Cattoni’s Overtime Heroics Lift Wings To Win in Saskatchewan

Holden Cattoni scored his fifth goal of the game 1:35 into overtime to lift the Philadelphia Wings to a 12-11 victory over the Saskatchewan Rush in Week 5 NLL action at SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon.  The win was Philadelphia’s third in a row, matching a franchise record and boosting them to a 3-1 record on the young NLL season headed into 2025.

The game was a back-and-forth affair that saw Saskatchewan first take an initial 2-0 lead, only to see the Wings roll past them and lead most of the contest until a 3-0 fourth-quarter run knotted the score, forcing the overtime.  \

The teams traded goals in the first quarter for a 3-3 contest after the initial 15 minutes. After Saskatchewan opened the second-quarter scoring, the Wings then went on a 4-0 run that made the score 7-4 late in the period; after another swapped pair, the Wings led 8-5 at halftime.

The third quarter saw three goals apiece and the maintenance of Philadelphia’s three-goal halftime lead, as the score stood at 11-8 entering the fourth quarter. It was there that Saskatchewan showed the tenacity that had led them to a 3-0 start, as they held the Wings off the board and scored three of their own to knot the game at 11-11 at the end of regulation.

That set the stage for Cattoni’s heroics, which came off setups from Joe Resetarits and Sam LeClair.  Cattoni scored his five goals on seven shots, and he added an assist to figure in half of the Wings’ goals on the evening.

Brendan O’Neill scored twice in the first half, both of which came at opportune times to disqualify Rush momentum, and he added six assists for an eight-point night. Jones had the primary assist on all four of the goals in Philadelphia’s second-quarter 4-0 run as part of a nine-point night ( 2G, 7A). Cattoni added an assist to his goals for a six-point game, and Joe Resetarits had a goal and four assists.  Phil Caputo and Blaze Riorden chipped in one timely goal apiece, and Sam LeClair finished with two assists.

Nick Damude stood tall in net with 47 saves on 58 Saskatchewan shots, including stops on the only two bids he saw in overtime.  Scott Dominey continued to lead the way in loose ball pickups with 11 on the night.

Cattoni’s five goals tied a career high set several times before, with his last five-goal game coming on January 11, 2020 for Rochester at Toronto.

The win was Philadelphia’s third in a row, matching a three-game win streak from Dec. 28,

2019 – Jan. 10, 2020 as the longest in the franchise’s history.  After a week off, they will try to stretch it to four games on Saturday, January 11 when they host Calgary at 1:00 in the team’s annual Bark in the Bowl game at Wells Fargo Center.  Tickets for that and all remaining Wings home games are available at WingsLAX.com.