The Philadelphia Wings were down but not out. Despite missing four players, being on a two-game skid, and never leading in this game until the final goal, the Wings found a way to win, beating the Halifax Thunderbirds 16-15 in overtime at Scotiabank Centre in Halifax.
The Wings were without Holden Cattoni, Blaze Riorden, Ryan Wagner and Curtis Romanchych. Cattoni and Riordan combined for 157 points last year and are top threats for Philadelphia’s offence, while Wagner is one of their reliable defencemen. Even with the odds stacked against them, they found a way to win.
“All week, we were saying we were desperate and that was the mentality we had to have going into this game,” said Philadelphia’s Joe Reserarits, who scored a goal and five assists to pass Casey Powell as the all-time leading American scorer with 675 points. “We knew our backs were against the wall. You don’t want to be 1-3 early in the season. We knew what we had to do, and the first half wasn’t great for us but we kept fighting back and it shows how much we wanted it.”
While there was elation in Philadelphia’s room, there was disappointment in Halifax’s room, losing a game they never trailed. They were up 10-6 going into the second half and Philadelphia outscored them 9-5 in the second half to send the game to overtime and eventually win it.
“There are no words, to be honest with you. It’s a gut-wrenching feeling. We didn’t have our best game but we should have won, but that’s the way it goes sometimes,” said Ryan Benesch, who led the Thunderbirds with six goals and eight points.
This is the first time the Wings beat the Thunderbirds since the team moved to Halifax four years ago. The Thunderbirds’ popularity has been growing and 9,857 fans filled the 10,500-seat Scotiabank Centre during this game.
It was special to see for Philadelphia’s Alex Pace, who is from Halifax.
“It was a great atmosphere and it is pretty awesome to see Halifax so into lacrosse as a kid that grew up here,” said Pace. “The NLL is expanding and I think that is going to give a lot of kids hope to play and I couldn’t be happier for that.”
Clarke Petterson started the game with two quick goals. Philadelphia answered. An excellent pick was made to free Tanner Buck to run right into the slot and shot the ball past Halifax’s goalie, Warren Hill. However, Randy Staats scored to give Halifax a 3-1 lead going into the second quarter.
Philadelphia and Halifax traded goals to start the second. However, Philadelphia tied the game at four with two transition goals from Isaiah Davis-Allen and Marcus Minichiello. It was Minichiello’s first NLL goal after playing 4 seasons in the league.
But Halifax wouldn’t allow the game to be tied for long. Benesch, Trevor Smyth, Austin Shanks and Dawson Theede scored to give Halifax four goals in three minutes to stretch their lead to 8-4.
“They (Halifax) are a hell of a team over there and we knew it was going to take our absolute best to beat them. They’re a team when they go on runs, you can see how deadly they are,” said Resetarits.
The teams traded power play goals, and then a special moment took place at the Scotiabank Centre.
Alex Pace picked up the ball in transition and went down 2-on-0 and fired the ball into the back of the net to a roar of friends and family in the stands. Pace was ecstatic and pointed to his family in the stands. It was his third career goal in the NLL.
“It’s good. Goals are a little hard to come by for me, so to get a breakaway and bury it, I couldn’t draw it up any better,” said Pace.
Staats scored for Halifax with two seconds left to send the Thunderbirds into the second half up up 10-6.
That is when things started to unravel for them.
The third quarter started with Petterson hitting the post. The Wings took the ball on the other end of the floor and Buck scored. Three minutes later, Theede had a chance point blank in the slot and couldn’t score. Sam LeClair scored for the Wings on the next possession to make the game 10-8.
Over the next six minutes, the teams traded four goals. The Wings were pushing but Halifax was keeping them from fighting back. However, Ben McIntosh scored to get Philadelphia within one going into the fourth quarter, with the score 12-11.
“Sometimes that’s the way it goes, you compete and keep it close,” said Pace. “We said at half, it’s just one run away from being a close one-goal game. We had that going into the fourth and we were right where we wanted to be.”
Mitch Jones tied the game a minute-and-a-half into the fourth quarter to score his fourth of the game. However, Austin Shanks answered immediately after to regain the lead for Halifax.
Philadelphia tied the game again, but Ryan Benesch wouldn’t allow the Wings to take the lead, scoring two goals to put Halifax up by two, 15-13, with 7:48 left to go in the fourth quarter.
The pesky Wings kept fighting. McIntosh scored five-hole from the outside and LeClair came off the bench unchecked, received a pass and ran right down the middle to tie the game at 15 with 4:37 left.
“Defensively, we really wanted to dictate what goes on out there, and I think towards the second half they started to dictate offensively to us and I think the score started to result that,” said Thunderbirds defender Trevor Smyth. “They were just being physical and going where they want to. Our job is to keep them out of the middle, prevent picks and do the little physical stuff and when the other offence is dictating that to us, that is where we get into trouble.”
Halifax had a chance to win the game when Halifax’s captain Cody Jamieson scored at the end of the fourth quarter but the ball crossed the line after the quarter ended, so the goal didn’t count.
Three minutes into overtime, Resetarits passed the ball down low to Jack Jasinski and he dove over the crease to score his first goal as a Wing and the second of his career to win the game.
Jasinski made the team from open try-outs after playing two games for Panther City two years ago. It’s contributions from unsung players like him that helped the Wings win. Tanner Buck was also crucial in the win with two goals, and he was signed by the Wings in early December after being released by Albany.
“That’s a hell of a first goal for Jack Jasinski for us, man. To be able to be ready for overtime, no nerves at all just to score that goal, I’m proud of him,” said Resetarits.
Losing close games has been a problem for Halifax. Last year, they won one out of five one-goal games, losing two at home in overtime.
“I don’t know but we’ve got to find an answer though quickly because we’re going to be in a lot of those games, and we’re going to have to find a way to win them,” said Benesch.
Halifax outshot the Wings 69-47. Zach Higgins made 54 saves, while Warren Hill made 32. Benesch and Mitch Jones led their teams in scoring with eight points each. Resetarits scored six points and Taite Cattoni had five for the Wings. For Halifax, Staats and Jamieson followed up Benesch’s performance with six points.
The Wings improve to 2-2 while Halifax drops to 2-1. The Wings play next on Sunday, Jan. 7, against the New York Riptide at home, while Halifax travels to Albany on Jan. 6.
