by Tom Hoffman
Normally when the Philadelphia Wings visit Toronto's Air Canada Centre, the result isn't usually one fans like to talk about. Yeah, they did win the 2001 National Lacrosse League title here but regular season success has been very little. And after the woeful effort two weeks ago against the Rock in Philadelphia most fans could be forgiven for not exactly being positive for Saturday's rematch. But the old cliche of "that's why they play the game" was quite evident as the Wings owned the game's last 45 minutes en route to a convincing 14-8 victory over the Rock in their barn.
The Wings trailed 3-2 after the opening stanza and were behind 4-3 in he second when the offense and defense both woke up. Brendan Mundorf, Kevin Crowley and Dan Dawson were just about unstoppable as they combined for 11 goals and 15 assists. Brandon Miller had a stellar game in net for the Wings making 32 saves while former Wing Matt Roik gave up 13 of the Wings scores and was eventually replaced by Pat Campbell just about halfway through the fourth quarter. Drew Westervelt (two goals) and Ned Crotty completed the Wings scoring on the night.
With two wins in a row, the Wings will look to add to and build on these recent efforts in next week's visit to Edmonton to face the Rush.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
2012 Wings Lacrosse (2-18-12 at Toronto)
by Tom Hoffman
Hitting the road for just the second time this season, the Philadelphia Wings (3-2) will look to add to their win total when they visit the defending NLL Champion Toronto Rock (3-2) Saturday night at the Air Canada Centre. Game time is at 7 PM and can be seen on the NLL Network at NLL.com.
History
The Wings are 10-22 all time against the Rock and 0-1 in 2012 following a 15-6 loss at the Wells Fargo Center on February 4. The Wings are 3-11 on the road in the regular season vs. Toronto (1-0 at Copps Coliseum, 0-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens and 2-10 at the Air Canada Centre). The Wings last victory in Toronto was on April 27, 2008 (15-14). The Wings only other road win against the Rock came in the 2001 National Lacrosse League championship game (9-8).
Last Game
Dan Dawson had a goal and nine assists, Kevin Crowley tallied four goals while Brodie Merrill and Drew Westervelt each notched hat tricks as the Wings defeated the Buffalo Bandits 14-13 last Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center. Dawson earned the National Lacrosse League’s Offensive Player of the Week award while Merrill was named Transition Player of the Week.
The Opponent
Toronto has been idle since defeating the Wings 15-6 in Philadelphia on February 4. The two teams will meet one more time in Toronto on March 9. In the game two weeks ago Toronto was led by Garrett Billings (1G, 8A) and Josh Sanderson (3G, 6A) with nine points each. Stephan Leblanc added four goals while Matt Roik shut out the Wings in the second half.
Notes and Stuff
Thomas Hajek is the only current member of the Wings who has played in both regular season Wings victories at the Air Canada Centre. Including the game in Hamilton in 1998 and the 2001 championship game, Jake Bergey is the lone Wings player to have appeared in all four Wings road wins vs. the Rock
On this date
The Wings are 1-2 in games played on February 4. The Wings defeated the Detroit Turbos 19-10 at the Spectrum in 1989 while losing at home to the Rochester Knighthawks 14-13 in 2005 and to the Portland Lumberjax 15-12 in 2006.
Next Game
The Wings will head to Edmonton on February 24 to face the Rush.
Hitting the road for just the second time this season, the Philadelphia Wings (3-2) will look to add to their win total when they visit the defending NLL Champion Toronto Rock (3-2) Saturday night at the Air Canada Centre. Game time is at 7 PM and can be seen on the NLL Network at NLL.com.
History
The Wings are 10-22 all time against the Rock and 0-1 in 2012 following a 15-6 loss at the Wells Fargo Center on February 4. The Wings are 3-11 on the road in the regular season vs. Toronto (1-0 at Copps Coliseum, 0-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens and 2-10 at the Air Canada Centre). The Wings last victory in Toronto was on April 27, 2008 (15-14). The Wings only other road win against the Rock came in the 2001 National Lacrosse League championship game (9-8).
Last Game
Dan Dawson had a goal and nine assists, Kevin Crowley tallied four goals while Brodie Merrill and Drew Westervelt each notched hat tricks as the Wings defeated the Buffalo Bandits 14-13 last Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center. Dawson earned the National Lacrosse League’s Offensive Player of the Week award while Merrill was named Transition Player of the Week.
The Opponent
Toronto has been idle since defeating the Wings 15-6 in Philadelphia on February 4. The two teams will meet one more time in Toronto on March 9. In the game two weeks ago Toronto was led by Garrett Billings (1G, 8A) and Josh Sanderson (3G, 6A) with nine points each. Stephan Leblanc added four goals while Matt Roik shut out the Wings in the second half.
Notes and Stuff
Thomas Hajek is the only current member of the Wings who has played in both regular season Wings victories at the Air Canada Centre. Including the game in Hamilton in 1998 and the 2001 championship game, Jake Bergey is the lone Wings player to have appeared in all four Wings road wins vs. the Rock
On this date
The Wings are 1-2 in games played on February 4. The Wings defeated the Detroit Turbos 19-10 at the Spectrum in 1989 while losing at home to the Rochester Knighthawks 14-13 in 2005 and to the Portland Lumberjax 15-12 in 2006.
Next Game
The Wings will head to Edmonton on February 24 to face the Rush.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Improved effort leads to Wings victory
by Tom Hoffman
After a lackluster second half last week against the Toronto Rock, the Philadelphia Wings needed to give a much better performance in Sunday's meeting with the Buffalo Bandits. And for a good stretch of the game that effort was there as the Wings would pull out a 14-13 win over the reeling Bandits in front of a crowd of 8,119 at Wells Fargo Center.
"It's a better feeling this week than last week," Said Wings Coach Johnny Mouradian. "I thought our desire to win was really there, our determination, our effort was there."
The Wings, whose last goal was scored with 1:56 to play in the second quarter against Toronto, would not need to wait very long to get on the board in this game as Brendan Mundorf bounced a long distance shot that somehow fooled Bandits goalie Mike Thompson. The teams then spent the rest of the first quarter and the first half of the second stanza trading goals until Buffalo's John Tavares scored to give the Bandits their lone lead of the evening at 5-4. Kevin Crowley would tie the game at five while Brodie Merrill scored the following two goals to give the Wings a 7-5 halftime lead.
Crowley opened the second half with his third goal of the night before Chad Culp would answer for Buffalo. The Wings then scored the game's next three goals (Dan Dawson, Crowley and Drew Westervelt) to chase Thompson from the Buffalo goal in favor of Angus Goodleaf. The move appeared to stop the momentum gained by the Wings as the Bandits scored the final two goals of the third quarter and got the first score of the fourth before Merrill tallied with the Wings a man down to make the score 12-9 Wings. Buffalo would not go quietly though and would tie the game with three goals in a span of 1:27. There was still plenty of time left in regulation after Buffalo evened the score and the Wings would regroup for the next two scores from the stick of Westervelt and take a 14-12 lead. A bench minor penalty with 69 seconds to play gave the Bandits, per Rule 43.2, a penalty shot that Tavares would bury past Brandon Miller to make it a one goal game. The Wings defense would hold tight though and kept the Bandits from forcing overtime en route to handing Buffalo their fourth straight defeat.
One key for the Wings in this game was having success in the third quarter. Philly outscored the Bandits 4-3 in the third tonight after being outscored in that frame in each of the first four games of the 2012 season. Both Mouradian and Westervelt felt that was a key to the victory.
"That's a very important step for us to outscore them 4-3 when we've been outscored every third quarter this year," said Mouradian. Westervelt added, "As a team we just needed to put something together after last week. I thought we had a good third quarter."
While Westervelt scored three goals on the night, he tossed praise to several of his teammates instead.
"Three goals from Brodie is huge for us," said Westervelt. "Kevin (Crowley) continues to shoot the ball really well and Dan (Dawson)just keeps us all together. Each game it's getting more comfortable."
Dawson had a huge game with a goal and nine assists while Crowley tallied four goals. Brandon Miller made 48 saves for the Wings to bounce back from last week's Toronto debacle. Now the Wings will get a second chance against the defending champion Rock in yet another battle for first place in the East, this time in a building (Air Canada Centre) that has been quite unkind to the Wings. To Westervelt, it all means folllowing a "simple" piece of advice.
"The more simple we keep it, the more effective we are," Westervelt said.
After a lackluster second half last week against the Toronto Rock, the Philadelphia Wings needed to give a much better performance in Sunday's meeting with the Buffalo Bandits. And for a good stretch of the game that effort was there as the Wings would pull out a 14-13 win over the reeling Bandits in front of a crowd of 8,119 at Wells Fargo Center.
"It's a better feeling this week than last week," Said Wings Coach Johnny Mouradian. "I thought our desire to win was really there, our determination, our effort was there."
The Wings, whose last goal was scored with 1:56 to play in the second quarter against Toronto, would not need to wait very long to get on the board in this game as Brendan Mundorf bounced a long distance shot that somehow fooled Bandits goalie Mike Thompson. The teams then spent the rest of the first quarter and the first half of the second stanza trading goals until Buffalo's John Tavares scored to give the Bandits their lone lead of the evening at 5-4. Kevin Crowley would tie the game at five while Brodie Merrill scored the following two goals to give the Wings a 7-5 halftime lead.
Crowley opened the second half with his third goal of the night before Chad Culp would answer for Buffalo. The Wings then scored the game's next three goals (Dan Dawson, Crowley and Drew Westervelt) to chase Thompson from the Buffalo goal in favor of Angus Goodleaf. The move appeared to stop the momentum gained by the Wings as the Bandits scored the final two goals of the third quarter and got the first score of the fourth before Merrill tallied with the Wings a man down to make the score 12-9 Wings. Buffalo would not go quietly though and would tie the game with three goals in a span of 1:27. There was still plenty of time left in regulation after Buffalo evened the score and the Wings would regroup for the next two scores from the stick of Westervelt and take a 14-12 lead. A bench minor penalty with 69 seconds to play gave the Bandits, per Rule 43.2, a penalty shot that Tavares would bury past Brandon Miller to make it a one goal game. The Wings defense would hold tight though and kept the Bandits from forcing overtime en route to handing Buffalo their fourth straight defeat.
One key for the Wings in this game was having success in the third quarter. Philly outscored the Bandits 4-3 in the third tonight after being outscored in that frame in each of the first four games of the 2012 season. Both Mouradian and Westervelt felt that was a key to the victory.
"That's a very important step for us to outscore them 4-3 when we've been outscored every third quarter this year," said Mouradian. Westervelt added, "As a team we just needed to put something together after last week. I thought we had a good third quarter."
While Westervelt scored three goals on the night, he tossed praise to several of his teammates instead.
"Three goals from Brodie is huge for us," said Westervelt. "Kevin (Crowley) continues to shoot the ball really well and Dan (Dawson)just keeps us all together. Each game it's getting more comfortable."
Dawson had a huge game with a goal and nine assists while Crowley tallied four goals. Brandon Miller made 48 saves for the Wings to bounce back from last week's Toronto debacle. Now the Wings will get a second chance against the defending champion Rock in yet another battle for first place in the East, this time in a building (Air Canada Centre) that has been quite unkind to the Wings. To Westervelt, it all means folllowing a "simple" piece of advice.
"The more simple we keep it, the more effective we are," Westervelt said.
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