The two oldest franchises in the NLL faced off Sunday afternoon at the Wells Fargo Center in a classic battle that had the Philadelphia Wings defeat the Colorado Mammoth 14-12 in front of 8,606.
After a hard fought 10-8 win in Rochester Saturday night, the Philadelphia Wings hopped on an early Sunday morning flight that took 1 hour to return home to prepare for the Mammoth. Saturday night the Wings ended a very long eleven game losing streak to the Knighthawks so odds were in favor of a let down on Sunday afternoon. But that wasn’t to be.
After falling behind 5-3 after the first quarter, the Wings outscored the Mammoth 6-2 in the second, and also chased starting goaltender Matt Roik from the game 9 minutes into the same quarter. During the pre-game warmup, face-off specialist Jeff Reynolds rolled his ankle and was a late minute scratch, putting the team down a player before the opening whistle. Later in the third quarter defender Brett Manney went down with a slight hamstring pull. Everyone on the Wings roster stepped up in this game/weekend.
Vs Colorado………………vs Rochester
Paul Rabil 3G/1A…………………….1A
Kevin Ross 3G/4A
Kevin Buchanan 1G/5A…………………..2G/2A
Drew Westervelt 4G/1A…………………..2G/2A
Kevin Crowley 2G/4A…………………..2G/3A
Brodie Merrill 1G/2A…………………..2G/1A
Brandon Miller 80.80% Save Percentage
For Colorado, Sean Pollock (3G/3A), Adam Jones (4G/3A), John Grant Jr. (3G/2A) and Gavin Prout (1G/6A) set the pace for Colorado. But again the downfall was the goaltending. Colorado needs to get this area on solid ground. Starting goalie Matt Roik allowed 8 goals on 22 shots (63.6% SV) in 24 minutes of play, and backup Dan Lewis allowed 6 goals on 25 shots (76% SV) in 36 minutes to garner the loss. The Mammoth better get a solution quick as they play 3 games in seven days. The next three games could determine the Mammoths season..
Sat March 2nd vs Rochester…..Friday March 8th @ Toronto….Sat March 9th @ Buffalo
For the Wings, they are now only 1.5 games out of first, again above the .500 mark at 4-3. They now will travel to Buffalo for the final regular season meeting against the Bandits Friday night at 7:30. Season series tied at a game apiece, so the winner of this game will hold the tie-breaker should it come down to it. Wings return home March 9th for an 8pm Saturday night game as Athan Iannucci returns with the Washington Stealth.
Kyle Sweeney made his return home to the Wells Fargo Center, and in a post game interview, Kyle said, “Its great to be back home, in front of the best fans in the game” “I always wanted to play for the Wings when I was growing up, and my dream came true. I’m glad to be back”
