SAN JOSE - Drew Virk of Ross was minding his own business, simply doing his job, as he made his way toward the relative safety of the San Jose Stealth bench when it hit him like a ton of bricks.
Shawn Nadelan, a veteran 200-pound defenseman for the expansion Minnesota Swarm, a rugged-looking guy who said he would be a professional bullrider if he wasn't a professional lacrosse player, suddenly charged Virk from behind. Nadelan gripped his stick and pushed it with two hands like a barbell into Virk's shoulder blades, knocking the Stealth rookie off balance. Virk crashed head-first into the gate that leads to the Stealth bench. The door flew open. Virk's body crumbled onto the turf. His helmet was jarred from his head. He got off the deck and threatened to deck Nadelan.
Virk had won yet another key faceoff, but his reward was five stitches and a pat on the back.
"It was getting dirty there for awhile," Virk said following a 9-8 loss to the Swarm Saturday night before a crowd of 5,059 fanatics at the San Jose Arena. "You regulate yourself out there until someone does something stupid and you tell them that's not cool."
Cross checking an opponent into his bench is not cool, but apparently permissible in the rock 'em, sock 'em, knock 'em-on-their-butt world of the National Lacrosse League. A couple of months ago, Virk thought he'd be working toward a sheltered career in the great outdoors. Now he's playing indoors with and against players from the Great White North, who specifically target him because of his U.S. citizenship.
From the Marin Independent Journal:
http://www.marinij.com/Stories/0,1413,234~24414~2676741,00.html
