Wings Game #9 (at New York 3-22-08)

By Tom Hoffman

Coming off a tough win at home against San Jose, the Philadelphia Wings (7-1) will look to maintain their hold on first place in the East Division when they travel to Trenton, N. J. and the Sovereign Bank Arena for a neutral site showdown with divisional rival New York (5-5) on March 22. Faceoff is at 7:30 PM.

Last Meeting

The Wings defeated New York 16-12 February 29 at the Wachovia Center behind a six goal night from Athan Iannucci. The Wings are 3-0 against the second year Titans squad.

Last Week

The Wings overcame a fourth quarter deficit with a five goal run and defeated San Jose 16-13. Iannucci had six points (4 G, 2 A) while Jake Bergey chipped in five (2 G, 3 A). New York stunned the Rock in Toronto 14-10 behind four goals by Ryan Boyle.

Midseason

The Wings reach the season's midpoint at 7-1, their best record at this point of the season since a 5-3 start to the 2002 season, also the last season the Wings saw playoff action. The seven wins surpasses last year's total while the six wins at home is the team's best since 2003.

Quotes

Dave Huntley: "I thought this might have been our best defensive game of the year with our backdoor. I think in the first half five of their six goals we gave up at changes on the front door, which we had been pretty good about. At the end of the game when we needed to score our offensive guys stepped up."

Kyle Sweeney: "You just run hard and try and throw the ball at the net, maybe it'll go in. Obviously that's not my job, my job is to play solid defense. I think we did that as a unit pretty well. We still haven 't played a complete game, four quarters. We're happy to get out of there with a win, that's a good team we just beat."

Next Game

The Wings will travel to Rochester on March 29 for their second meeting of the season with the Knighthawks.

Wings overcome sloppy play, beat Stealth

By Tom Hoffman

This was a game that, in recent years, the Philadelphia Wings would have found a way to lose. But this team, under Dave Huntley's guidance and the presence of some solid veteran leaders, is finding ways to pull these kind of games out. A sloppy second half that put the Wings behind 12-10 was righted with a five goal run in the fourth, allowing Philly to come away with a 16-13 win over a very physical San Jose Stealth squad in front of 11,737 at the Wachovia Center Friday evening.

Kyle Sweeney, who would earn Game MVP honors on the night, started the scoring for the Wings just 51 seconds into play. San Jose would score the next three goals to take a 3-1 while trying to best to pound the Wings into submission. The Wings would overcome the chippiness of the Stealth and score the game's next four goals, Jim Borell ending the scoring run with a breakaway score early in the second quarter. After the Stealth's Shaydon Santos cut the Wings lead to a goal, Athan Iannucci added two of his team high four goals on the night. His second goal angered San Jose keeper Anthony Cosmo, who proceeded to duke it out with Iannucci. This mini brawl would cost San Jose one of their top defenders as Eric Martin was ejected for being the third man in the altercation. Play did settle down and after a Geoff Snider goal made it 8-4 Wings, the Stealth scored the next two to make it an 8-6 game at half, the last one coming from Luke Wiles with 5 seconds remaining in the half.

After Wiles and Jake Bergey traded scores to open the third, San Jose went on to score the next three goals and five of six to go ahead 12-10 with 8:34 left in regulation. At this point, the sloppy Wings went away and the high powered offense woke up. Included in the Wings winning five goal run that made the score 15-12 were Iannucci's other two goals and the first goal as a Wing for newly acquired A. J. Shannon. Jeff Zywicki's fourth score of the night with 59 seconds left gave the Stealth a little bit of hope but the final nail in this game would be driven home by their former goalie Rob Blasdell. While Blasdell made 41 saves, he did something that he once did to the Wings (12-1-01 at Albany) and that no Wings goalie had done as a Wing. Blasdell lobbed the ball into an empty San Jose net to cap off the scoring for the evening and give the Wings their seventh win of the 2008 season, which is one more win than the 2007 squad earned.

Next for the Wings is a visit to Trenton, NJ's Sovereign Bank Arena and a rematch with a surprisingly tough New York Titans team.

LaxPhilly Local Five - Volume 3

By Tom Hoffman

Now that we've taken a look at some of the area's best Men's college games and players for 2008, the LaxPhilly Local Five now heads toward the Women's collegiate game. The Philadelphia area has a great number of teams that are among the top ranked in all divisions. In this installment of the Local Five, we'll examine five of the top games that will be played in the area this season. While a number of great games have been played already and some will be left off the list, the five that made the cut are definitely games you should take time to catch. So, with that in mind, here are the LaxPhilly Local Five Women's NCAA games to keep an eye on.

1. Lock Haven at West Chester - March 25

The Rams, led by Senior Attack Stephanie Kienle, are looking to reach the NCAA Division II title game for the fifth straight season. This matchup will be the first of two with their PSAC rivals who are also highly ranked (WCU 2nd in the IWLCA poll, LHU 5th). Conference games are always a treat to watch, especially between two teams that have met in the conference title game the last two seasons.

2. James Madison at Delaware - April 11

The Blue Hens will play two ranked teams (George Mason the other) in three days starting with this matchup. With Delaware off to a 3-1 start, this could be a big stretch of games for a program looking to earn a coveted NCAA berth, their first since 2000.

3. Salisbury at The College of New Jersey - April 12

A meeting of two teams perched in the top five of the IWLCA's Division III poll, these two also met in the 2005 D-III title game (won by TCNJ 9-7). The Sea Gulls are looking to return to the final after losing the 2007 championship to Franklin and Marshall. The Lions are hoping for a run to title # 13.

4. Princeton at Temple - April 23

1995 was the last time Princeton missed the NCAA playoffs. Temple hasn't made the dance since 2004. At this point in the season, wins against ranked teams (Princeton currently 7th) can make a team's case for an at-large bid.

5. Northwestern at Penn - April 27

When these two teams met at Franklin Field last May, the Wildcats ended the Quakers surprise run through the NCAA tourney. The Quakers haven't forgotten and would love to derail the Northwestern run to a fourth consecutive national championship. The Wildcats duo of Hannah Nielsen and Hilary Bowen against Penn's defense of Hilary Renna and goalie Sarah Waxman should be fun to watch.

Next to be featured will be the top five area Women's players.

Discuss this article in the LAXPhilly Forums

Wings Game #8 (vs. San Jose 3-14-08)

By Tom Hoffman

After an unplanned week off, the Philadelphia Wings (6-1) will again look to reach the midpoint of their 2008 season when they host the San Jose Stealth (5-3) Friday night at the Wachovia Center. Faceoff is at 8 PM.

History

The Wings are 3-1 against the Stealth since the franchise moved to San Jose from Albany, NY and have won three straight in the series. Including their games with Albany, the Wings are 6-3 in the all time series, 4-0 at home. In 2007 the teams met on January 20 at the Wachovia Center with the Wings hanging on to defeat the Stealth 9-8. Geoff Snider had a hat trick, including the game winning goal, to lead the Wings. Three San Jose players (Jeff Zywicki, Luke Wiles, Colin Doyle) each had four points in the loss.

Homecoming

Two former Wings, Luke Wiles and Andrew Guindon, are on the Stealth roster, Wiles currently third in points for San Jose with 42. One Stealth player with local ties is Todd Fairlie. The Widener grad, who played outdoors this past summer for the San Francisco Dragons, has appeared in two games for the Stealth. Fairlie is currently an assistant with Widener's lacrosse and football programs.

Wings Stat Leaders

Goals: Athan Iannucci - 35

Assists: Jason Crosbie - 25

Points: Iannucci - 50

Penalty Minutes: Geoff Snider - 60

Goals Against: Rob Blasdell - 12.92

Other stuff

The following players have played in each of the Wings first seven games: Athan Iannucci, Jason Crosbie, Jamie Rooney, Geoff Snider, Rob Van Beek, Kyle Sweeney, Pat Heim, Shawn Nadelen and Rob Blasdell.

Midseason Records (last 5 seasons)

2007: 4-4

2006: 4-4

2005: 3-5

2004: 4-4

2003: 3-5

Next Game

The Wings will travel to Trenton, NJ's Sovereign Bank Arena for a matchup with the New York Titans on March 22 at 7:30 PM.