2011 Wings Lacrosse (2-5-11 at Rochester)

By Tom Hoffman

The Philadelphia Wings (3-2) will look to extend their winning streak to four games this Saturday afternoon when they travel to Rochester, NY to square off with the Knighthawks (2-2). Faceoff at the Blue Cross Arena is at 2 PM and the game can be seen live on the NLL Network at NLL.com.

History

The Wings are 15-20 all time against Rochester and are 5-12 at the Blue Cross Arena. In 2010 the Knighthawks swept the season series from the Wings taking a 12-6 decision in Philadelphia on February 20 and completing the sweep with a 15-12 victory on April 10 in Rochester. The Wings last victory in Rochester was on January 10, 2009 by a score of 16-13

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. This week’s question is:

Name the Wing who scored the game winning goal in the 2001 Semi-Final against the Knighthawks? The answer will be at the end of the preview.

Last Weekend

The Wings swept a back to back weekend beginning last Friday in Boston when they held a potent Blazers lineup to just five goals in an 11-5 victory. Athan Iannucci scored four goals while Brandon Miller made 43 saves. Saturday night Iannucci added three more goals and Miller made 44 saves as the Wings jumped out to a 10-4 lead in the first half and held on to defeat the Colorado Mammoth 12-11 at the Wells Fargo Center. Rochester played at home on Saturday and struggled against Boston falling to the Blazers by a score of 16-7.

Notes

The Wings three game win streak is their longest since they won their first six games of the 2008 season.

The last time the Wings played on February 5 was last season when they were defeated by the Toronto Rock 19-11 at the Air Canada Centre. Overall the Wings are 3-2 on this date (they lost in 1994 15-11 to the Buffalo Bandits while defeating Buffalo 13-11 in 1999, the New York Saints 15-13 in 2000 and the San Jose Stealth 14-13 in 2005).

The NLL All-Star Game will be held on February 27 at Turning Stone Casino in Verona, NY. Wings players on the ballot (http://www.nll.com/allstar/) are Brandon Miller, Shawn Nadelen, Athan Iannucci, Drew Westervelt, Max Seibald and Taylor Wray. Voting ends on February 7.

Next game

The Wings return to the Wells Fargo Center on February 12 to face the Buffalo Bandits.

Trivia Answer

Tom Marechek scored with 1:29 to play in regulation to give the Wings a 12-11 win over Rochester on April 20, 2001 and put the Wings in the NLL Final against the Toronto Rock.