Yesterday afternoon the Wings had a chance to end two streaks. First was a five game losing streak; that failed. What also failed was a losing streak at home to the Rochester Knighthawks dating back to January 18, 2008. The Wings (3-9) fell 11-7 to the Knighthawks (9-3) yesterday afternoon making them 1-16 the last 17 meetings including playoffs.
What the loss also did was put the Wings (3-9) two games behind the Toronto Rock (5-7) for the final playoff spot. These teams will meet this Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Center. A loss by the Wings will just about seal the end of a possible playoff run. It also reduces the magic number for Toronto to clinch to 2 games. Falling three games out of the final spot with five games to go is hard to make up, but Toronto will also hold the tie breaker as well.
When the game started the Wings looked like a team that just finished playing the night before and didn’t arrive at the hotel until 3 am. Rochester jumped out quickly opening up a 4-0 lead within the first six minutes. Jordan Hall finally put the Wings on the board at 11:40.
The second quarter each team scored once keeping the Knighthawks ahead by 3 at 5-2. The score could have been a lot worse if Brandon Miller, who came in to relieve Evan Kirk didn’t make some huge saves. Same can be said for Matt Vinc of the Knighthawks. This was a completely different goaltender than 24 hours ago.
Rochester built a four goal lead with less than three minutes remaining in the third quarter, but Kevin Crowley (three goals) and Brodie Merrill scored 20 seconds apart to close the gap to 8-6.
Ryan Ward would keep the momentum going by scoring just 32 seconds into the final frame drawing the Wings close at 8-7. Rochester would go on a three goal run, the final goal at 6:53 by Craig Point (four goals) to put them ahead to stay at 11-7.
Kevin Crowley (hat trick) and Jordan Hall (two goals) led the scoring for the Wings. Saunders, Kelusky, Buchanan, Ross, combined for a total of four assists. IF this team wants to win, they need to get balanced scoring. Two players combining for five of the seven goals will not do it in this league, nor will it do it in the city of Philadelphia.
For the Knighthawks, Craig Point (4 G), Dan Dawson (3 G), and Joe Walters (2 G) led the offense.
The trading deadline is tomorrow. March 20 deadline to sign free agents.
Question is who will still be here, who will not? (Pure speculation)
Could we have seen Brandon Miller for the last time? Toronto signed Steven Fryer as their back-up, but I’m sure they’d much rather have Miller if made available.
Tracey Kelusky, 13-plus yr veteran. No doubt will like another run at the cup.
Kevin Ross and Ryan Ward could be of value to a team like Colorado and even Vancouver as the west is tightly contested.
The next 24 hours should be interesting.
The Wings are back in action Saturday 7:30 pm when they host Toronto.
