 Preseason in Colorado Alec Schimke | mnswarm.com The Minnesota Swarm fell to the Colorado Mammoth 10-7 in the team’s final preseason bout Friday night. The Swarm jumped out to a commanding 3-0 lead early, but injuries and a couple of controversial calls worked against Minnesota in the second half. Minnesota suffered injuries to starting defensemen Richard Morgan and Andrew Watt, which forced the team to play shorthanded throughout the night.  “The preseason is meant to help figure out who your best players are and we took a step closer to knowing who we want to have in our starting lineup barring injuries,” said General Manager O’Neill. “We battled through some adversity tonight and its good to get that out of the way during training camp.” Newly acquired forward Callum Crawford led the Swarm with four points (2g, 2a) and helped Minnesota grab an early lead in front of 7,431 fans at the Pepsi Center. After Ryan Benesch scored the game’s opening goal, Crawford responded with back-to-back goals, both assisted by Benesch to put the Swarm up 3-0. Goaltender Kevin Croswell held Colorado scoreless for nearly twelve minutes until Nenad Gajic put the Mammoth on the board. Colorado responded ninety seconds later with another goal, this time from rookie Alex Gajic at the 1:39 mark. Minnesota held a 3-2 lead at the end of the first quarter.  Momentum continued to swing in favor of the Mammoth in the second quarter as Cory Conway scored three goals in a seven-minute span to give Colorado a 5-3 advantage. The Mammoth held the Swarm scoreless in the second quarter and retained their 5-3 lead heading into halftime. The game’s intensity level picked up in the second half as the two teams exchanged goals through out the third quarter. The Swarm got back on the scoreboard with goals from Sean Pollock and rookie Zack Greer. Goaltender Nick Patterson replaced Croswell in the second half and gave up three goals in the third to give the Mammoth an 8-5 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Minnesota bounced back when Greer scored his second goal of the night to cut the deficit to 8-6 at the 11:46 mark of the fourth quarter. Like they had done all night, the Mammoth responded with another goal at the 9:16 mark when Alex Gajic scored his third to push the lead back to 9-6. That trend continued when Pollcok added his second goal of the night at the 7:57 mark, only to be countered 38 seconds later with the game’s final goal from Jamie Shewchuk to give Colorado a 10-7 victory.  The Swarm kicks off their sixth NLL season on the road against the defending champion Calgary Roughnecks on Sunday, January 10 at 4:00 p.m. CST. Five days later, Minnesota plays its home opener against Calgary at the Xcel Energy Center on Friday, Jan. 15 at 7:35 p.m. CST. Lower level single game tickets can be purchased for as low as $24 for each of the eight 2010 home games. Tickets are available online at ticketmaster.com or by calling 888-MN-SWARM. |
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