By Anthony Caruso
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/5/14
The Philadelphia Wings had their backs against the wall.
They knew they had to basically win out, or their hopes of making the playoffs were over. Since beginning the season with a 3-9 record, things had started to click for the Wings until Friday night’s 13-9 setback to the Calgary Roughriders at the Wells Fargo Center.
With a two-game win streak, the Wings were tied with the Toronto Rock with a 5-9 record heading into the weekend. Yet, now the Wings are a ½ game back, as the Rock can make it a full game tonight with a win over the Vancouver Stealth.
“I don’t know what the breakdown is, but next game is do or die for us,” said Wings forward Jordan Hall. “It’ll be an interesting game, and I hope we’ll be ready.”
Next Saturday the Wings play a critical game in Toronto. The last time that the Wings traveled to Toronto, Canada, and faced the Rock at the Air Canada Centre, the Wings did not show up. They were destroyed 20-10 on February 7th, 2014 in their worst loss of the season.
This season, the Wings are 2-3 against teams from Canada. They are 1-1 against the Rock this season.
The Wings allowed five Roughnecks goals in the fourth quarter to let Friday night’s game get out of hand. Dane Dobbie scored three of the five Roughnecks goals, as former Wings forward Geoff Snider and Jeff Shattler chipped in the other two goals.
“I think we match up well with him in a five-on-five situation,” said Wings head coach Blane Harrison. “But [Dobbie] is a crafty guy. If we don’t pick him up off the bench, he can still bring it to the net with a pretty good stick.”
The Wings could only muster a Tracey Kelusky goal in the fourth quarter.
In the third quarter, the Wings outscored the Roughnecks, as Pat Saunders scored a hat trick. CJ Costabile scored the other Wings goal, as the Wings lead 8-7 at the end of the third quarter.
With Saunders offensive outburst, the Wings were up 7-5. Then, Calgary scored back to back to make it 7-7 with goals by Curtis Dickson and Shawn Evans, before Costabile scored.
“It started to slip away in the third,” said Hall. “They had a bunch of short-handed goals, and power play goals, as our special teams need to be better.”
The Wings scored three goals in the second quarter, as Saunders, John Ranagan scored to open the quarter to make it 3-3. Then, Evans and Dobbie scored for the Roughnecks own back-to-back goals to go up 5-3, before Wings captain Brodie Merrill scored to go into halftime down 5-4.
“We were behind early in the game, and we made a big push,” said Hall. “Yet, we weren’t able to get the win.”
The Roughnecks jumped out to a 3-0 start, before Hall scored the Wings goal near the end of the first quarter.
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