It was almost a year ago when the Philadelphia Wings went into Buffalo with a perfect 6-0 record and left with their first loss of the season. Last night it was the Bandits who entered the Wachovia Center with an unblemished record (5-0) and for a while it appeared that would stay intact. However, a former Bandit who has been in the fans doghouse here would put an end to Buffalo's perfect start. A.J. Shannon had a hand in all five Wings tallies in the fourth quarter, including the game winning goal as the Wings defeated the defending champs 13-11 in front of a crowd of 10,506 on Friday night.
"I thought we played pretty well," Wings coach Dave Huntley said. "I thought we didn't execute some things in the first half but I thought we were real good in the second half."
The Wings got off to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter on goals from David Mitchell and Rob Van Beek and got solid work in net from Brandon Miller before Buffalo's Mark Steenhuis scored with a tenth of a second to play in the first. The Wings would open the scoring in the second before Buffalo scored the next five goals to take a 6-3 lead. Benson Erwin's first NLL goal and Mat Giles first of the game would get the Wings within one before the teams traded goals to give the Bandits a 7-6 halftime lead. The goal trading kept up in the third and the Bandits increased their lead to 10-8 early in the fourth. That's when the Shannon highlight reel started, first with assists on the next three goals (two from Giles to complete the hat trick and one from Drew Westervelt to finish his hat trick). After the Bandits Cody Jacobs tied the game at 11, Shannon then scord the game's final two goals to give the Wings the hard earned win. Afterwards, Shannon, who had sat out the last three games, felt the time off was helpful.
"It game me time to clear my mind. I kind of needed that to come back playing with more confidence," Shannon said. "It's more of a confidence game with me than a physical game."
While the offense seemed to struggle with their passing, the defense did a decent job of containing the Bandit offense, holding John Tavares and Mark Steenhuis to a combined three goals. Brandon Miller was sharp in net with a 34 save performance. The Wings will get a day to rest up before heading to Newark, NJ to face the Titans tomorrow night.
