Wings 2009 Game 7 (vs. Boston 2-13-09)

By Tom Hoffman

After splitting divisional games last weekend, the Philadelphia Wings (2-4) will look to get back in the win column as they face the Boston Blazers (3-3) for the third and final time in the 2009 regular season. Faceoff at the Wachovia Center is at 8 PM and the game can be seen for free on NLL.com

History

The Wings are 0-2 against the Blazers this season after getting swept during a home and home weekend series. On January 23, Daryl Veltman and Dan Dawson helped ruin the Wings home opener by combining for 14 points in the Blazers 13-11 win, their first in the NLL. The next night, Dawson added eight points while Matt Lyons tallied five goals to give Boston an 11-7 win at TD Banknorth Garden. Dawson leads Boston with 15 points (1G, 14A) against the Wings while the Wings have been led by Mat Giles with six goals and three assists. Anthony Cosmo has 80 saves in the two games while Wings keepers (Rob Blasdell and Brandon Miller) have combined for 83 saves.

Last Weekend

The Wings scored five of the game's final six goals to knock the Buffalo Bandits from the ranks of the unbeaten 13-11 last Friday night in Philadelphia. A. J. Shannon earned game MVP honors with a two goal, three assist night. Mat Giles added six points (3G, 3A) and Brandon Miller made 34 saves for the Wings. Sunday night, after a quick start, the Wings fell 15-12 to the New York Titans in Newark, NJ. Merrick Thomson scored five goals and added an assist for the Wings. Boston scored two goals in the last ten seconds of regulation to defeat New York 9-8 Saturday night in Boston.

Another Wing in the Hall

The National Lacrosse League announced its Hall of Fame class for 2009 and Former Wings goalie Dallas Eliuk will be enshrined along with ex-Bandit and Toronto Rock captain Jim Veltman. The ceremony will take place in Denver, CO duing the NLL's All-Star weekend. Eliuk will join Russ Cline, Chris Fritz, Paul and Gary Gait, Mike French, Tom Marechek and Tony Resch as Wings representatives in the Hall.

Notes and Stuff

Last season after six games the Wings were undefeated (6-0). Since then, including the playoff loss at Buffalo, the Wings are 6-11.

Friday night will be the Wings last game in the East until April. The Wings next five games will take place against Western Division squads (Minnesota, Edmonton, Portland and Colorado).

Next Game

The Wings stay at home when the host the Minnesota Swarm on February 21st at 7:30 PM.

Questions and Answers about 2009, So Far

By- Kevin M. Neibauer

The Philadelphia Wings travelled to Newark New Jersey for an hour tonight.

Great first half---but, other than that...we were lucky enough to have our Wings answer a few questions...

First...how do you make a has-been, never was eleven year veteran look like he second coming of Dallas Eliuk?

Answer- Simply stop playing. Or, revert back to running in circles and firing a shot off the glass.

Question- Off the subject, while watching the Grammy's, why am I left to ask what in the name of God does some pregnant black chick and and a rap group have to do with Dean Martin????


Back to the subject....Why all of a sudden are the refs calling Geoff Snider for clamping?

As for Snider....why did the coach NOT switch to Pat Heim?

Penalties......here we go again....

Blasdell....simply cannot play on the road

AJ Shannon....yes, he is that bad

The Officials....how can they be so good on Friday and suck this bad toight? a different crew, but win or lose, the refs are killing the game...(of course, the Wings offense is not helping)

The internet play by play guy is also aiding the death of the game,,,,dude, lemme explain,,,#7- Kyle Sweeney, #27- Mat Giles, #37- Benson Erwin, #77 Rob Van Beek ..it ain't that damn hard!!!

Oh.and when we clearly hear and see a goaltending change with the announcement, "NOW PLAYING GOAL FOR PHIADELPHIA, BRANDON MILER" don't wait five minutes tell us what we already know!!!!!!


Bottom line....too many penalties.....undisciplined,,,,,blame the coach.

Maybe we should talk Jake Bergey out of retirement...or Lou Delligatti..

One more thing we answered tonight....Yes Virginia it IS possible to play a lacrosse game with eggs in your pocket and NOT break them....how? Play against the Wings.

Had a shot for second place....now locked into 5th....

Those of you who read what I post know that I have been fiercely loyal to this team, but I am not a bind loyalist...changes need to be made,,Yesterday!!!


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Wings weekend of promise ends with a thud

By Tom Hoffman

Momentum is a funny thing. For just over 21 and a half minutes, the Philadelphia Wings had everything going for them against the New York Titans Sunday night. An 8-3 lead against a team that not only had to travel the night before, but had lost their game in Boston in the most heartbreaking way possible, giving up the tying and winning goals in the game's final 10 seconds. Then Titans coach Ed Comeau made a simple goalie switch, pulling starter Matt Vinc and putting in former Wing Erik Miller for his first game action of 2009. And Miller responded as he has done a few other times in his career against the team that drafted him. Miller was able to stop the Wings while the New York offense got warmed up, the end result being a 15-12 Titans win at a near empty Prudential Center (the attendance was "generously" announced at 4,231).

The Wings were looking for a weekend sweep following Friday night's hard earned win over the defending champion Buffalo Bandits. Merrick Thomson scored a first quarter hat trick, goals two and three breaking a 2-2 tie and helping the Wings to a 5-2 lead after the quarter. Casey Powell's second tally of the night made it a 5-3 game before the Wings chased Vinc to the sidelines with goals from Thomson (#4 on the night), Drew Westervelt and Kyle Sweeney. Seeing their #1 keeper benched woke up the Titans as they would go on a seven goal run that would finally be broken (on Merrick Thomson's fifth goal of the night) after the Wings replaced their starter Rob Blasdell, who ended up allowing 10 goals in almost 41 minutes of work. Thomson's goal cut the New York lead to 10-9 entering the final stanza but the Wings, despite being the rested team, looked more like the team that had played the night before as the Titans would outscore the Wings 5-3 in the fourth, effectively nailing down the win on a shorthanded score by Pat Maddalena with 1:23 to play.

For Erik Miller, there wasn't anything very special about beating the Wings. Miller felt he was doing what a backup goalie should do.

"It's your job on the bench. I made the first save and that's what you try to do when you go in," Miller said. "Vino (Matt Vinc) played a tough game last night and we had to travel too. He's the man, he's a great goalie, just had a little bit of a shaky start. Just glad I was able to help out."

For the Wings, they now face a huge game on Friday when they host the Boston Blazers. With pretty much everyone in competiton for the four playoff spots in the East, Philly can't afford too many more losses if they want to see the postseason for a second straight year.

Wings knock Bandits from ranks of undefeated

By Tom Hoffman

It was almost a year ago when the Philadelphia Wings went into Buffalo with a perfect 6-0 record and left with their first loss of the season. Last night it was the Bandits who entered the Wachovia Center with an unblemished record (5-0) and for a while it appeared that would stay intact. However, a former Bandit who has been in the fans doghouse here would put an end to Buffalo's perfect start. A.J. Shannon had a hand in all five Wings tallies in the fourth quarter, including the game winning goal as the Wings defeated the defending champs 13-11 in front of a crowd of 10,506 on Friday night.

"I thought we played pretty well," Wings coach Dave Huntley said. "I thought we didn't execute some things in the first half but I thought we were real good in the second half."

The Wings got off to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter on goals from David Mitchell and Rob Van Beek and got solid work in net from Brandon Miller before Buffalo's Mark Steenhuis scored with a tenth of a second to play in the first. The Wings would open the scoring in the second before Buffalo scored the next five goals to take a 6-3 lead. Benson Erwin's first NLL goal and Mat Giles first of the game would get the Wings within one before the teams traded goals to give the Bandits a 7-6 halftime lead. The goal trading kept up in the third and the Bandits increased their lead to 10-8 early in the fourth. That's when the Shannon highlight reel started, first with assists on the next three goals (two from Giles to complete the hat trick and one from Drew Westervelt to finish his hat trick). After the Bandits Cody Jacobs tied the game at 11, Shannon then scord the game's final two goals to give the Wings the hard earned win. Afterwards, Shannon, who had sat out the last three games, felt the time off was helpful.

"It game me time to clear my mind. I kind of needed that to come back playing with more confidence," Shannon said. "It's more of a confidence game with me than a physical game."

While the offense seemed to struggle with their passing, the defense did a decent job of containing the Bandit offense, holding John Tavares and Mark Steenhuis to a combined three goals. Brandon Miller was sharp in net with a 34 save performance. The Wings will get a day to rest up before heading to Newark, NJ to face the Titans tomorrow night.

Wings 2009 Game 5 (vs Buffalo 2-6-09) and Game 6 (at New York 2-8-09)

By Tom Hoffman

The Philadelphia Wings (1-3) return to action with a busy weekend of divisional games. Friday night the Wings host the defending champion Buffalo Bandits (5-0) at 8 PM. After a night of rest, the Wings will travel up the New Jersey Turnpike to Newark's Prudential Center for the first of three meetings with the New York Titans, faceoff at 7 PM. Both games can be seen for free on NLL.com

History

This will be the Wings second meeting in 2009 with Buffalo, having lost the season opener 15-11 at HSBC Arena on January 3rd. All time, the Wings are 10-7 in Philadelphia against the Bandits in regular season play. Against New York, Philadelphia has a 3-2 record, 1-1 on the road. When the two teams take the floor in Newark it will be the third different arena to host a Titans home game with the Wings (2007 at Nassau Coliseum, 2008 at Trenton's Sovereign Bank Arena). Last season the Wings went 1-2 against New York, winning 16-12 February 29th at the Wachovia Center before losing 20-13 March 22nd in Trenton and 11-8 on April 19th in Philadelphia.

Last Games

The Wings were swept in a back to back weekend series with the expansion Boston Blazers. Boston gained their first NLL victory with a 13-11 decision at the Wachovia Center on January 23rd then completed the weekend sweep with an 11-7 victory the net night in Boston. Mat Giles scored six goals in the two games to lead the Wings while Drew Westervelt added four. Brandon Miller made 45 saves in the Friday game while Rob Blasdell stopped 38 shots in the rematch.

All Star Voting

Voting for the NLL All-Star Game, to be held March 6th at Denver's Pepsi Center, began on Monday, February 2nd. Six Wings are on the ballot: Rob Blasdell, Merrick Thomson, Kyle Sweeney, Drew Westervelt, Geoff Snider and Mat Giles). Fan voting ends on February 16th.

Leaders

Goals: Mat Giles and Drew Westervelt - 9

Assists: Kyle Wailes -10

Points: Giles - 16

Saves: Brandon Miller - 90

Next Game

The Wings will host the Boston Blazers on February 13th.