The Philadelphia Wings (3-5), who were looking to rebound just 24 hours after a 20-10 defeat fell to the undefeated Edmonton Rush (6-0) by a score of 8-6.
Prior to the game hometown favorite Jake Bergey had his #66 raised to the rafters in a banner-raising ceremony. Jake played his entire career (1998-2008) with the Philadelphia Wings and is second all-time in scoring for the Wings. As Jake approached the podium chants of BERGEY… BERGEY started to get louder. During his speech Jake thanked the Wings organization for the opportunity to play here, his teammates, parents, and of course the fans. He also said that the chants made him want to suit up again. As they were about to unveil the banner Jake said, “The banner may show my number, but it wouldn’t be there without all the teammates I played with.”
Once the game started Edmonton jumped out to a 2-0 lead with goals from Chris Corbeil at 2:18 and Jeremy Thompson just 19 seconds later. Tracey Kelusky put the Wings on the board, but two goals by Riley Loewen ended the first quarter with Philadelphia trailing 4-1.
Edmonton made it 5-1 at the 6:14 mark as Curtis Knight beat Evan Kirk. Robert Church would make it 6-1 with under two minutes to go in the half, but Kyle Sweeney would give a little spark by scoring with 3.9 seconds left.
When the third quarter started Evan Kirk became a brick wall as he kept the Rush off the board. Kevin Crowley scored the only goal to cut the lead in half at 6-3.
Pat Saunders made it 6-4 just 40 seconds into the final quarter, but the Rush scored two more times to increase the lead back to 8-4. Kevin Crowley and Ryan Ward would score, but it was too little too late as the Wings fell 8-6 and dropped both games this weekend.
As much of a defensive battle as this was with Aaron Bold (8.19 GAA) and Evan Kirk (11.26 GAA) it was the Wings offense that struggled as the inside game seemed to disappear. Wings are now one game out of a playoff spot behind the Toronto Rock.
Philadelphia shuffle off to Buffalo (5-2) next week and face the Bandits as this is the third and final meeting of the regular season between the two teams and will decide who will hold the tie-breaker. Next Wings home game is Sunday February 23 at 4 pm as they face the Minnesota Swarm.
