The Philadelphia Wings soundly defeated the Albany FireWolves 13-5 on Saturday night to snap a three-game home-losing streak. Joe Resetarits broke out with his best game of the season, scoring four goals and four assists, and the newest Wing, Mitch Jones, scored twice and added three assists.
“Obviously getting the victory was huge,” said Wings’ head coach Paul Day. “It was a total-team effort. The penalty kills were strong, the goal scoring was up, the defence supported Higgins. Baptiste was solid. I think we did a really good job, obviously, with the week of preparation and bringing in a new body. Jones is the type of player we needed on the left side.”
The stadium was thumping as Ben McIntosh found the back of the net to score Philly’s first goal. Connor Kelly answered back for Albany. Blaze Riorden crashed the net to put the Wings up by one. Joe Resetarits scored for the Wings make it 3-1 with three minutes left. In fact, Resetarits had more points than Albany scored!
The Wings shut out Albany in quarter two while adding to their lead, scoring four more goals. Newly acquired Jones swooped in on the scoring action, getting a goal and two assists.
“The week came fast,” Jones said. “It was awesome to get out there in front of the fans and it was awesome to get the first win with the team. It is a loud bunch, and a passionate bunch and it was really nice to have them on our side… It was nice to hear them after all our goals.”
Jones reflected on scoring two goals for Philly as well as fitting into the offence: “It felt good. I think I got a little over excited and got a penalty. I paid for it. I’ll try not to do that again.”
Higgins reflected on his play (and the play of the team) both tonight and over the last few weeks. “Your job is kind of just to stop the ball, so you got to go into every game thinking about that, no matter what the offence or defence is doing. I mean, you’re the one that has to stop the ball.”
Higgins shut down Albany in the second and third quarters, holding them to zero goals in both. The fourth saw Philadelphia and Albany twice trade two goals.
Also of note, Trevor Baptiste recorded his 1,000 face-off win, and Chad Tutton played in his 100th career game.
Philadelphia has a bye this coming week before visiting Buffalo on February 18th. Albany next faces New York on February 11th.
