Wings use strong first half and hold on to beat Mammoth

By Tom Hoffman

Much like last week's game in Denver, it was a tale of two halves for the Philadelphia Wings against the Colorado Mammoth. And much like last week the Wings would have the better half and thus were able to hold on for a 12-11 victory at home in front of a crowd of 8,616 at the Wells Fargo Center.

For the fourth time in five games this season the Wings got on the board first courtesy of Max Seibald, back in the lineup after sitting out Friday night in Boston as a result of his hit on Buffalo's Jon Harasym on January 15. After Colorado's Brian Langtry knotted the game at one, the Wings got scores from Athan Iannucci and Matt Alrich to take a 3-1 lead after 15 minutes. The Mammoth would tie the game at three before the Wings offense would come alive scoring seven of the next eight goals, briefly chasing Colorado goalie Chris Levis in favor of former Wing Rob Blasdell, to go into halftime with a seemingly comfortable 10-4 lead. Then, in the eyes of Wings coach John Tucker, the Wings took their foot off the gas pedal and all of a sudden the Mammoth were back in the game.

Colorado would shut out the Wings in the third quarter and thanks to a hat trick from Alex Gajic went into the game final stanza down by only two goals. Kyle Sweeney and Drew Westervelt would put the Wings up by four goals midway through the fourth but the Mammoth would not quit and following a power play goal from Cliff Smith with 2:27 left in regulation they would close to within a goal. And they thought they had the tying score with under two minutes to play but John Grant Jr was ruled to have been in the crease negating the score. The Wings would hold on and kill off the clock to put up their third win in a row.

Again the defensive star for Philadelphia was goalie Brandon Miller who had a 44 save night in playing his second game in as many nights. Athan Iannucci, after a four goal night in Boston on Friday, continued to shake the rust off with a three goal, three assist night while Drew Westervelt also chipped in with a hat trick. Grant led all scorers with eight points (2G, 6A) but that would not be enough for Colorado as they fell to 1-3 while the Wings improved to 3-2.

Next for the Wings will be a visit to Rochester to faceoff against the Knighthawks next Saturday afternoon as Philly will seek to add a fourth game to their win streak.