LATE SWARM SURGE TOPS PHILADELPHIA WINGS, 11-9

    Saint Paul, M.N. – The Minnesota Swarm trailed most of the game but rallied to defeat the Philadelphia Wings 11-9 at Xcel Energy Center Sunday in front of 7,524 fans in National Lacrosse League (NLL) action. The win ties Minnesota’s franchise record for home-wins in a season with three. The Swarm improves to 6-4 on the season keeping the team at third place in the East Division while Philadelphia falls to 4-6 this season as the Wings hold the fourth spot in the East.

    Kasey Beirnes led the Swarm with four goals in the game. Minnesota’s Chad Culp provided five points (3 goals, 2 assists) to lead the team in that category. Nick Patterson made 34 saves on 43 shots for the Swarm. The Wings’ Jake Bergey added a team-leading six points (4 goals, 2 assists). Philadelphia’s Sean Greenhalgh contributed five points (2 goals, 3 assists) of his own. Philadelphia’s Matt Roik stopped 34 of 45 shots in the contest.

    Minnesota began the scoring with an unassisted goal from Ryan Sharp at 4:52 into the contest. Philadelphia answered back with four unanswered goals in 2:38 of game time. The Swarm followed with a streak of their own with three straight goals, two of them coming only 17 seconds apart. The Wings finished the quarter adding a goal with 9 seconds left to play to finish the first session 5-4.

    The second quarter scoring began when Minnesota’s Ryan Ward tallied an extra-attacker goal in the second session. The teams traded all five goals in the quarter with the Swarm marking three of the five to tie the game 7-7 heading into the half. Mike Hominuck had a hand in each of Minnesota’s goals in the quarter, assisting on two goals and netting one.

    Philadelphia tallied the third quarter’s first goal 21 seconds into the new half with Bergey scoring his fourth of the game. Beirnes tied the game for Minnesota at 8-8 with his third goal of the game. The eight combined shots on goal in the quarter sets a franchise record for the fewest, besting the old mark of 13.  Scoring only two combined-goals in a quarter has happened two other times this season.

    Minnesota took the lead in the game for the first time since the opening goal with back-to-back markers from Beirnes and Ward. The Wings’ Jeff Ratcliffe followed with his first goal of the game to bring Philadelphia back to within one. Culp completed his hat trick to finish the scoring with 3:45 left to play and Minnesota held the two-goal lead the rest of the way.

    Minnesota plays again this Friday, March 23 at Xcel Energy Center against the Toronto Rock in a 7:00 P.M. face off. Friday’s game will be the second of three straight games in Saint Paul. The third game of the home stretch is scheduled for March 31 at 7:00 P.M.