The Philadelphia Wings held the Boston Blazers to one goal in the second half and got just enough offense to earn their first win of the 2010 season, 12-8 over the 0-3 Blazers in front of 9,330 at the Wachovia Center Saturday night. The win improves the Wings to 1-1 early in the 2010 season.
"We played a really good second half," Wings coach Dave Huntley said. "We finally got all of our pre-season stuff out of the way and cleaned things up."
The first half was almost like watching two different games. The first quarter both sides appeared sluggish, in Boston's case no real surprise as they had played in Toronto the night before dropping an overtime decision to the Rock. After playing to a 1-1 draw in the first, the second quarter was run and gun with the Wings outscoring Boston 7-6 enroute to an 8-7 halftime lead.
After Jason Crosbie tallied his second goal of the night to give the Wings a 9-7 advantage, Boston's Daryl Veltman cut the lead to 9-8 on a powerplay score with 9:50 left in the third. This was significant on two fronts: it was the first time in their first three games that the Blazers scored more than seven goals. It would also be their final goal of the evening. The Wings would outscore the Blazers 3-0 the rest of the way to send their faithful fanatics home happy.
The Wings were led offensively by four two goal scorers (Drew Westervelt, Jason Crosbie, Dan Teat and Kyle Wailes). Westervelt, Mat Giles and Geoff Snider also chipped in with three assists while Brandon Miller made 41 saves. Boston's Mike Poulin amtched Miller in the save department while Nick Cotter (3 goals, 2 assists) and Daryl Veltman (2 goals, 3 assists) lead the Boston offense.
The Wings will look for win #2 when they face the Colorado Mammoth next Saturday at home.
