Wild 4th quarter propels Wings to victory

By Tom Hoffman

In past seasons, the fourth quarter at the Air Canada Centre and the Philadelphia Wings have not been the best of friends.  Seemingly safe leads for the Wings have managed to turn into very painful losses.  Which made Saturday night's game quite satisfying for Wings fans and players as the Wings used a late four goal run, highlighted by a highlight reel goal from Drew Westervelt with 10.9 seconds to play in regulation, to escape Toronto with an 8-7 victory spoiling the Rock's home opener before a crowd of 11,703.  For the Wings, it was not only win number two in the early National Lacrosse League season, but an incredible third straight victory in what had been a true House of Horrors for the Wings.

The Wings never led the game until Westervelt's game winner but they never let the Rock get ahead by more than three scores.  After trailing 3-1 at halftime, the Wings tied the game on goals from Brodie Merrill and Westervelt but Toronto would get four of the next five goals to take a 7-4 lead with 7:24 to play.  The Wings rally then started on a breakaway goal from Joel White and was followed by goals from Kevin Ross and Kevin Crowley that tied the game at seven to set up Westervelt's late heroics.

But much like last week's opening win over the Buffalo Bandits, it was goalie Brandon Miller who would steal the show in what ended up as a goaltending duel with the Rock's Nick Rose.  Miller was lights out again with a 53 save performance though Rose wasn't too shabby either in stopping 48 Wings chances.  Crowley led the Wings with three goals and two assists while Kevin Buchanan and Paul Rabil each added three helpers.  The Wings will look to keep the good luck going when they play a pair of games next weekend starting with a rematch with the Bandits in Buffalo before coming home to face the Calgary Roughnecks and former Wing Geoff Snider.