Alex Urquhart
The Minnesota Swarm will be hosting the Toronto Rock this evening at home in the Excel Energy Center, also called the Hive by its fans and players. The Rock roll into Minnesota at 4-7 on the season, while the Swarm are returning home after three games on the road. The Swarm are running in last place in the East at 2-8.
The Swarm are coming home to St. Paul, a place they have yet to win this season. The Swarm’s troubles have last all season, the team started out not being able to score and it has continued to the point of desperation. Unfortunately for the Swarm the team has not been able to find much success between the pipes either.
After only allowing only 8.7 goals per game through the first three games of the season, the team has now given up 12.4 goals per game. Tyler Carlson, who has taken most of the games this season is at a 11.94 goals against and has a save percent of 69.6 percent. These numbers are relatively good numbers during a regular season, but the Swarm are not in a regular season not by a long shot.
The Swarm have had trouble scoring all year, the team only has four players with 25 plus points on the season. These four are Callum Crawford, Jordan MacIntosh, Logan Schuss, and Shayne Jackson. Crawford leads the team with 45 points (14 G, 31 A)this year, and is followed by MacIntosh who has 38 points (17 G,21 A).The Swarm are lacking that pure goal scorer right now, Schuss was made out to be that guy when he was drafted but as of yet has been inconsistent in the big moments.
The Swarm will have their hands full tonight when they take on Garrett Billings and the rest of the Rocks offense. Billings leads the League in points this season with 76 points (23 G, 53 A), he is joined upfront with names like Stephen Leblanc, Colin Doyle, and Josh Sanderson, all of whom have 45 plus points on the year. To add more to the Swarm’s woes tonight they will have to contend with Nick Rose, a goalie who has topped the charts in the last few seasons as one right behind Vinc and Cosmo and Bold. Rose has a goals against average of 12.26 goals and a save percentage of 75.7 percent.
Game time is at 6pm EST and can be seen on TLN’s YouTube channel.
