Hitting home turf

[Sonny]

The snow that finally fell heavy outside Xcel Energy Center on Friday evening signaled the arrival of real hockey weather. Inside, all the usual spectacle of big-time professional sports -- blaring rock music, concussive fireworks, a whirling, fleshy dance team -- accompanied the debut of the National Lacrosse League, a 10-team, indoor-version of North America's oldest sport.

While the NHL's rich and richer squabble on, helmeted, padded Canadians -- with one American exception -- wielded sticks as they might on a winter's night were this any other season. Except this time, absent skates, with netted sticks carried at shoulder height, they propelled a 5-ounce hard rubber ball at high speed toward waddling, protected goalies whose excess girth could have left them mistaken for a costumed halftime sumo-wrestling contestant.

The Minnesota Wild's parent company purchased an expansion franchise -- its rights acquired from a dormant team in Montreal -- and opened for business Friday night at Xcel Energy Center, which, because of the NHL's work stoppage, hasn't been the site of a Wild game since April.

Minnesota Swarm officials said the new team sold more than 13,000 tickets for Friday night's home opener, a 15-10 loss to the Buffalo Bandits. The winter's first snowstorm, however, helped limit attendance to an announced audience of 5,884 fans, who shuffled in from the cold and surrounded a green artificial turf field on which is played a speedy, physical sport that alternately conjures hockey, basketball and football.

"Controlled chaos," said Swarm General Manager Marty O'Neill, describing a sport first played centuries ago by American Indians across what is now Canada and the northern United States.

Structured into four 15-minute quarters separated by a halftime, lacrosse offers new observers such familiar conventions as a shot clock, faceoffs, power plays and penalties such as slashing, holding and roughing, after which transgressors head to the proverbial penalty box to think about what they've done.

Hitting home turf
http://www.startribune.com/stories/503/5199483.html

[Tarzan]

The swarm doesn‘t seem to be a top-notch team. I hope this doesn’t spell out smaller crowds. Also, the announcer was clearly a Minn. Wild announcer. He had to catch himself saying ice instead of floor a few times. Man I love TIVO and DirecTV…Two NLL games this weekend and the NFL playoffs! Hard to get off the couch!

[Tim Whitehead]

I heard that for their opener, Minnesota sold somewhere between 13,000 - 14,000 tickets, but due to a large snowstorm, only something like 5,500 were able to show up. Anyone that couldn't make that game will be getting free tickets to the next game. I expect Minnesota will end up averaing a good number of fans this year, and the team will definitely be competitive. I don't know how many they'll win, but they'll be in it every game.

[Chris Larson]

Since Duluth and Minnesota are playing in an exhibition following the Swarm/Aneheim game on Friday, I hope a lot of people who were "snowed out" last Friday swap tickets for this Friday. (And I hope they stay too )

CL

[Tim Whitehead]

That's a good night for the USL-MDIA. Former Simon Fraser players Peter Morgan and Athen Yuen will be suiting up for the Storm against the Swarm.

[onpoint]

Is Yuen getting minutes? I remember playing against him in the 1999 national championship game as a long pole middie. Two slashes to his quick little head later, I was on the bench for the rest of the game. He might still remember it. I always thought he was harder to guard than Morgan because you could barely get your hands on him. The funny thing about the second penalty was (and I still remember the entire play distinctly) that he started with the ball on his defensive half, turned me around at his restraining box and I just ran straight back to the hole on d. Then I hear one of my close defenders saying "put a stick on him," and I did, right in his earhole. He was so shocked that he pretty much dropped the ball. Luckily we went on to win, but I never really felt good about that victory.

[Tarzan]

Might see even more Fans Friday...Everyone that bought a ticket for the home opener can get a fee ticket for Friday (even if you went to the game). At least that is what they said during the broadcast.

[Tim Whitehead]

Alex, Athen played the first game, but not the second. Unfortunately, it looks like it was Pete who took his spot in that second game. Hopefully they will both be in next game.

I know what you mean about covering Athen. He was so quick and cut could both ways, so he was hard to keep up with. Being 6'2" and about 200 lbs, those super quick guys are always harder for me to check too. My favourite thing about Athen was having him clear the ball. In 2000, his sophomore year, we developed a clear called "The Athen Clear" which was basically giving him the ball and letting him run around the other team until he got it up field. I don't recall anyone being able to stop that clear.

That's my second favourite clear, after the "Fat Guy Clear", which, of course, is just giving the ball to the longpole being covered by the fattest attackman and letting the pole run right around the fat guy. You don't see it so often nowadays, but in the late 90's PNCLL, you could run that against at least half the teams in the league

and p.s. Screw you guys for beating us in '99!

[onpoint]

Yep, we had a similar clear, called the Jared Katz clear. Love it when you have the fast guys who can't get tired. Give 'em the ball and let them take off. I'm going to have to look into the fat guy clear in the post-collegiate world, sounds like a winner!