Wings Lose to Toronto, 13-8

By- Kevin M. Neibauer

  My spin on Saturday's matinee against the First Place Toronto Rock...Toronto is led by the ageless, Colin Doyle and perhaps the best goaltender in the National Lacrosse League, Nick Rose.

  In what was probably the closest blowout that I have witnessed, Toronto prevailed with a 13-8 victory at the Wells Fargo Center.

The Wings were led offensively by Kevin Crowley who notched 4 goals and added an assist. Crowley had the distinction of scoring not one, but two buzzer beater goals.

 Paul Rabil continues to improve and Drew Westervelt matched Rabil's three point afternoon.

Brandon Miller was once again very strong in the net making 38 saves. The goaltender battle between Miller and Nick Rose of the Rock was won this time, by Rose.

 Rose was absolutely the player of the game and will no doubt take home the goaltender of the week award.
Rose made it look easy stopping 45 shots. The Philadelphia shot selection was vastly improved which made the Rose accomplishment even more impressive.

Philadelphia continued the trend of falling behind early and having to battle back. Trailing 4-1 after the first period it seemed as though things would get ugly again. The Wings kept battling and were not really outplayed. Josh Sanderson notched four first half goals and that would be the difference at halftime.

Kevin Crowley notched his first buzzer beater with .02 second remaining on the clock and the outcome still seemed in doubt.

The third quarter saw the Wings start strong scoring two quick goals. The bad karma returned when the home town team hit two posts in a one minute span.

The posts would be hit twice more and the karma would continue. Toronto's Damon Edwards took a five minute penalty for a brutal hit on Jeff Reynolds. As Coach Mouradian would point out after the contest, "We absolutely have to get two or three goals on that man up."

Not only did they NOT get the two or three goals, they actually gave up a shorthanded goal. That goal, the second shorthanded goal of the game seemed to signal the end. A wild flurry by Toronto would increase the lead to blow out proportions.

Crowley made it 13-8 with a second buzzer beater to end the bizarre afternoon.

WINGS THINGS- Rose came out of the game with about two minutes remaining and Zack Boychuk was tagged with the final two Wings goals.

Brett Manney, Brodie Merrill and Brendan Mundorf remain injured. Jeff Reynolds returned and made a huge difference on the faceoffs. Reynolds seemed to be stunned from the cheapshot and no prognosis has been made as to his status.

New addition, Angus Dineley was the back up to Miller. Mike Thompson did not dress.

Seen at the postgame party were Scott Gabrielson, Jake Bergey and former Philadelphia Eagle, John Spagnola.

The Wings have another bye week next week and returning to two road games in two nights, Minnesota then Colorado..

Wings Lacrosse 2013 (3-16-13 vs. Toronto)

By Tom Hoffman

After seeing their three game win streak come to an end last weekend, the Philadelphia Wings (5-4) will look to get back in the win column when they host the Toronto Rock (7-3) Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center.  Game time is at 1 PM and the game can be seen live at www.youtube.com/thelacrossenetwork.

History

The Wings are 13-22 in regular season play against the Rock with a 7-11 record at home.  In 2013 the teams have met once with the Wings coming back to take an 8-7 victory on January 19 in Toronto.  The teams will meet once more on April 13 at the Wells Fargo Center    

Last Weekend

The Wings fell 16-10 at home to the Washington Stealth on Saturday night.  After taking an early 2-1 lead the Wings gave up nine of the next ten goals to trail at half 10-3.  Paul Rabil and Kevin Ross each tallied two goals while Kevin Crowley added four assists. Drew Westervelt also added four points on a goal and three assists.     

Toronto won at home last Friday defeating the Colorado Mammoth 14-10.  Colin Doyle had eight points (2G, 6A) and Garrett Billings had seven points (1G, 6A) to lead the Rock.  Jesse Gamble and Blaine Manning each netted hat tricks for Toronto.

Trivia

Three players selected #1 overall in the NLL Entry Draft are currently on the Wings roster.  Name the players?    

On this date

The Wings are 1-1 on March 16.  In 1990 they lost to the New England Blazers 13-11 at the Spectrum and in 2002 they defeated the Washington Power 12-11 at the First Union Center. 

Notes

Paul Rabil has eight goals in his last three games.

Mike McLellan and Kyle Sweeney each scored on Saturday, for both it was their first goal since 2011 when both were members of the Edmonton Rush.  McLellan’s last goal was on April 16, 2011 against Toronto while Sweeney’s last goal was March 19, 2011 against the Calgary Roughnecks.

Answer

The three top picks in the NLL Entry Draft playing for the Wings are Brodie Merrill (#1 in 2005 for the Portland Lumberjax), Jordan Hall (#1 in 2007 for the New York Titans) and Kevin Crowley (#1 in 2011 for the Wings).

Next Game

The Wings will have a week off before returning to action on March 29 when they visit the Minnesota Swarm at Xcel Energy Center to open a weekend of back to back games on the road.

Interview With Athan Iannucci

One On One....

Kevin M. Neibauer caught up with former Wings superstar, Athan Iannucci. The Washington Stealth forward returned to Philadelphia for the first time since being traded a few seasons ago.

Iannucci, spoke candidly about his team's peformance, returning to Philadelphia and filled us in on what caused his trade. In a LaxPhilly exclusive, One on One...

KMN-Your first trip back to Philly...your thoughts?
AI-"Just getting off the plane, I said, I remember this place. I liked this city, I had a lot of fun here. Good memories.."


KMN-"The trade....care to talk about what generated it?"
AI-"It was a little personality conflict between myself and John Mouradian. He was the GM and we didn't along too well. When he made himself head coach and GM, I wasn't really surprised when it happened. "


KMN- A lot of speculation went around, so let me ask, "Was there a rift between you and Geoff Snider?"
AI-"I don't know, I Think we're both competitors and we both get a little bit fired up in the heat of battle.

There was definately times when we got at each other a bit. But, overall, I have respect for him and I like think he has some respect for me. It was a love/hate relationship at times but, I think he is a good player and I wish him luck."


KMN-"Getting back to Mouradian, any idea why you and him didn't get along?"
AI- "Uh...no comment...actually, there were some things that happened that maybe some other people would say, ok.. I just didn't agree with the morality or philosophy of the situation and I chose to speak up. Sometimes being that guy doesn't work out in your favor, but I stand by what I said."

KMN-"Mouradian was upset in the press conference. He feels that your team was gooning it up."
AI-"He's an emotional guy, it's an emotional game. They had some players on their team that were taking dives, a couple dirty shots. A game like lacrosse or hockey, where's there fighting, sometimes you gotta answer the bell if you are gonna play that way. Like I said, its an emotional game, that happens sometimes.
Crowd loves it, classic Philly."


KMN-"After the fracas, Matty Roik came in, what was going on with that?
AI-"You don't know things are going to go, right. Our goaltender has been playing well, we wanted to keep him out of the penalty box and keep him from getting in trouble."


KMN- "That's a big win for your team..."
AI-"Absolutely, its like our fourth win a row, building confidence. We don't want to looking to string wins together at the end of the year...let's get them now."

Thank You to Athan Iannucci and the Washington Stealth for their cooperation.

Wings sloppy in loss to Stealth

By Tom Hoffman

They never did it as the Albany Attack nor did they do it while in San Jose.  But last night the Washington Stealth finally did what their predecessors could not, win a game in Philadelphia.  The Stealth got plenty of help from a Wings team that did not look like a team that had won its last three games as the Wings sloppy play aided the Stealth in their 16-10 victory at the Wells Fargo Center.

While the Wings were without Brett Manney, Jeff Reynolds and Brodie Merrill, they seemed to start off fine as they held an early 2-1 lead following goals from Jordan Hall and Mike McLellan.  The Stealth would tie the game on a shorthanded goal that had Wings keeper Brandon Miller looking like Ron Hextall against Claude Lemieux when Rhys Duch unleashed the NLL version of a blue line slap shot that was able to elude Miller.  That goal started a run for Washington that would see them score nine of the next ten goals and take a 10-3 halftime lead and making this game look much like their blowout home losses to Calgary and Rochester.

“We just broke down, especially that 2^nd quarter,” Wings coach Johnny Mouradian said.  “We just broke down completely.”

The second half was a little more even but the Wings could never get close to the Stealth as a number of power play opportunities were squandered.  The Wings would score three goals with the extra man but allowed five shorthanded scores to Washington.  One SHG that was quite frustrating was the one scored by the Stealth’s Justin Salt 8:22 into the 3^rd after Kevin Crowley managed to hit the post twice during the Wings previous possession.  Mouradian was not impressed with how the Wings managed time during their man up situations.

“We didn’t manage the clock in our end really well,” Mouradian said.

The game would end with a mini brawl with 72 seconds left to play that did not leave the Wings side happy but their overall play on this night would have done that by itself.  While the Wings did get goals out of players like McLellan, Joel White, Pat Heim and Kyle Sweeney, it was the main goal scorers who were invisible for most of the night.

“We’ve gotta get goals out of guys that have to score goals,” Mouradian said.

The Wings (5-4) will now have to regroup and get ready for the first place Toronto Rock when they come to town for a Saturday matinee.

Lax day in Philly

By Tom Hoffman

Today there may be some snow on the ground but tomorrow calls for some Spring-like temps, perfect weather for a day of lacrosse in the Philadelphia area.  The Inside Lacrosse Independence Classic, sponsored by Whitman’s Sampler, will take place at PPL Park in Chester, PA.  For college lax enthusiasts this is heaven before the NCAA Championships as three games will take place.  And to complete the day of lacrosse in Philly will be the National Lacrosse League showdown between the Philadelphia Wings and the Washington Stealth at 8 PM at the Wells Fargo Center.

The day will start with a Big East matchup between St. John’s and Syracuse at Noon.  The Red Storm (3-1) will look to get some revenge following their loss to the Orange (2-1) in last year’s Big East Championship game at Villanova.  Syracuse has won two straight since their season opening loss to Albany and will look to stay perfect against St. John’s.  The second matchup at 2:30 will be a local matchup as the surprising Penn Quakers (3-1) will face off against the Villanova Wildcats (1-3).  Penn has already equaled their win total from the 2012 season and will look to continue their hot start while Villanova will seek to rebound from Tuesday’s 14-11 loss to Princeton.  The final game of the tripleheader will feature Penn State (2-2) and Lehigh (3-3) at 5 PM.  Both teams will be looking to stay in the USILA rankings which will make this an intriguing matchup.

Tickets are still available for both the Independence Classic and the Wings-Stealth game.