2011 Wings Lacrosse (3-4-11 at Toronto and 3-5-11 vs. Calgary)

By Tom Hoffman

The Philadelphia Wings (4-5) will open a weekend of back to back games on Friday night when they visit the Toronto Rock (8-2) at the Air Canada Centre at 7:30 PM. Saturday night the Wings return to the Wells Fargo Center for a 7 PM faceoff against former teammate Geoff Snider and the Calgary Roughnecks (5-3). Both games will be shown live on the NLL Network at NLL.com.

History

Following last week’s game the Wings are 9-20 all time in regular season play against the Rock which includes their first season in 1998 as the Ontario Raiders. On the road the Wings are 3-10 against Toronto (1-0 at Copps Coliseum, 0-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens and 2-9 at Air Canada Centre). The Wings last victory in Toronto was on April 27, 2008 (15-14).

The Wings are 2-1 all time against Calgary with a 19-13 victory on March 22, 2003 in Calgary’s lone visit to Philadelphia. Last season the Roughnecks defeated the Wings 15-7 on March 6 at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Last Week

The Wings dropped a 16-13 decision to the Rock at Wells Fargo Center. Brendan Mundorf and Athan Iannucci each tallied four goals and five assists for the Wings, who could not overcome an early 5-0 deficit. Calgary last played on February 20 defeating the Edmonton Rush 12-11 at Edmonton’s Rexall Place.

Trivia

This season is the 25th season of Wings Lacrosse and the 10th anniversary of the Wings last championship victory in 2001. This column will feature a trivia question each week and will attempt to tie in the 2001 champions and/or other moments in Wings history, as well as that week’s opponent. This week’s question is:

In the 2006 Entry Draft the Wings chose Geoff Snider with the fourth overall pick and with the eighth overall pick chose Athan Iannucci. The Wings also had the fifth overall pick in that draft, name the player the Wings selected with that pick? Answer at the end of the preview.

All Star Game

Last Sunday the East defeated the West 30-26 at the NLL All-Star Game which took place at the Turning Stone Casino Resort in Verona, NY. Brandon Miller started the game for the East and made 26 saves in his 30 minutes of play while Max Seibald chipped in a goal for the East.

Stat Leaders

Athan Iannucci leads the Wings in goals (22, fifth in the league), assists (25) and points (47, ninth in the league). Iannucci is also the NLL leader in points on the power play with 21. Drew Westervelt is tied for third in points on the power play. Jeff Reynolds is tied for fourth with 85 faceoff wins. In goal, Brandon Miller is eighth in goals against average (10.72), second in saves (342) and tied for third in save percentage (.788)

Next Game

Following the Calgary game the Wings will not return to action until March 26 when they travel to Rochester for their second meeting of the season with the Knighthawks.

Trivia Answer

The Wings selected Ian Llord with the fifth overall choice in the 2006 draft. Llord played 11 games for the Wings in 2007 before being dealt as part of a three way trade involving Calgary and the Buffalo Bandits on July 27, 2007 that brought Taylor Wray to the Wings.