Knighthawks continue to have the Wings number

by Tom Hoffman

Through three quarters it was starting to look like the Philadelphia Wings might have found a way to finally defeat the Rochester Knighthawks as they entered the game's final 15 minutes all even at seven. But the Wings could not stop Mike Accursi and ended up falling to the Knighthawks for the eighth straight time in an 11-8 final disappointing the crowd of 8,906 who came out to see the Wings retire the jersey of Hall of Fame goalkeeper Dallas Eliuk.

The start to Saturday's game was much like that of the season opener between the two teams as Rochester jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the game's first 12 minutes. The Wings did make it a one goal game at halftime (5-4) but missed a great opportunity in the latter part of the first stanza and early minutes of the second after Rochester's Mike Kirk was called for a five minute high sticking penalty, scoring only once during the power play.

The Wings did tie the game and take their first lead of the night early in the third on a score from Brendan Mundorf and a "goal of the year" candidate from Dan Dawson, a one handed and underhand shot with his back to the net. After former Wing Brad Self tied the game at six, Kevin Crowley would give the Wings their final lead of the evening. Craig Point would tie the game at seven to set up the Accursi show in the fourth as Rochester's number 44 scored twice early in the quarter to give the Knighthawks the lead. By the time Crowley scored his third goal of the evening with 1:44 left in regulation, the game was out of the Wings reach. A large part of the Wings struggles in the game's final frame was poor shot selection that certainly did not go unnoticed.

"Offense really struggled in the fourth to create some shots and bury the ball when we needed to," Wings forward Dan Dawson said. "Sometimes when we get in tight situations we try to do too much, whether we're going too early in the shot clock or looking for that perfect shot."

Wings coach Johnny Mouradian was equally as frustrated with the team's fourth quarter shooting.

"We were making some poor shot selections," Mouradian said. "We weren't sharp enough shooting. We're either rushing a shot or we're shooting too late."

The loss tightened up the East division even more, especially with the Toronto Rock and Buffalo Bandits both losing their games on Saturday. As the Wings and Rock are tied at 4-4 in the standings, it puts this Friday's final regular season match between the two teams in the all important "must game" category as the winner will have the tiebreaker in the division. For the Wings players, it will also be a chance to show what the team is made of character wise.

"I think this is really going to be a definite turning point in our season," Dan Dawson said. "Define ourselves how we respond from two losses in a row."