For the Philadelphia Wings, a 7-0 third quarter turned a close game into a laugher on Saturday night enroute to a 20-11 victory over the Minnesota Swarm in front of 10, 248 at the Wachovia Center. The way this season has gone for the Wings it easily was a reward for a solid effort this weekend especially after playing the night before in Orlando and staying with the Titans only to see a four goal stretch in just over two and a half minutes keep this from being a very successful pair of games. Wings coach Dave Huntley was obviously relieved after tonight's game.
"Well it felt good," Huntley said afterwards. "I thought our guys played really hard last night, just came out unlucky. I think we got rewarded for maybe some that unlucky stuff that happened before."
While the Wings never trailed in the match, the first half gave no indication of how the game would ultimately end. The first quarter ended at four apiece and the halftime score was only 8-7. The play in the third though gave no indication of which team had played the night before and which one did not. It may have been a sign this would be the Wings night when Geoff Snider made an errant pass that just bounced the right way off the glass and back into his stick before being put past Swarm goalie Nick Patterson. That seemed to open the gates as the Wings scored the first eight goals of the second half before Minnesota finally stopped the bleeding courtesy of John Sullivan's goal 2:03 into the fourth to stop a 20 minute plus scoring drought.
Snider's goal was not the lone highlight reel goal of the night, and not even his only one. Bill McGlone's behind the back crease dive score late in the first quarter was a masterpiece and Snider's final goal (and fourth) of the night was scored with him on the ground. Offensively and defensively just about everything fell into place for a team that had been struggling at both ends. The scoresheet was quite balanced this night. In addition to Snider's four tallies, Kyle Wailes and Dan Teat each scored four goals while McGlone and Drew Westervelt each had hat tricks. Brandon Miller, after being pulled Friday night following the quick four goal run by Orlando, was very solid in net for Philly with 37 saves.
Now the Wings face a week away from the rink before resuming play on March 27 against Boston. With the league's trade deadline on Tuesday (March 16), it will be very interesting to see if any moves are made by Huntley the GM to maybe finish respectably and build for the future or things stay as is. Either way they can rest with the knowledge that they played their best game of 2010 against a very tough Minnesota squad.
