With over 7,300 fans in attendance at the Wells Fargo Center, the Philadelphia Wings came from behind to drop their home opener in overtime to the Buffalo Bandits 12-11.
With the US Lacrosse Convention in town, what better way to treat the fans, coaches and players of the fastest game on two feet than to a thrilling competition of the sport itself? Fans at tonight’s game got exactly what they paid for.
It seemed early on that it was going to be a fight to the finish. Buffalo scored the first goal of the game thanks to Jamie Rooney on the power play. Tracey Kelusky would not be denied as he tied the game at one thanks to a feed from Kevin Crowley. Dhane Smith would score his first goal of the night just a little over 10 minutes into the game. Down 2-1, Philadelphia scored two back-to-back goals in under two minutes to close out the first quarter with scores from Kyle Buchanan and Kevin Crowley as the Wings took a 3-2 lead heading into the second.
Buffalo went on a rampage this quarter. Shawn Williams would open up the scoring in the second as Jamie Rooney found him open. Buchanan tallied his second goal of the night and the only goal the Wings would score in the second quarter with Crowley and Pat Saunders on the assisting end. John Tavares tallied two more with Dhane Smith assisting on both. Smith would then score his own goal with the assist coming from Tavares. Mark Steenhuis picked up a goal and Smith again helped out. Tavares scored the final goal to close out the first half, of course Dhane was involved with that one as well, giving the Bandits a 8-4 lead heading into halftime.
Coach Cordingley’s squad seemed to have the Wings right where they wanted them, scoring almost on demand by exposing the Wings backside. With two halves to go, Philadelphia would not go down without a fight, right, Chip?
The third quarter belonged to Philadelphia. Ryan Benesch scored first to keep the Wings at bay and put the Bandits up 9-4. Jordan Hall wasn’t having any of it and found Saunders who brought the Wings to within four. Once again, Dhane Smith was part of another Bandits point, this time on the scoring end to put his hat trick in the books. Dhane would have nine points alone at the end of the third with three goals and six assists and finish with that as well. Ryan Ward put the pedal to the floor to record two goals himself and make the score 10-7 in favor of Buffalo to end the third.
It was not until six minutes into the fourth that the first goal was scored. John Ranagan, the big man out of Johns Hopkins recorded his first NLL goal of his young career. With Ward’s two goals at the end of the third, Ranagan’s breakaway goal helped turn the tides. Ward picked up another goal with Buchanan and Jordan Hall on the assisting end. Mr. Tavares would put the 11th goal in just 11 seconds after Ward’s hat-trick was complete. Kelusky brought the Wings within one after Ross found him crashing towards the net, literally, his helmet flew off. The tying goal couldn’t have been any more spectacular. Evan Kirk made a beautiful save, outletted it to a streaking Brodie Merrill and with him being a feeder, he found Ward busting in from the bench to the net and went air-borne to tie the game at 11. Kevin Ross went for the “Air Gait” move but was denied with a crease violation. Buffalo got possession with :40 seconds left in the fourth only to be denied.
Overtime is what makes sports great. Sudden death, nothing is more exciting. After a back and forth couple minutes, the Wings found themselves on defense. John Tavares, who is a killer when he plays the Wings as he has recorded more points against them than any other team in the NLL, found the back of the net off a feed from Joe Resetarits to make it 12-11 officially.
It was pandemonium all night. The Wings were up, Buffalo was up, by a lot, and the Wings stormed back to make it close. Helmets flew off, words were exchanged and goals were disputed and it all ended with an overtime. There could not have been a better way to entertain fans, but in Philly, it only matters if the home team comes out victorious.
Leading points for Buffalo was Dhane Smith with nine (3 G, 6 A) and for Philadelphia Kevin Crowley and Tracey Kelusky each had five. Kirk ended with 31 saves on 43 shots while Anthony Cosmo made 43 stops on 54 shots. Jay Thorimbert went 58 percent (14-25) for Buffalo at the face-off X. He took on CJ Costabile (10-22), Mike Manley (1-2) and Ryan Ward (0-1) who combined for 42 percent at the draw.
Jordan Hall needed three points to hit the milestone of 350 career regular season points and nabbed four assists to accomplish it. Kevin Ross was two points away from 250 regular season points and picked up two assists. Ross was also eight loose balls away from 300 and got exactly eight.
Buffalo has only one game next weekend when they travel to Colorado to duke it out with John Grant Jr. and his Mammoth on January 18. The Wings will have another double header weekend as the host Minnesota on January 18 and then turn around and book it out West to play the Swarm on their home turf.
