Roughnecks fall 13-12 in OT to Swarm — Miller Time; Push the Pace; Don’t Give Up the Ghost
Photo Credit: Georgia Swarm
After nearly four additional minutes played beyond regulation, the Georgia Swarm (8-6) won a nail-biter against the Calgary Roughnecks (5-7) on Friday night at Gas South Arena, 13-12.
The Swarm erupted to a 3-0 lead quickly in the first quarter, but the Roughnecks chipped back in with a pair of goals. The second frame saw the offensive production tick up, with the Swarm outscoring the visiting team 5-4 in those 15 minutes. A shorthanded bouncer from Andrew Kew sent Roughnecks goalie Christian Del Bianco to the bench for a few seconds to reset. He allowed just one more goal in the half while his teammates scored three, heading to the locker room at halftime with the Roughnecks down 8-6.
“We knew it was going to be a game that could possibly go to overtime,” Roughnecks head coach Josh Sanderson said about the message at halftime. “60 minutes, right? So, you can’t push the panic button when you’re down a couple. You’ve got to keep staying with it. I thought we did a really god job of that.”
A defensive third quarter saw just two goals scored, one apiece by both squads. The Roughnecks turned on the afterburners in the fourth quarter after Brendan Bomberry’s power play goal that put the Swarm up 10-7. Tyler Pace kicked off a 5-1 onslaught from the Roughnecks, scoring his third, fourth, and fifth goals of the game to help his team take their only lead of the night.
The Swarm kept trying to tie things up for the next three-and-a-half minutes. It took a shot from Kew with nearly seven other runners between him and Del Bianco to finally beat the reigning MVP, forcing overtime.
“I just kind of threw one on net there off a screen,” Kew said about his hat trick goal. “I was lucky it went in far side on the pipe there. It was just late in the clock and honestly kind of a desperation shot. So, glad it went in and worked worked well for us.”
Overtime became a back-and-forth affair. Calgary seemed to clinch it thanks to a crease-crash from Tanner Cook where the ball pinballed off the post, goalie Brett Dobson’s hand, and then Cook’s helmet and into the cage. A referee review determined he made contact with the crease before the ball crossed the goal line.
Play continued. Eventually, Shayne Jackson took a shot that Del Bianco stepped forward in his crease to challenge. The shot went wide shortside, right to Zach Miller, who was left all alone behind the cage. He snagged the miss and made the snap decision to dive towards the other goal pipe for a wraparound into the yawning goal mouth, giving the Swarm the 13-12 win.
Jackson didn’t find the back of the net, but he led the Swarm in points with 7 assists, followed by Kew with 6 points (3G, 3A). Dobson posted an 11.26 GAA and .765 Sv%.
Pace’s 6 points (5G, 1A) were the most points recorded for the visiting team. Del Bianco made 45 saves in 63:39 min., good for a 12.25 GAA and .776 Sv%.
Photo Credit: Georgia Swarm
Miller Time
Friday was just the second game in Zach Miller’s career where he recorded a hat trick. His first was a surgical deconstruction of the Wings back on March 18, 2023. Last night’s was seemingly instinctual, knowing when he had the shot and taking it without hesitation.
Miller’s scoring numbers don’t jump off the page; he’s seventh on the Swarm in scoring with 28 points (13G, 15A). But the 28-year-old excels at doing the little things that don’t get recorded on a gamesheet — setting shifty picks and seals on opponents to get his teammates open and snagging key loose balls to extend possessions. His successes are the results of his efforts for his teammates, something they appreciate.
“Absolutely love it, yeah, unbelievable,” Kew said about his teammate on the left side seeing success. “He’s such a good player. Does all the little things for us, so unselfish, and you’ve got to absolutely love when he has a game like that.”
Miller spent plenty of time behind the crease in this game, something the Swarm have been having him do more and more often in recent games. He was called for multiple violations in Halifax where he was the first touch of the ball after going through the crease, but that problem was cleaned up against the Roughnecks.
“He’s good behind the net,” Swarm head coach Ed Comeau remarked. “He’s really smart, and he’s scored a number of goals where he’s behind the net and kind of finding the soft spot in the team’s defense and coming out and getting shots.”
Having a player shack up behind the net is an ever-increasing trend in the NLL this season. There are certain benefits to it, like removing a body that might otherwise soak a shot intended for the goal or taking advantage of a shot wide to score the game-winner. Some teams have a defender accompany that forward, effectively sealing him back there and creating a 4-on-4 situation in front of the crease, removing the worry of a helpful slide from an opposing defender.
“It's an interesting trend,” Comeau said about the latest evolution in NLL offense. “A lot of smart people in lacrosse, and people come up with ideas, whether it was pressure defense a number of years ago and now this, teams are adapting. When they see success and how effective it can be, other teams are going to start doing it. We've certainly bought into it, as well.”
Photo Credit: Georgia Swarm
Push the Pace
Prior to Friday’s matchup, Tyler Pace had played just two games in Gas South Arena since becoming a part of the Roughnecks organization. In those two contests, he recorded four assists, and all of those apples were picked in the second game, a 14-13 win against the Swarm on April 12, 2019.
Since that 2018-19 NLL season, Pace has grown each season and become Calgary’s top right-handed forward. In the last two seasons, he leads all right-handed forwards in scoring and is behind only captain Jesse King in points. This season, the 28-year-old is on pace (no pun intended) for 89 points, 15 more than his career high of 74 he set in 14 games last season.
“Shooting the ball hard and picking his spot, which we need a few more guys doing,” Sanderson said. “He’s ripping it, and they’re going into good spots and sometimes getting a bounce there. So, it’s nice that he’s shooting the ball nice like that.”
Pace selectively picked his shots all game long. Ten of them were on goal, meaning his shot fell half the time he got it on net. From cashing in on the inside off a dart from King to three rips from long range to a behind-the-back shorthanded tally, the Coquitlam, B.C. native’s shot was the highlight of his gritty performance Friday night.
“You look at guys like him and Jesse, it’s just their motor, how hard they work, how dynamic they are,” Del Bianco said. “I don’t think they’re necessarily these pure goal-scorers at times, but just the way they play lacrosse, the way they move, the way they work to get other guys open just as hard to get themselves open is a contagious thing. Both those guys don’t nearly enough credit because they don’t necessarily have that star power that some of the other names do in the league. I know Jesse is now, but Pacer, I think it’s about time he gets some respect that way.”
Photo Credit: Georgia Swarm
Don’t Give Up the Ghost
It’s fair to say the Roughnecks aren’t where they expected to be in the NLL standings two-thirds of the way through their season, especially considering all they did over the offseason was improve on a lineup that went 13-5 last season. But at 5-7, the reality is the Roughnecks are in playoff-now mode with plenty of other NLL teams vying for those last postseason berths, and that starts with a home contest against the 8-4 San Diego Seals in week 16.
The message, as Del Bianco put it postgame, is simple for Calgary: Win the next game.
“I think it’s easy to start counting games, ‘Oh, we got to win this one, maybe that one is one we drop,’” he said. “It doesn't matter. You play where your feet are; you work towards wins. We're not victims here, right? We've played some bad games here. This one maybe wasn't necessarily the same as some of the past at the start of the year, but we've put ourselves in a situation where we’ve got to win games. You can't just sit there and cry because, ‘Oh, I need to win four games in a row or three games in a row to to get in a playoff spot.’ You just handle your business.”
Handling business for the Swarm has meant plenty of one-goal games in 2024. If their empty netter against the Knighthawks is removed from consideration, the Swarm have played in seven one-goal games this season — they’re 5-2 in those affairs — and are currently in a six-game streak of those contests.
Part of those wins have been Georgia being up early and letting the opponent make the game uncomfortably close, necessitating last-second heroics or overtime to get the victory. It’s something Comeau and the coaching staff talked with the team about ahead of Friday’s game, how important it is to have meaningful, fruitful possessions when they have the lead late in games.
“It's about sticking with what works, and it's about trying to stop a run,” Comeau said. “That's kind of been the tough thing is just getting those offensive balls to drop in those situations. We had some power plays over the last few games where late in the game we could have kind of iced the game, and we just didn't get production. So, it's a team effort, and whether it’s stops, whether it's defensive plays, whether it's goals, we have to find a way to play with a lead.”
For those thinking the Swarm’s one-goal-game streak might come to an end in week 16, don’t bet on it. Their opponent, the Philadelphia Wings, notoriously play the Swarm close. Their last seven meetings have all been decided by one goal, with the Wings having the edge in those contests, 5-2.