No playoffs for Wings

By Tom Hoffman

It looked promising at halftime with a 5-4 lead. When Kyle Wailes scored 31 seconds into the third quarter, hopes may have raised. Sadly that would be the final high point of the 2009 Philadelphia Wings season. Scoring seven of the game's last nine goals, the Rochester Knighthawks defeated the Wings 11-8 at Blue Cross Arena to secure the final playoff spot in the NLL's Eastern Conference. For the Wings, disappointment after last year's return to the postseason. Now, Philly faces another offseason of uncertainty. What moves, if any, will be made?

Wings 2009 Game 16 (at Rochester 4-18-09)

By Tom Hoffman

It's the last game of the regular season and it's "winner take all" when the Philadelphia Wings (7-8) travel to Rochester to face off with the Knighthawks (6-9) on Saturday evening. The winner will claim the fourth and final playoff spot in the National Lacrosse League's Eastern Conference. Faceoff is at 7:30 PM and can be seen live on NLL.com.

History

The Wings are 15-17 against Rochester and 5-10 at the Blue Cross Arena including their 16-13 win there on January 10. Merrick Thomson scored four goals and added an assist while Kyle Wailes put up seven points, six of them assists, to the the Philadelphia offense. Brandon Miller made 36 save in net for the Wings. Gary Gait scored five goals for Rochester in his return to the NLL following his retirement after the 2005 season while Shawn Williams added eight points (2G, 6A) for the Knighthawks.

Last Week

Drew Westervelt's goal with 61 seconds to play lifted the Wings to a 16-14 victory over the Toronto Rock, eliminating the Rock from the NLL postseason. Westervelt's goal was his fourth of the evening. Merrick Thomson led the Wings with eight points on three goals and five assists. Rob Blasdell made 47 saves for the Wings. Rochester was swept over the weekend, losing 13-9 at Buffalo on Friday and 10-5 at Boston on Saturday.

Playoffs

As mentioned already, the winner of this game will clinch the fourth and final playoff spot in the East. The Buffalo Bandits, New York Titans and Boston Blazers have already clinched the first three spots. The Wings-Knighthawks winner will face either Buffalo or New York pending the results of the Bandits-Blazers and Titans-Minnesota Swarm games. The playoffs will open the weekend of May 1.

Quotes

Wings coach Dave Huntley on the difference between the Knighthawks early in the season and now: "Obviously Pat O'Toole's back. Craig Point certainly is bringing out the best in Shawn Evans. Gary (Gait)'s still playing well. They're running the floor a little better."

Drew Westervelt on facing the Knighthawks: "We know we've got a battle next weekend. Everybody's gonna come ready to go and hopefully we can just keep building off of tonight."

Next Game

Either the first weekend in May at either New York or Buffalo or the opening night of the 2010 season.

One on One - Tom Wersderfer

By- Kevin M. Neibauer

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with off-field NLL official, Tom Wersderfer. So, let's find out exactly how the stats become stats.


KMN- Tom, tell us exactly what it is that the stat crew does?
TW-"We keep track of all the shots, on and off goal, we keep track of all the loose balls, penalties, goals, assists....there are eight of us up there (the pressbox). "

"Two guys work together, they keep track of who has the ball at all times, and when a goal is scored, they decide who scored it, and decide who woukd get the assist."

KMN- So the offiials do't decide who scored and who assisted?
TW-"No..I used to think that too, we have a guy who works for the NHL that determines the scorer and Harvey Pollock oversees everything. We have a phone up there and we call down to PA announcer to tell him the names sp he can announce it."

KMN- Do you guys determine penalties as well?
TW-"No there are people in the box, they log in the penalty, the time and the player. Then we record them upstairs. They have a seperate sheet on the floor, they record penalties that were wiped out as well. Pointstreak doesn't record the wiped off penalties, just the ones that were actually called. We fax the penalty sheet to the leaguie office after we verify everything."

KMN-Do you run the clock?
TW-"We only keep track of the shots at net, Whether on goal or not. All game clocks, time clocks, 30 second clocks and all that is run by the guys on the floor."

KMN-How did you get started on the crew?
TW-"I got in through Dallas Eliuk. I knew Dallas at the time, he set it up. They treat it as a volunteer position. But, it's like a stepping stone. The guy that did it before me moved on. He is now running the scoreboard.
I enjoy doing it.

KMN-Do you get to travel with the league?
TW-" I get to work with the New York crew, I've done a couple games in Madison Square Garden for the Titans. I did the Wings game in Trenton with the New York crew. Not every city has the same amount of people on the crew. Some cities have a "game caller" and a computer. The game caller clls out the action and its entered on the computer. In Philly, we use computer and paper also. So, some cities only have three people."

KMN-Who is reponsible for your assignments?
TW- "The Home team is responsible for supplying a stat crew. Most of the cities have an NHL team, so, you will see the same people doing the games that you will see at a NHL game. For instance, Harvey Polock not only does the Wings, but, he also works the Flyers and the Sixers and a lot of local college games.

There you have at... alook at one of the people that you rarely see that makes the NLL run.

Tom would like to Thank Dallas Eliuk. I would like to Thnk Tom and the National Lacrosse League for their cooperation.

My next One on One---Chopper


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Wings step one game closer to postseason

By Tom Hoffman

Treating last night's game as a playoff game of its own, the Philadelphia Wings kept their hopes for the actual postseason alive with a 16-14 win over the Toronto Rock at the Wachovia Center. Last night's home finale brought in the largest crowd of the season in Philly, 11,924.

The Wings got off to a fast start in this game, taking a 6-2 lead after the first quarter. Athan Iannucci was the star of the first 15 minutes with a hat trick. The second and third quarters did not exactly go the Wings way, however, as the Rock opened both quarters with a five goal run that in both case gave them the lead. The Wings rebounded in the second with late three goal run to take a 9-7 lead to halftime. After the Toronto run to start the third the Wings added three to tie the game at 12 heading to the fourth, where Mat Giles regained the lead for Philly.

The lead would be short lived as Toronto's Kasey Beirnes tied the match a little over a minute later with local laxer Bill McGlone giving the Rock its final lead of the evening with 8:50 to play in regulation. Former Rock Jon Harasym tied the game at 14 with 5:31 to go and the game looked like it was headed for an extra session. With 61 seconds left in the fourth Drew Westervelt scored his fourth goal of the night for what would prove to be the game winner. Kyle Sweeney added an empty netter with three seconds left and kept the Wings playoff hopes alive and dashed those of the visiting Rock.

For the Wings, the task ahead is very simple. Beat Rochester next week and they're in the playoffs.