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		NLL-Portland Lumberjax drop four in a row with loss to Swarm By Gary Araki February 2, 2007

	PORTLAND OR- The Portland Lumberjax of the NLL lost again tonight to the Minnesota Swarm by the score of 11-8, in another game in which the Lumberjax were behind and tried to rally near the end of the game but couldn't make it happen. Portland is now 2-4 on the season, and has now lost their fourth straight game after starting the season 2-0, and now finds them in fourth place in the NLL West Division, with being three games behind the first place Colorado Mammoth who are currently 5-1. Portland has the third worst record in the NLL West, with Edmonton currently at 1-2, and San Jose bring up the bottom of the standings at 1-4. “We talked about little bit about desperation and urgency tonight, and I don’t think we had enough of it, and certainly now, we have issues,” said Portland Head Coach Derek Keenan on his team now finding itself on a four-game losing streak. With 6,281 in attendance at the Rose Garden Arena in Portland saw a first quarter that was a low-scoring affair between the Jax and Swarm, as the Swarm scored twice and the Jax could only manage one goal. Minnesota had their first goal of the night at 0:29 by Sean Pollock, who go on to have four goals for the night. Spencer Martin scored for the Swarm at 1:49, which then gave Minnesota a 2-0 lead. It wasn’t until the 5:22 mark in the first quarter, when Portland had their first goal, by Mike Hominuck to give the Swarm a 2-1 leads. Portland had an ideal scoring opportunity that they missed on when Minnesota’s Spencer Martin was penalized with a High Stick call at 6:37, for a five-minute penalty, in which the Jax had a 5-4 opportunity, but could not score. Minnesota scored first in the 2nd quarter at 2:42 when Dean Hill put the ball past Dallas Eliuk, to make the score 3-1 Minnesota. Portland then went on a three-goal scoring run, with the first coming at 5:01 in the second quarter when Brodie Merrill on a breakaway went glove side of Swarm goalie Nick Patterson to make the score 3-2 Minnesota. Portland scored again at 6:44 in the second, on a power-play due to an unsportsmanlike conduct call on a Swarm bench player, and Ryan Powell was credited with the goal, to tie the game at 3-3. Less than a minute later, Robert Morgan scored at 7; 43, giving the Jax their first lead of the game 4-3. Minnesota came back with three more goals, with Dean Hill with his second goal of the night a PP goal at 9:16, and then Ryan Ward scored at 9:38, and finally Scott Stewart scored for the Swarm at 13:33, which gave the Swarm a 6-4 lead going into half time. Minnesota opened the second half with another score with Martin having his second goal of the night. Portland had a short-handed goal at 2:47 by Del Halladay. Portland scored again at 4:47 on the power-play when Ryan Powell had his second goal of the night on a perfect pass from the right side of the crease by Peter Morgan, when Powell put it in the left corner of the net, to make the score 7-6 Swarm. Minnesota put two more goals in a row to make the score 9-6 at the end of the third quarter, and the scoring run continued in the fourth quarter with at 5:21 when Sean Pollock had his hat trick for the night with his third goal of the game to give the Swarm a 10-6 lead. At 11:23 in the fourth quarter, Coach Derek Keenan pulled Dallas Eliuk and went for Mike King in goal. Keenan said in his post-game talk that Eliuk was cramping up and that was the reason for the goalie change. At 12:53, Jax Peter Morgan scored with a shot on the stick side of Patterson for the score, to make it a 11-7 Swarm lead. Again back on the power play at 14:10, Ryan Powell had his third goal of the night and his hat trick, which brought the Jax within three, but with less than 50 seconds left in the game, it would be too late. “Our confidence [level] in scoring goals right now is definitely [affected], we are frustrated offensively, there’s no doubt about it and we got to be able to score more than eight goals, to win in this league, “ said Ryan Powell on the offensive draught which is plaguing Portland, even with his three goals on the night. Dallas Eliuk would later take the loss, and his record is now 2-3 on the season. For the Swarm, Nick Patterson faced 49 shots on goal, and saved 41 in the victory, and his record is now 2-3 for the season Game Notes: Minnesota is on their 3 of 4 game road trips, which ends on February 17th with a game in New York, and then on February 18th, the Swarm will then be home to host New York on back-to-back nights. Portland has one more home game this month, with next game coming up on February 15 with Colorado coming in. The Jax will have three road games for rest of the month, at Rochester on February 17th, at Edmonton on February 23rd, and at Colorado on February 24th. Gary Araki covers the NHL San Jose Sharks and NLL San Jose Stealth for SportsRadioService and also provides sporadic coverage of the Portland Lumberjax, who are in the same division as the Stealth. Gary will also be covering the 2007 NLL All-Star Game which will be held in Portland on March 10, 2007. Gary is also the Sports Director for KSFG 1690, who carries Sportstalk every Saturday morning.