Overtime loss gives Wings split of weekend series with Mammoth

by Tom Hoffman

The Philadelphia Wings split a wild weekend with the Colorado Mammoth when Adam Jones scored 9:38 into overtime to give the Mammoth a 16-15 victory at Wells Fargo Center on Sunday. This coming after the Wings scored late in regulation Friday night to take a 13-12 decision at Denver's Pepsi Center.

The teams played a close first quarter with Colorado leading after 15 minutes by a 3-2 score. The second and third stanzas saw many power play goals scored between the two teams as the officials called just about any and everything they saw fit to call. The Mammoth took advantage of several Wings penalties, most notably a double minor to Taylor Wray and a five minute high sticking major to Steve Holmes to notch six man up goals and take a 13-7 lead just 2:03 into the 3rd quarter. Instead of folding up their tent however, the Wings got themselves back into the game via the power play route as they would cash in with six extra man goals of their own to tie the match at 13 just 24 seconds into the fourth quarter.

John Grant Jr. would give Colorado a 14-13 lead before Kevin Crowley scored his only two goals of the game to give the Wings just their second lead of the night with 1:57 left in regulation. Just a minute later though, the Wings Brodie Merrill was whistled for what appeared to be a very questionable cross checking call to give the Mammoth a chance to tie the game and force overtime, which Grant would do with his third goal of the night with only 44 seconds left to play. During the overtime the whistles would be given a rest as the teams went end to end until Jones's fourth goal of the game would send the Wings and their faithful fans home on the wrong end of the score.

While Wings coach Johnny Mouradian noted that the run of penalties both hurt and helped his team, he was more impressed with the Wings comeback to make a pending rout a game and impressed with the growing confidence he sees in his team.

"Confidence is very interesting," Mouradian said. "If you have confidence, it's having the ability to do what needs to get done on the floor and the feeling to do what needs to get done on the floor. The other part of confidence is being able to do it. We've got both legs of confidence right now. We're doing it, we believe we can do it and that's a different level of thinking when guys know they can do it and they actually go out and do it."

The Wings were led in the goal scoring column by Mike Hominuck with four goals and Drew Westervelt adding three of his own. Dan Dawson continued his quest for the league assist record with seven more helpers to give him 68 on the season (league record is 74 set by Dawson and Josh Sanderson in 2009). Brandon Miller made 39 saves in goal. Afterwards Mouradian had more praise for his improving squad.

"At the end of the day Brandon Miller gave us a opportunity to win and everybody on our team gave us a chance to win," Mouradian said.

The Wings get the next weekend off before coming back to another weekend of back to back games beginning with a Good Friday tilt at home with the Minnesota Swarm. By then the Wings could actually be one of the teams in the 2012 National Lacrosse League postseason.