Alex Urquhart
The Minnesota Swarm have assuredly struggled this season, going 2-7 so far and only grabbing wins against the Philadelphia Wings and only winning in Philly to boot. The team has lost all three home games at the Excel Energy Center, and all of their away games, not in Philly. This week the Swarm will take on the Buffalo Bandits at First Niagara Center.
The last time the Bandits played the Swarm was a 21-6 loss to the Swarm in Minnesota. Unfortunately for the Swarm that was at the tail end of three-game winning streak that had propelled the Swarm into the playoffs. The Swarm also happened to be a different team than it is now, for one it was a lot less rookie oriented.
The Swarms woes so far this season have come from not being to find consistent offense from its younger players. The team has also had difficulty finding a solid source of goaltending this year as well.
Going into the game on Saturday the Swarm are being lead by Callum Crawford who leads the team with 41 points (14 G, 27 A). The Swarm are also coming into the game after winning their last game in Philly against the Wings and with the newly crowned Rookie of the Month, Logan Schuss who had a stellar month of February. Schuss, the number one draft pick for the Swarm has 31 points on the season (16 G, 15 A).
The Swarm still have a slim chance of making the playoffs as long as the win almost all of their remaining games and all of their division games. This may be a tall order if the team can’t figure out how to put the ball in the net more consistently and then get some stellar goaltending.
The game for Saturday is at 7:30 pm EST in Buffalo at the First Niagara Center. You can see the game on TLN’s Stream of the game through YouTube.
