April 11, 2010
Win keeps Blazers in playoff race
by Phillip Shore/
Jack Reid and the Blazers defeated the Swarm on Saturday, 13-8. (photo: Steve Babineau)
In front of a Boston Blazers record crowd of 10,032 at TD Garden for the last home game of the season Saturday night, the Blazers left the fans with something to cheer about as they beat the Minnesota Swarm 13-8 and stayed in the thick of the playoff race.
It would take the Blazers almost the entire first half to really break out against the Swarm.
After Boston jumped out to an early 3-1 lead, the game settled down and both teams would exchange goals, with Boston unable to push ahead by more than two goals.
Then with 2:18 left in the half, Jamie Rooney took the ball to the cage, leaped in the air, and put the ball in the back of the net. However, he came down in the crease and the refs initially ruled no goal on the play.
Blazers head coach Tom Ryan challenged and after a review the ruling was changed and momentum swung in Boston’s favor.
Just 16 seconds later Minnesota goalkeeper Nick Patterson, while out of his net, threw an errant pass on an attempted clear. Ryan Hotaling picked up the loose ball, took it to the net, shot and scored before Patterson could get back in position, giving the Blazers two unanswered goals heading into half.
“It’s always a little bit of a momentum shift. To actually get a goal is huge. Right until towards the end it was a one- or two-goal game,” said Ryan, who also won a challenge in the fourth quarter on a Nick Cotter goal. “Luckily I got a good look at both of those and threw the flag. Whenever you get two extra goals on challenges I did my job.”
In the third quarter, the Blazers picked up right where they left off, striking twice more on goals from Daryl Veltman and Dan Dawson in the first five minutes of the quarter.
On Dawson’s goal the ball moved from the right side of the goal to the left. As the defense shifted to the ball, the Swarm ignored the reigning NLL MVP all alone on the crease. Brett Queener fed Dawson and he finished with ease and extended Boston’s lead to 9-4.
“A lot of the time I don’t get an open opportunity like that. A lot of times there are guys on my back and I’m getting whacked and hacked, so it was nice,” Dawson said. “I just wanted to make sure that I put it in. I didn’t want to look bad in front of the goalie on a one-on-one.”
The Blazers nearly gave it all back though as Minnesota went on a streak of its own. Aaron Wilson scored two goals in less than a minute to end the third quarter and Sean Pollock added two of his own in the first three minutes of the fourth to bring the deficit back to one.
Cotter would not allow the Blazers to lose, however.
He scored three of his four goals – including one that was initially ruled no-goal as he dove across the crease but the call was overturned – in the final four minutes to ice the game. It was a big performance from him considering he had spent eight hours earlier in the day writing his New York State Teaching Exams and was not initially going to be included in the night’s roster, but Sean Morris could not compete due to illness.
“It was a tough one to swallow but you still gotta remain focused for the game that’s ahead that night,” Cotter said. “We gotta play every game like it’s a playoff game. We’re in a dogfight in the East for a playoff spot.”
The Blazers were glad to get the win after dropping two straight, but with the potential of playing in the playoffs looming, the team still has more to do.
“Again, what have we done? 7-7, two games left, we haven’t done too much yet,” Dawson said. “We’re still banging for playoff position … so we have two important games coming up. We’re not too high.”
The Blazers will travel to Colorado on Friday, April 16, to face the Mammoth.
