Uncasville, CT — Maybe it was the one week break, but the Black Wolves did not look like themselves last night against the Swarm from Minnesota. From the first faceoff, New England appeared to be slow defensively. More importantly, Black Wolves goalie, Evan Kirk, finally came back down to earth after allowing 16 goals on 43 shots. The Swarm handed New England their first loss of the season with a final of 19-13.
New England head coach, Blane Harrison, told NLL.com that the team, “played like we had a week off.”
Kevin Crowley tallied four points and Kevin Buchanan lead the team with nine, and five of them being goals. The real issue for the Black Wolves came off of both ends. Evan Kirk, as mentioned before, became overwhelmed with shots early in the game and as he seemed to lose his focus. Tye Belanger added his first minutes of the season in the fourth quarter where he went 4-6 in net.
However, after the Black Wolves offensive rout against Rochester, the offense was doing everything but finishing their shots. Both Crowley and Saunders took many point blank shots on Higgins. The two only finished with two goals each.
Zach Higgins ended up being the deciding factor in the Swarm’s victory. Only allowing 13 of 54 shots, it seemed that Higgins would not allow anything to go through in the second half. After countless toe, shoulder and the occasional helmet type saves, nobody was getting by Higgins Saturday night.
Noteworthy
Quinn Powless left the game early. According to ILWT’s Ryan Conwell, Powless spent the majority of the second half with ice wrapped around his knee in the second half. It is also worth noting that Powless was walking on it afterwords.
Conwell also noted that David Earl left the game early favoring his shoulder. Earl went to locker room without hesitation.
