WEEKEND RECAP: NEWS & QUOTES

Minnesota still unbeaten; Edmonton remains winless

02/04/2008

Three of the five teams in action last weekend had a lot to play for, at least as far as records were concerned. Minnesota came into the weekend as one of three unbeaten teams in the NLL, while Portland and Edmonton came in as the only two winless teams in the NLL. Here's what happened:

On Saturday, the Minnesota Swarm (4-0) managed to stay unbeaten by defeating the San Jose Stealth (2-3), 14-12, in a seesaw battle at HP Pavilion. After San Jose took a 6-5 lead into the locker room at halftime, Minnesota answered back by outscoring the Stealth 9-6 in the second half, capping off the Swarm's third road win of the season. Andy Secore led Minnesota's scoring attack with three goals and two assists. Craig Point, Sean Pollock, Chad Culp, and Ryan Ward also contributed with two goals each.

"We were playing as if we were trying not to lose as opposed to playing to win," said Stealth head coach Walt Christianson, talking about his team's play in the second half of the loss.

Jeff Zywicki took part in nine of the 12 goals scored by the Stealth, notching five goals and four assists in the losing effort. Zywicki, who has led the scoring attack for the Stealth all season, leads the league in both goals (17) and points (33).

San Jose's loss came after they ended their two-game losing streak on Thursday by knocking off the New York Titans (1-3), 12-7, at Madison Square Garden. Both Zywicki and Luke Wiles scored three goals each as goalie Aaron Bold, making his first start of the season, overpowered New York's offense by stopping 46 of the 53 shots he faced.

"Aaron Bold was outstanding," said Christianson to Kevin Lynch in an article on sjstealth.com. "It's the best game I've seen him play."

With the loss, New York has now dropped three straight games by losing to the Buffalo Bandits (17-13) and Toronto Rock (14-10) before losing to San Jose on Thursday. The three straight losses came after New York won their season opener against the Portland LumberJax, 14-11, in Portland. Casey Powell has been one of the few bright spots for the Titans this season, scoring 10 goals and 14 assists in four games.

Finally, in a battle between two winless teams, the Portland LumberJax (1-3) picked up their first win of the season by edging the Edmonton Rush (0-4), 11-10, on Saturday night at Rexall Place in Edmonton. Derek Malawsky led Portland scoring with three goals on seven shots.

"We're off the slide now," said LumberJax head coach Derek Keenan to The Canadian Press after his team's first victory of the season. "I've got a good feeling about this team from here forward."

The loss leaves Edmonton as the only team without a win this season. In the loss, Mike Accursi and Jimmy Quinlan led Edmonton's scoring attack with three goals each.

"It's tough to lose a game when you are the better team for three quarters of the game," said Rush forward A.J. Shannon to Jason Hills of the Edmonton Sun. "I was proud of the effort tonight ... I thought it was our best effort of the season."

--Darek Truesdale/NLL.com