FireWolves 6-0 after 12-8 Win Against Swarm — Nardella, Young, Heat Up, Native Heritage Night, Special Teams
Photo Credit: Georgia Swarm
It’s not hyperbolic to say no one predicted the Albany FireWolves would start the season 6-0, their latest victory a 12-8 road win against the Georgia Swarm (4-2) at Gas South Arena on Saturday, Jan. 13. Just ask the FireWolves if they thought this would be their record before the season started.
“No, I didn't,” said FireWolves goaltender Doug Jamieson, who finished the night with the win and an .818 Sv%. “Yeah, I was kind of hoping to be a playoff team, you know. I thought we could compete, but I definitely didn't see this coming.”
“We knew this was coming,” FireWolves General Manager and Head Coach Glenn Clark said. “We made a lot of changes to get this influx of young talent. We did not think it was going to happen (this soon). Obviously, it was quickly. I thought we would make marginal improvements, but it's been nice to see, and I said to these guys (the FireWolves coaching staff), and I was saying to our players, I think every game we've won, you know, we've arguably been the better team. We haven’t stolen wins; we've been good at all areas of the game. They're (the Swarm) a great team, and to be able to hold them to eight goals, to come in here and win is pretty big.”
The FireWolves continued their trend of dominating the 5-on-5 game, outscoring the Swarm 7-3 in that facet of the game. They chased sophomore netminder Brett Dobson early in the second half; reliever Angus Goodleaf only gave up a single goal against in his 24:30 min. between the pipes, but a late push from the Swarm was too little, way too late.
“I thought they played great,” Swarm Head Coach Ed Comeau said. “5-on-5, transition game, offense, defense, goaltending, they were better than us in all those areas, and when the other team is better than you in all of those areas, then you're in for a tough night. I thought our offense looked a little stagnant. They play defense different than some other teams, so we really didn't adapt to that very well, and as a result, a lot of shots blocked and a lot of opportunities that we really didn't capitalize on.”
Underdogs again if you pay attention to sports books, the FireWolves scoffed at not being the favorites again despite their record, jumping to a solid first-half lead of 8-3 and adeptly handling a late Swarm surge Saturday night. Alex Simmons (1G, 4A) and Travis Longboat (2G, 3A) led the way for them in scoring, as the Swarm had Lyle Thompson (3G, 1A) and Shayne Jackson (4A) as their leading points getters.
Photo Credit: Georgia Swarm
Joe Nardella
As touched on in my article examining the FireWolves’ hot start to the season, they’re really appreciating Joe Nardella’s return to the lineup from injury. He went 20-25 at the face-off dot Saturday night, scooping up 8 loose balls and causing a turnover while playing solid defense.
“Joe Nardella was huge, too, winning the faceoffs,” Jamieson said about his teammate. “That's one thing we didn't have last year. It's kind of like they’d score, and then they're coming right back at you pretty quick, and now, it's almost the other way around. So, that's huge.”
Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and Nardella being out for 17 games last season made the FireWolves coaching staff really aware of how much they missed him out there last season.
“We tried to manufacture possessions, whatever else, but it really wears on guys,” Clark reminisced about the 2022-23 season. “I think you can get away with it for one game where you're not having success in draws, but when you’re two, three, four games where you’re just giving up possession all the time, it wears on you. So, it's good to keep momentum. It's good to gain momentum back.”
Momentum was key early on in the FireWolves’ win. Of the 20 face-offs the Rutgers grad won, the FireWolves capitalized on three of them. It brings their total goals scored off his draws to 16 — 12 of them settled — continuing their 14.7% capitalization rate.
Clark didn’t stop there when talking about the American-born player who has taken to the box lacrosse game like a fish to water.
“The thing about Joe is he's becoming a world class defender. We’ve got him out there in key situations. He plays D. We don’t manage his minutes back there. He gets good assignments. He'd be on his team as a defender, regardless of his draws, which I think is important for people to know. Like he's turned himself into a complete player, and we have no hesitation keeping him in the rotation and playing solid minutes.”
Photo Credit: Georgia Swarm
Zach Young
Rookie defender Zach Young is a problem if you’re a forward not wearing FireWolves’ garb.
The 23-year-old drafted 17th overall in the 2023 NLL Entry Draft was a monster Saturday night. His loose ball total of 9 was the highest single-game mark for him in his career spanning six games and undersells how bloody good he was for the FireWolves.
“He is a guy that's exceeded expectation,” Clark said about the Oshawa native. “We knew we needed to get bigger on D and get some shutdown type of guys, and bringing (Nick) Volkov and bringing Young in through the draft, those were guys we targeted, guys we had on our list, guys we wanted, but he's been a lot better than we thought he was going to be at this point. Like he is eating up heavy minutes. Great reads. Today was his best loose ball game. He was solid. He was picking up the ball, getting in traffic, whereas, you know, a month ago, those are breath holders where we think he's going straight to turn the ball over. And he's growing into his role. I think he's been great.”
If Young’s exceeding expectations now, it’s hard to imagine where his ceiling should be. After watching his shutdown defense tonight, particularly his slide on Lyle in the third quarter that saw him box the 2017 NLL MVP and Brendan Bomberry out on the loosie in the corner for a few seconds to shave time off the penalty kill, it’s just another reminder that tomorrow came today for this young Albany team.
Photo Credit: Georgia Swarm
Heat Up
Saturday’s contest featured plenty of Six Nations Chiefs — the reigning Mann Cup winners — representation on the floor. Back-end anchor Doug Jamieson was in an interesting situation, as a number of his teammates that beat the New Westminster Salmonbellies for the franchise’s seventh championship were now shooting on him in the NLL — Lyle Thompson, Shayne Jackson, Brendan Bomberry, Bryan Cole, and Jeremy Thompson.
“Yeah, I know a bunch of those guys,” Jamieson said. “I don't know, it's always fun. Same thing with Halifax last week. It's like I know half their team almost. It’s kind of fun. You can say you know the shooters, but they can know you too, right? So, it kind of goes both ways. But yeah, it's fun. It's just like a mind game kind of thing. It makes a different aspect to it for sure.”
Lyle, now in his eighth NLL season, echoed the mind game aspect, but also recognized how well everyone knows every veteran NLL-er after they’ve had a couple pots of coffee in the pros.
“When you're in the league for five-plus years, you see every goalie, you've studied every goal, every goalie studies you,” he said. “It's a big mind game, and you have to show up. Dougie’s a good goalie. He's been one of the best goalies for a number of years now, and when you come to shoot on him, you have to be ready, you have to be prepared. And even when you are, it's not always guaranteed. So, sort of just hats off to him. I feel like I know how to shoot on him, but it doesn't always go that way.”
Lyle finished the night with a hat trick and an assist, one of his goals against his summer teammate coming in transition, the others settled and on the power play. His settled goal was another typical unreal display of athleticism from No. 4, juking his defender behind the cage, coming up around the crease on the wrong side of the floor, and delivering a diving backhander around Jamieson’s right hip.
“In field lacrosse, Lyle has probably scored 50 goals like that,” Comeau said about Lyle’s second goal of the game. “Box lacrosse — there's few guys who do (score that type of goal). (Curtis) Dickson’s scored goals like that. I've seen a few other guys, but pretty creative and just to create that gap, his athleticism behind net was pretty impressive, and not only a lot of guys, you know, take a shot like that, but he took a shot and placed a shot where he wanted to, which is obviously a pretty high (skill) thing for a player to do.”
Photo Credit: Georgia Swarm
Native Heritage Night
Every season, the Swarm celebrate their Indigenous players, lacrosse’s roots, and their season-presenting partners, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, with Native Heritage Night, an evening dedicated to celebrating the culture and people that created this game and educating fans about them. Doors open early to Gas South Arena, and fans can enjoy a Q&A session with Indigenous Swarm players and visit the many EBCI craft vendors throughout the concourse. The Cherokee national anthem is sung pregame, warrior dancers perform, and halftime is dedicated to an EBCI storyteller.
“It's cool for sure,” Jamieson said. “Like their jerseys are unreal, the names on the back and everything is so cool … I know Brendan and Lyle are like ambassadors, and they do a really good job of doing that. So, it was cool to be a part of it. You know, we got me, Travvy (Travis Longboat), and Marshall (Powless), and yeah, it's a good night for us, for the Native guys. I think everybody played pretty good.”
Those jerseys were designed by none other than Lyle Thompson, along with certain merchandise sold in the concourse during the game. Every Indigenous Swarm player had their traditional names across their shoulders — Deyhahsonoondey for Lyle.
Representation and awareness are important to Lyle, who again worked with the Swarm front office ahead of the game to ensure tonight’s presentation was appropriate and truly represented him and his Indigenous teammates.
“I think when you look at true representation and what it means to honor the history and roots of the game — in anything, not just like professional sports, but in business — if you really want to pay homage to Native people, you let them control their own stories,” Lyle said. “These are our stories. We want to be able to tell our own stories, and you do that by putting Natives in control. And I'm lucky enough to be a part of this organization that really keeps us as Native people involved in everything — the storytelling, how the night goes, how we want to tell our stories, how we want to educate, from the jerseys to the presentation before the game to the end game stuff. I'm lucky to be a part of those conversations. And it's important to me because these are our stories. We don't want anybody else telling these stories for us.”
Photo Credit: Georgia Swarm
Special Teams
For all of their strengths in their perfect start, the FireWolves have an incredibly glaring weakness — their power play is the worst in the NLL, and it’s not particularly close. They were 19.2% on the power play according to traditional metrics heading into tonight’s contest and went 0-6 (the NLL game sheet has John Piatelli’s goal coming immediately after John Ranagan’s 2-min. minor penalty expired, essentially still 5-on-4 due to him just taking a step on the floor out of the penalty box). Their second shift of the game was on the power play, one in which the ball never left their offensive end until the Liam Byrnes’ penalty ended two minutes later.
“It's funny, because even today, I think we were 1-for-5 or whatever, 1-for-6 or something like that, and we're generating good looks, and it's a mystery,” Clark said about his squad’s lack of success man-up. “I mean, we’re running sets, we’re running multiple sets. We're getting good looks. We're getting good shots. And it's — I don't know. I'm at a loss. We're more successful 5-on-5, our shooting percentage, obviously. Like even that first power play we had today, I think we had four or five resets, and we had them all for two minutes and created some good looks, and they're just not dropping.
“I don't know if these guys are feeling a little too mechanical in their sets, like when they have prescribed patterning and prescribed plays, they're kind of getting mechanical as opposed to 5-on-5 concepts … We are dominating 5-on-5. Our hot stats have us doubling up goals 5-on-5. So, if I were to pick one, I'd rather try and fix the power play than fix 5-on-5, because last year, we could not score 5-on-5.”
The Swarm are having noticeable penalty issues this season, spending plenty of time man-down. Affording six power play opportunities to their opponents created ancillary issues, fomenting a chaotic identity that Lyle doesn’t believe belongs to the Swarm.
"The beginning of tonight's game, it was a weird game, you know, playing man-down the whole first quarter as an offense,” he said. “It was really hard to get into a flow, because it was a lot of transition. There was a lot of chaos, and us as an offense didn't get into the flow of things. And then comes the second half, we might be pushing a little bit too much, so I think that's the biggest story right there.”
Settled flow and Albany’s ineffectiveness while man-up aside, the Swarm penalty kill was very strong Saturday night. It’s a positive for the team, but being a man down as much as they’ve been this season isn’t a recipe for success.
“Our special teams, our man-short was great, but we can't be down as much as we have been,” Comeau said. “So, something we'll talk about this week and work on that.”