The Swarm began the 2011 season with a thrilling overtime loss to the Rochester Knighthawks on Saturday night at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. 

It was a tough loss to swallow, but the team showed great poise rallying from a three-goal deficit to take a short lead before the Knighthawks were able to force overtime and take the win thanks to a goal by Craig Point, his third of the game, for a final score of 11-10. 

Rochester enjoyed the first 2 goals of the game being scored by two new additions to the team, Mike Accursi and Pat McCready.  It didn't take long for the action to ramp up as both teams took the remainder of the 1st quarter shaking the dust off their sticks.  The game's 14 penalties were initiated by a stalemate of a fight between the Swarm's Andrew Suitor and Rochester's Chandon HIll.  The first have ended with a 5-4 Knighthawk's lead. 

Halftime was the 'X' was a site to be held as the organization gave tribute to the game's inventers.  "The Creator's Game" as it was originally called by some Native American tribes was quite an impressive site.  With at least 30 players on the field ranging in size from 8-year olds to full grown adults players were full on tackeling each other as they showed the true history of the game.

The second half opened with 2 goals by 18-year NLL veteran and Rochester's GM, infamous #22 Gary Gait, along with one more for the Swarm leading to a 7-4 Knighthawk's lead.  It wasn't until the final quarter of the game when Minnesota enjoyed a momentum swing and was able to tally 4 straight goals.  Rochester's highly talked about rookie, Cody Jamieson, had received a 5-minute major penatly for head butting a Swarm player, which opened the door for 2 of the 4 goals off a power play that put the Swarm ahead for the first time of the game.  It was a pair of Shawns that evened things up for Rochester, though, when Shawn Evans cut the deficit to only 1, and Shawn Williams knotted things up a mere 5 seconds later off the ensuing faceoff. 

Despite some stellar goaltending by Swarm's Nick Patterson (27 saves on the night) the Knighthawks were able to gain a fast break goal thanks for former Minnesota player Craig Point.  Co-owner of the Swarm, Andy Arlotta, said after the game, "It's good to see a close game, but we've had some trouble with overtime games."  Arlotta was no doubt refering to the fact that the Swarm have dropped their last 4 overtime games, but it's this reporter's opinion that a young Swarm team has the tools in place to be a solid contender in the NLL West this season.

For more information about the MN Swarm, and to purchase tickets for their next home game against the Edmontom Rush (Saturday, January 22nd) check out their website at www.mnswarm.com.