The Philadelphia Wings (5-0) will attempt to make franchise history this weekend when they play their first set of back to back games starting Friday night with a home tilt against the New York Titans (4-4). A win Friday would equal the Wings best start to a season (1990, 1993) and set themselves up to top that on Saturday when they travel to Buffalo's HSBC Arena to face the Bandits (5-4). Friday's game will face off at 8 PM, Saturday's at 7:30 PM.
History
The Wings are 2-0 against the second year Titans, winning 16-11 on January 26, 2007 at Nassau Coliseum and then handing the New York squad a 20-8 shellacking at the Wachovia Center on April 7. Athan Iannucci had 18 points (11 goals, 7 assists) and Dan Marohl chipped in 4 goals and 10 assists to lead Philadelphia. Pat Maddalena led the Titans with 10 points on 4 goals and 6 assists.
The Wings meeting with Buffalo will be their second of the season, the Wings having defeated the Bandits 15-14 in overtime on January 26 in Philadelphia.
Last Week
The Wings trailed 7-6 heading to the fourth quarter before outscoring Minnesota 11-1 to take home a 17-8 victory last Friday night. Athan Iannucci scored six goals in the Wings romp. New York won their third straight game, defeating the Knighthawks 14-11 Saturday in Rochester while Buffalo took a Sunday matinee from the Chicago Shamrox 13-8.
Wings vs. Alumni
Friday's game with New York will have the feel of a reunion night as eight former Wings are on the Titans roster. The game will be a homecoming for Jeff Ratcliffe, Jamie Hanford, Erik Miller, Brian Tower, Bryan Barrett, Jeff Spano, Keevin Galbraith and Rich Brzeski. Also with Wings ties are New York head coach Adam Mueller and assistant Paul Deniken. Other Titans with local ties are current Barrage forward Ryan Boyle, former Barrage player Greg Peyser and New York's top draft pick Jordan Hall, who played his college ball at the University of Delaware.
NLL Hall of Fame
For the second straight year, the NLL Hall of Fame induction will take place in Philadelphia. The ceremony will take place on Thursday February 28 with Friday's Wings-Titans game being designated as the NLL Hall of Fame game. This year's inductees are Sal LoCascio, Johnny Mouradian and former Wings player and coach Tony Resch. Neil Stevens will also be reognized for his contributions as a member of the media.
Quotes
Dave Huntley on the effort vs the Swarm: "I thought our defense was absolutely fantastic tonight. You saw the kind of defense we envisioned playing. We gave Blazer (Rob Blasdell) a lot of support."
Huntley on the upcoming weekend's games: "I told the guys I think it's potentially a trap weekend for us. We just have to go out and play our game and take care of business on Friday night. Then we'll worry about Buffalo on Saturday."
Rob Van Beek: "I think teams are having trouble keeping up with us when it comes to the end of the game. We're wearing them down as the periods go on. When it comes to the third and fourth no one can stay with us."
Taylor Wray: "In the first half we got slowed down a little bit, lots of penalties. Kind of took us out of our rhythm a little bit. We said at halftime that we wanted to open up the game a little bit, get back to our up and down style, transition, pushing the ball and being real aggressive on defense. Things kind of fell into place. To limit that team (Minnesota) to 40 shots, with the shooters that they have, it was a great team effort on defense."
Next Game
The Wings will be back at home for a Saturday afternoon match with the Toronto Rock on March 8.
