The Minnesota Swarm will look to get back on track and gain vengeance over the first place Toronto Rock at home Friday night.
The last time the two teams met, the Swarm had a convincing 12-8 lead late in the third quarter. The Rock made a huge comeback and scored five unanswered goals to pick up the victory to a 13-12 score.
Garrett Billings is building off his record breaking season last year as he sits second in scoring with 36 points and leads the league in assists with 27. Trailing behind is teammate and Rock captain Colin Doyle who is third in points (31) and second in assists (23). The continue to prove that they are two of the elite playmakers in the league and improve the game of their teammates. The Rock have three double digit goal scorers in Josh Sanderson(12), Stephen Leblanc (10) and Kasey Beirnes (10) and their success can be partily credited to the set up ability of the duo of Billings and Doyle.
Former Rock Ryan Benesch is stringing a great season together as he has found the back of the cage 10 times, adding 12 assists for 22 points. He leads all offensive categories for Minnesota including shots of goal with 35.
Alongside Benesch is rookie Shayne Jackson. The former Whitby Warrior is second in rookie scoring only behind former teammate Mark Matthews.
Minnesota goaltenders Evan Kirk and Tyler Carlson have split games with each appearing in 4 games. Carlson was impressive in the loss against the Rock making a solid 49 saves. Kirk has the lone W in the column as he picked up the only Minnesota victory against the Washington Stealth. Goaltending controversy has not been brought up in Toronto as Nick Rose leads in all three major goaltender stat categories with five wins, 9.75 GAA and 246 saves. Rose has improved from his rookie season and working to become one of the elite goaltenders in the league.
Check back to ILWT on Saturday for a game report and all your other NLL news!
