They never did it as the Albany Attack nor did they do it while in San Jose. But last night the Washington Stealth finally did what their predecessors could not, win a game in Philadelphia. The Stealth got plenty of help from a Wings team that did not look like a team that had won its last three games as the Wings sloppy play aided the Stealth in their 16-10 victory at the Wells Fargo Center.
While the Wings were without Brett Manney, Jeff Reynolds and
Brodie Merrill, they seemed to start off fine as they held an early 2-1 lead
following goals from Jordan Hall and Mike McLellan. The Stealth would tie the game on a shorthanded
goal that had Wings keeper Brandon Miller looking like Ron Hextall against
Claude Lemieux when Rhys Duch unleashed the NLL version of a blue line slap
shot that was able to elude Miller. That
goal started a run for Washington that would see them score nine of the next
ten goals and take a 10-3 halftime lead and making this game look much like their
blowout home losses to Calgary and Rochester.
“We just broke down, especially that 2nd quarter,”
Wings coach Johnny Mouradian said. “We
just broke down completely.”
The second half was a little more even but the Wings could
never get close to the Stealth as a number of power play opportunities were
squandered. The Wings would score three
goals with the extra man but allowed five shorthanded scores to Washington. One SHG that was quite frustrating was the one
scored by the Stealth’s Justin Salt 8:22 into the 3rd after Kevin
Crowley managed to hit the post twice during the Wings previous
possession. Mouradian was not impressed
with how the Wings managed time during their man up situations.
“We didn’t manage the clock in our end really well,”
Mouradian said.
The game would end with a mini brawl with 72 seconds left to
play that did not leave the Wings side happy but their overall play on this
night would have done that by itself.
While the Wings did get goals out of players like McLellan, Joel White,
Pat Heim and Kyle Sweeney, it was the main goal scorers who were invisible for
most of the night.
“We’ve gotta get goals out of guys that have to score goals,”
Mouradian said.
The Wings (5-4) will now have to regroup and get ready for
the first place Toronto Rock when they come to town for a Saturday matinee.
