For the second straight week the Philadelphia Wings were facing a team that played on the road the night before and had their game go into overtime. After holding the Boston Blazers to one goal in the second half last week and wearing the Blazers down, the Wings had hoped to do the same to the Colorado Mammoth tonight. It wasn't to be though as the Wings let the Mammoth score twice in the game's final three minutes to force overtime before Alex Gajic's third goal of the night gave the Mammoth a 12-11 victory in front of 8,201 at the Wachovia Center. The Wings fall to 1-2 while Colorado evens up at 2-2.
"We played 57 decent but not great minutes," Wings coach Dave Huntley said. "The last 3 minutes sort of bit us."
The Wings struggled to find any rhythm on offense tonight as they tied the game seven times only to allow Colorado to score the go ahead goal. It wasn't until Drew Westervelt scored with 6:04 to play in the fourth quarter that the Wings actually held a lead in this game. When Bill McGlone tallied with 4:10 to play it looked like the Wings might pull this one out. The Mammoth, though, still had some energy left after an overtime game in Minnesota on Friday night and managed to score twice to tie the game. The game tying goal by Jamie Shewchuk came while the Mammoth were shorthanded after Nick Carlson was whistled for a check from behind.
The overtime period started ominously for Philadelphia as McGlone was called for goaltender interference just 34 seconds into the extra frame. With 15 seconds left in the man advantage Alex Gajic ended the night and sent the Mammoth home with back to back OT wins to cap Steve Govett's first weekend as a coach in the NLL after Bob McMahon was relieved of his duites following the Mammoth's 0-2 start. Govett, however, gave all the credit to his players afterwards.
"All the credit goes to the guys," Govett said. "They're the one's who answered the bell. They really worked hard."
Mat Giles had three goals for the Wings while Kyle Wailes added six points, including five assists. Brandon Miller made 46 saves to keep the Wings in the game. Colorado was led by Alex Gajic's three scores and Jamie Shewchuk's five points (2G, 3A). Andrew Leyshon played the full game and made 40 saves after making 35 saves in 46 minutes of play friday night against the Minnesota Swarm.
The Wings will look to rebound next Saturday afternoon with a rematch in Boston against the Blazers.
