Based on the opening seven minutes and one second, it appeared that the Philadelphia Wings had found the antidote to save what was starting to look like a dreadful season. A quick 5-0 lead to chase the opposing goaltender was making the evening look very good. The Buffalo Bandits had other ideas though and used the momentum of Angus Goodleaf's solid play in relief of Mike Thompson and shut down the Wings en route to a 13-11 victory Saturday night at the Wachovia Center. A franchise low crowd of 7,723 was on hand to witness the Wings fall into sole possession of last place in the NLL's Eastern Conference.
Thompson was chased in the first quarter due to three goals from Kyle Wailes and two more from Geoff Snider. After Goodleaf entered the game, the Wings offense suddenly went cold while the Bandits still couldn't dent Brandon Miller until the 11 minute mark when Mark Steenhuis finally put one past the Wings goalie. Three more Bandits scores followed and the first quarter ended 5-4 Wings. The teams would trade off goals in the first five minutes of the second stanza before the Bandits Frank Resetarits scored with eight minutes until intermission to tie the game at seven.
Buffalo would gain the lead for the first time on a Kevin Dostie goal 3:39 into the third quarter. Wailes would get his fourth goal of the night to tie the game at eight but that would be that final tie of the night as Buffalo got a pair of tallies from Brett Bucktooth (one shorthanded and one on the powerplay) to take a 10-8 lead into the final 15 minutes. The fourth started good for the Wings as John Christmas (in his first game action of the 2010 season) and Geoff Snider sandwiched goals around one from Buffalo's John Tavares to make the game 11-10 Buffalo with 8:21 remaining in regulation. Goals from Tavares and ex-Wing Jon Harasym would ice the game for the Bandits, making Max Seibald's first NLL goal with 13 seconds remaining to play irrelevant.
While Bandits coach Darris Kilgour was happy to have Tavares back in the lineup for the first time this season after sitting due to injury, he credited the play of Goodleaf as the game's turning point.
"We didn't come out with focus, we didn't play well in fron of Mike (Thompson)," Kilgour said. "When Angus went in there guys buckled down a little more and Angus played a really good game so I thought that was a big turning point for us."
Wings coach Dave Huntley, while happy that his team's effort was better than their previous game in Toronto, also gave props to the Bandits backup keeper.
"Give credit to Angus, he came in and stopped the bleeding in a big way and they rallied behind him," Huntley said. "They started to find the net a little bit and we probably lost a little bit of composure."
Wailes paced the Wings with four goals and three assists while Geoff Snider scored a hat trick. Dan Teat and Mat Giles also chipped in with three assists for Philly while Brandon Miller made 36 saves. Buffalo had five players (Steenhuis, Tavares, Bucktooth, Dostie and Resetarits) score two goals to lead a balanced offense while Goodleaf made 37 saves in his relief effort.
The Wings season does not get any easier as Rochester, with John Grant Jr. and Gary Gait, comes to visit next Saturday.
