2011 Wings Lacrosse (1-15-11 vs. Buffalo)

By Tom Hoffman

The Philadelphia Wings will look to pick up their first win of the 2011 National Lacrosse League season when they host the Buffalo Bandits at 7:30 PM on Saturday January 15 at the Wells Fargo Center. The game can be seen live on the NLL Network at NLL.com and will also be shown live on the Comcast Network with a replay on Sunday, January 16 on Comcast SportsNet.

History

The Wings are 19-20 against the Bandits, 11-8 at the WFC. In 2010 the Wings went 1-1 against Buffalo, each team winning in the other teams building. On February 13, 2010 in Philadelphia, the Bandits broke an 8-8 tie in the third quarter and went on to defeat the Wings 13-11. The Wings would return the favor on February 27, 2010 defeating the Bandits 15-11 at HSBC Arena in Buffalo. In that game the Wings never trailed and would break a five game losing streak.

Trivia

This season is not only the 25th season of Wings Lacrosse; it is also the 10th anniversary of the Wings last championship victory in 2001. To celebrate both, this column will feature a trivia question each week and will attempt to tie in both the 2001 champions, as well as that week’s opponent. To begin, here is this week’s question:

Which member of the Wings 2001 team was also a member of the Bandits 1996 championship team? The answer will be at the end of the preview.

Last Weekend

The Wings were defeated by the Boston Blazers 10-6 last Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center. Bill McGlone and Alex Turner each scored twice for the Wings while Brandon Miller made 39 saves. The Bandits fell 10-9 to the Calgary Roughnecks on Saturday in Calgary. Roger Vyse led Buffalo with six points while Mike Thompson stopped 28 Calgary shots.

Notes

The Wings last 0-2 start occurred in 2007 (final record that season was 6-10).

The last time the Wings played on January 15 they defeated the Baltimore Thunder 17-14 at the Spectrum in front of a crowd of 16,274.

During the offseason the Bandits picked up Scott Self and Jay Thorimbert from the Minnesota Swarm and former Wing Brenden Thenhaus from Boston but their biggest acquisition was getting Tracey Kelusky in a deal with Calgary.

Next game

The Wings travel to Denver to face the Colorado Mammoth on January 22.

Trivia Answer

Tom Phair was a rookie on the 1996 Major Indoor Lacrosse League champion Bandits squad that defeated the Wings 15-10 at the Aud in Buffalo. In 2001 Phair contributed 2 goals to help the Wings defeat the Toronto Rock 9-8 to take home the NLL Champion’s Cup.