Tonight the Edmonton Rush (6-0) will travel to the twin cities and face the struggling Minnesota Swarm (1-5) at 7 pm ET.
When the season started the Swarm had a shut down defense, but the offense was failing to produce. Now the offense is starting to click but the defense has more holes then swiss cheese at times. Currently the Swarm are 0-2 at home going into tonight’s contest. The home fans are hungry for a win at the Hive.
Callum Crawford leads the team with 23 points and 10 goals. Jordan MacIntosh and rookie Logan Schuss have eight goals apiece. They are obviously missing a big goal scorer since Ryan Benesch went to Buffalo. Goaltending has been a flip flop as well. Tyler Carlson was to be the starter after Evan Kirk was sent to the Wings, but that hasn’t been the case.
Rookie Zach Higgins (1-2) with a 12.27 GAA and a 74.8 save percentage has been put in a number of times in place of Carlson (0-3) 11.20 GAA and a 70.3 save percentage. One of these two needs to step up and take control between the pipes.
For the Rush they are 10-1 on the road going back to last season (7-1). A big part is goaltender Aaron Bold who has a league leading 7.77 GAA, and a 81.4 save percentage.
The offense is lead by Mark Matthews (12 G, 17 A), Curtis Knight (14 G, 10 A) and Zack Greer (10 G). Greer missed last week’s game and hopes to be back in the lineup tonight. Offense is on a roll averaging 11.66 goals per game. But the story in Edmonton is the defense. Edmonton is allowing 7.50 goals to the opposition. This combination has given the Rush a full three game lead in the west.
This Rush team is playing a full 60 minutes of lacrosse week after week. In the first three quarters so far this season the Rush have scored 23 more goals than their opponents enabling them to go on cruise control for the final 15 minutes, and even then they are scoring one more goal as well.
This is the only meeting between the teams this year. Last season they split the two match ups, each winning on the other team’s floor. Feb 22 at Edmonton a Swarm win 13-8 and an Edmonton win in Minnesota 14-9 two days later.
The Swarm have been scoring as of late, but can they continue it against a stingy Edmonton defense? If the offense misfires, Edmonton could take buzz out of the hive.
