A Tale of Two Halves — Swarm Win Historic Comeback Against Rush, 9-7
Photo Credit: Georgia Swarm
For 46:32 min., the visiting Saskatchewan Rush (5-8) looked like they would split their doubleheader weekend. A little over sixteen-and-a-half minutes of game time earlier, they became the first team to hold an opponent scoreless in the first half of a game since the 2019 National Lacrosse League postseason.
But Zach Mann’s (1G, 3A) step-down from the point for the Rush’s seventh goal at Gas South Arena on Sunday evening would be their last of the game. Instead, the Georgia Swarm’s (9-7) big guns dug into their playoff intensity and executed a five-goal comeback for a 9-7 win.
“It was a tale of two halves,” Swarm assistant captain and transition player Bryan Cole said postgame. “I think it took us a little bit to get settled into our game plan, our shooting plan. Credit to Sask; they’re a really good team. They play us physical, and they’re really structured on offense, and they’re really well coached. So for us, it was a bit of just trying to work through our game plan and find what was working, and in the second half, we found some success with some of the things we were able to reinforce going into the game.”
With the Swarm coming off a tough 13-8 home loss to the Philadelphia Wings the weekend before and the Rush trying to bounce back after dropping the first game of their doubleheader to the New York Riptide on Saturday, the final NLL contest of week 17 made history after the Swarm became the first team since 2005 (the farthest back NLL game stats are available) to win a game after being shutout for a half.
From stellar defense and goaltending in the first half to a renewed intensity and inability to capitalize on chances in the second half, here’s the tale of Sunday’s historic halves.
Photo Credit: Georgia Swarm
First Half
Frank Scigliano pitched a shutout in the first half of his team’s 13th game of the season.
The Swarm pelted him with plenty of shots on goal in the first half, 26 of them. But even strength, busted plays, transition, power play — it didn’t matter for 92. Scigliano was immaculate for the first 30 minutes of action, weathering the kitchen sink and everything else the Swarm threw at him for good measure.
“With our offense, we get really good looks,” Cole said. “Defenses are good. They (the Rush) play good shooting lanes. Sciggs is a good goalie. He made some good saves. It wasn’t for a lack of chances. It’s one of those things where you just have to keep your head up, stay focused on the plan, and keep trying to execute your shooting plan.”
The Swarm spent plenty of time trying to execute their shooting plan, but the Rush defense had different ideas.
“We did a good job of controlling where we wanted the balls to get shot from,” Rush head coach Jimmy Quinlan said, “and he (Scigliano) made those saves. Then when we did have a breakdown, I think he was just seeing it. It was one of those nights where we could tell on the bench, we said, ‘Frankie’s in one.’”
While Scigliano was busy impersonating a brick wall, the Rush offense — particularly Robert Church (4G, 2A) — were effective in their own end. Church rifled the ball past Swarm goalie Brett Dobson for the only goal in the first quarter. After Patrick Dodds got on the board in the second, Church followed up with a pair of power play goals.
“I thought we had some good chances early,” Swarm head coach Ed Comeau said. “Frankie made some good saves, but we just didn’t have that jump that we needed. Defensively, we weren’t playing bad; four goals in a half is a pretty respectable number, but offensively, we didn’t have enough jam, we didn’t have enough energy.”
Whatever intangibles the Swarm were missing in the first half, the tangible was a pair of bagels in the first half an hour. The Swarm became the eleventh team since 2005 to be shut out in a half. All ten teams before them that were also blanked for two quarters lost those games, the most recent the Colorado Mammoth losing 8-4 in the 2019 Western Conference Finals to the Calgary Roughnecks.
The Swarm would not follow suit.
Photo Credit: Georgia Swarm
Second Half
It truly felt like Scigliano — no stranger to historic performances during the regular season — would continue stonewalling the Swarm for the final 30 minutes of the game. But in the nearly 40 years of the NLL’s existence, no goalie has held an opponent scoreless for 60 minutes, and Sunday would be no different.
“To keep a team to zero for a half is pretty unheard of,” Quinlan said, “so we knew they were going to score. We needed to score. Kind of like a baseball game. You need to get run support. We didn’t give our defense and goalie enough run support.”
Georgia finally got on the gamesheet thanks to Brendan Bomberry (2G, 1A) falling across the crease off a two-man game with Lyle Thompson (3G, 2A) and tucking the ball in shortside 4-on-4 as he fell. Andrew Kew (3G, 2A) stung farside minutes later, and the Swarm had cut the lead in half. Mike Messenger, who was particularly effective at the face-off dot Sunday evening, stopped the scoring run with the lone transition marker of the game, getting Dobson to dance further and further up the crease before tucking the ball beyond the extended netminder on the fast break.
The two teams traded goals, Church’s power play goal mirroring his second goal of the game, and the goalies swapped ends with the Rush up 6-3. But a Messenger penalty in the dying minutes of the third quarter put the Swarm on the man-advantage heading into the final frame, which Kew took advantage of on the very first shift.
Manns’ lone goal of the game nearly a minute later put the Rush up 7-4. It mirrored what had gone on throughout the third quarter; the Swarm’s runs were cut just short by the Rush’s retaliation, the road team effectively in control after their 4-0 first half. But the Swarm’s defense, which had been playing incredibly well all game long, continued their reliable ways, noticeably shutting off Church towards the end.
“They kind of started extending on him and locking him off,” Quinlan said. “We kept using him to set picks, and we got other guys open. Again, just didn’t finish the ball. They made adjustments; we tried to counter those adjustments. We felt like we did get some chances, we just again didn’t shoot the ball really well.”
The Swarm offense continued picking up steam. Another Messenger penalty meant another Swarm goal, this time Bomberry with his second of the game. On the subsequent shift, Thompson took a shot that was blocked, worked his way underneath the defender that blocked that shot, scooped his loose ball, and crashed the crease to pot the rock past Scigliano’s right hip.
Coming out of the final media timeout of the game, Thompson ran down the alley past three Rush defenders on a rare defensive miscue for his hat trick, evening the score at seven apiece with his hat trick. Kew followed suit with his own hat trick goal, giving the Swarm a lead with 2:52 min. left to play in the game. The Rush would go 6-on-5 in the dying minutes, but captain Jordan MacIntosh’s interception of a pass on a multiple possession led to a Kason Tarbell empty netter, the dagger. Weathering a final possession, the Swarm held on for the 9-7 win.
“We’re Out of Lives”
Scigliano’s perfect half shouldn’t be undercut by his second half. He made 44 saves in 59:15 min. of action, good for an 8.10 GAA and .846 Sv%. But the pair of losses this weekend for the Rush can’t be understated. The team went from 5-6 to 5-8 in the span of 24 hours.
After the results of week 17, the Rush find themselves a half game ahead of the 5-9 Colorado Mammoth and Vancouver Warriors, albeit with five more games to play. As Quinlan put it, “We’re out of lives.”
Effort and energy weren’t the root of their loss, and the short turnaround — playing the Wings on Thursday, March 28 — might be a blessing in disguise for a Rush team that have a small gap left open in their playoff window.
“We’re going to have to come out, and we’re going to have to play with the same energy we did tonight,” Quinlan said. “We’ve just got to be a lot better between the ears down the stretch.”
Comeau repeated the word “energy” often postgame, acknowledging the lack of energy and intensity the Swarm forwards came out with to start the game. His defense played well for 60 minutes, with Dobson making 30 saves for a .789 Sv% and the win.
But after a rough loss against the Wings in which his offense only netted a single even strength goal, it was difficult to avoid talking about the 90 minutes of 5-on-5 failure between the two games. Comeau credited his forwards’ second-half intensity with being the difference maker Sunday night, saying it was a playoff fierceness they showed in the final 30 minutes, and something they’d review over the bye weekend before they welcome the 4-10 Las Vegas Desert Dogs to their barn for the first time ever.
It’s a contrast from the past two seasons where the Swarm were eliminated from the postseason in the final weekend of the regular season. With their 0-7 start to the 2022-23 NLL season still fresh in mind, every game down the stretch this season is a reminder the Swarm haven’t accomplished their goals yet.
“There’s no X’s or Y’s beside our name, so we’re still playing like we’re trying to get to the dance,” Comeau concluded. “For us, we’re in a good spot that if we win our games, we should be there versus worrying about teams losing by five or winning by six. We don’t want to get into watching standings and scoreboards. The only games we want to care about are our games, and I think we’ve played ourselves into a position that we can do that. We’ve got a couple of games left, use the week to get healed up and get healthy and get ready to go for Vegas.