm having one of the leagues top scoring offenses at 14.25 goals per game. Goaltending as always will be huge in this game with the Knighthawks coming in with a proven commodity in Matt Vinc and the Swarm with a hot commodity in rookie Tyler Carlson. The matchup also features some bad blood as gloves came off during the last meeting a few times.

The Knighthawks come to St. Paul featuring a lineup that has 2 of the top 10 scores in the league in Cody Jamieson 2nd with 36 points (16, 20) and Mike Accursi tied for tied for 7th with 27 (10,17). Jamieson is the catalyst of this team not only leading it in scoring but also being the chief ball handler in clutch situation. Jamison scored 9 the last time these two team met netting 3 and dishing 6. The Knighthaws will lean on two rookies who while new to the league have been around the game for years in All Star Johnny Powless and All star snub Stephen Keogh. Powless a wizard with a stick, seems to do everything behind his back. While Vinc makes the stops in net having Pat McCready current All srat starter and reigning defensive player of the year in front of him certainly helps. McCready has a slick game and sucks up ground balls and heads up field in a hurry. He is a man who liked the taste of being called the best at his position in the league and is not looking to surrender it this season.

The Swarm who dominated the shots on goal in there OT win vs. the Rush and in general out played the Rush and may have run away with the game if not for the outstanding goaltending by Rush All-Star net minder Aaron Bold. Ryan Benesch is a hat trick machine who leads the league in scoring last year. Benesch scored the game winner in the OT battle on Friday night and is riding a hot goal scoring streak. Benesch has climbed all the way to 11th in the league in scoring with 25 points split almost evenly with 13 goals and 12 assists. While not just Benesch's set up man Callum Crawford is having a big start to the season and has turned up huge in all the swarm wins. Crawford sits 4th in the league in scoring with 29 points. However he hasn't quite matched Benesch's finishing touch instead dishing out 21 assists and scoring 8 goals. The Swarm besides featuring a rookie netminder also have a few rookies running the floor playing big roles. Jordan Macintosh, Corbyn Tao and Jay Card all rookies all contributers in all four Swarm games this season.

Two of the younger teams in the league will use their respective field generals Jamison and Bensch to decide the outcome in a game that not only be fun to watch but should be a tight contest between two team with something to prove and a few spots in the standing at stake.