The Philadelphia Wings and the Minnesota Swarm face each other twice this weekend in games that are huge for both teams. The Wings are coming off a back-to-back weekend that saw them drop both games putting their record to 1-2. The Swarm come in at 0-2 and hope to get the offense going. So far in two games the Swarm have only managed a total of 12 goals (5.5 per game) but have only allowed 16 (8 per game).
The Swarm lost to the Vancouver Stealth 8-5. Kiel Matisz leads the Swarm with three goals and two assists. Tyler Carlson has stopped 51/67 shots faced for a .761 save percentage and a 8.00 goals against average. Rookie Logan Schuss has registered 1 G, 2 A so far in his rookie campaign. The Swarm power play is 3 for 8 (38 percent). The Swarm offense has had a very tough time getting started this season, but their defense is playing very well only allowing eight goals a game.Philadelphia is coming off losses to Rochester 13-9 (Saturday), and Buffalo 12-11 in overtime (Sunday). Jordan Hall (14 points) and Kyle Buchanan (17 points) lead the team in goals with 7. The Wings offense is scoring, but the defense has allowed the opponents to go on 8 and 6 goal runs respectively the last two games, both of which started in the second quarter. The difference with this Wings team from past teams is they are battling back and not giving up. Philadelphia is 8 for 15 (53%) on the power play and 6 for 16 (38%) on the penalty kill. Evan Kirk will be facing his former team as he will be the man between the pipes for the Wings.
If the Swarm plan on winning, they need to score more then what they have. They can not rely on Carlson allowing only 8 goals a game.
For the Wings, they need to score early and often on a Swarm team that is finding it very difficult to score goals. They can not allow them to get confidence and go on runs like their last two opponents have done.
Same two teams will face off Sunday at 3pm eastern, from the Xcel Energy Center in Minnesota.
