Fans during the post-game autographs on the field after the last game of the Shamrox season on Saturday, April 26.
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HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL –Motivated by a chance to earn a home playoff game, the Minnesota Swarm avenged its loss to Chicago the day before and staved off a dramatic comeback by the Shamrox on Saturday night at the Sears Centre.

The Swarm (10-6) won by the slimmest of margins, 12-11 over Chicago in National Lacrosse League play and for the second consecutive season, the Shamrox finished at 6-10.

Trailing 12-9 heading into the fourth quarter, the Shamrox Mat Giles and Bill McGlone each scored to cut Minnesota’s lead to one and Chicago’s Derek Collins shut out the Swarm in the fourth quarter. However, after McGlone’s goal with five minutes left in the game, Minnesota’s Nick Patterson did not allow the Shamrox to score again.

“We’re one mistake away from winning the game, we’ve talked about it with our team, little mistakes here and there that we have to correct,” Shamrox coach Jamie Bately said. “We have young team, overall we played a decent game, we played better in the second half, we were competitive, worked hard and played well.”

Led by Kevin Ross and Josh Wasson, the Shamrox stormed out of halftime with consecutive goals to cut a Minnesota 10-7 lead to 10-9. But the Swarm answered Chicago’s charge with two goals of its own and took a 12-9 lead into the final period.

Minnesota scored three unanswered goals to go up 9-4 midway through the second quarter. Ryan Ward led the charge with four goals-all in the first half-and Rory McDade added four assists. The Shamrox scored the game’s next three goals-with goals by Cody Jacobs, Mat Giles and Bill McGlone- to close to 9-7 before the Swarmed added one more right before halftime.

Chicago and Minnesota exchanged goals in the first quarter until the Swarm closed out the period with consecutive scores to go up 5-3. Giles began the scoring for the Shamrox with a goal three minutes into the game.

“Our young guys will be a year older,” Giles, who scored four goals, said looking ahead to 2009. “Hopefully we’ll get (Callum) Crawford back and have Roik for a whole year.”
With the win, Minnesota guaranteed itself a home playoff game and Chicago is eliminated from post-season contention.

“It’s really two seasons, after we made the trade for Roik, he comes in and has the confidence with something to prove in the league, he took the bull by the horns and it’s a different season,” Bately said of the season as a whole.

“It’s definitely something to build on, if we add to what we’ve done this year, hopefully we can get off to a fast start next season.”

Brad Self recorded four assists and a goal and Bill McGlone added a pair of goals. Collins turned away 17 shots.

Notes: Chicago’s Mack O’Brien, who made his NLL debut Friday night in Minnesota, played in his first home game at the Sears Centre....This was the fourth meeting between Chicago and the Swarm this season with each team winning two games....After allowing nine goals on 17 shots, Shamrox goaltender Matt Roik was replaced by Derek Collins with five minutes remaining in the second quarter....Drew Candy and Minnesota’s Sean Pollock were both penalized for fighting....The Chicago Shamrox announced its pricing for 2009 season tickets and all levels have been reduced by at least $5 in some areas and $15 in others. Season tickets begin at $10 and can be ordered by calling 1-877-SHAMROX.