TONIGHT’S GAME
The Philadelphia Wings look for their third win in a row as they host the Saskatchewan Rush in their 11th game of the season. The Wings are 7-3 on the year and are in first place in the East Division after sweeping a back-to-back set last weekend in Buffalo and New England. Although much of the rest of the league has played fewer games, the Wings became the first team to reach seven wins on the season. This is the only home game in the month of February for the Wings; they’ll be on the road next week in Colorado before coming back home on March 7 for their final showdown of the season with New England.
LAST WEEK
Saturday, February 15, 2020 – Wings 7, Buffalo 6 at KeyBank Arena: The Buffalo Bandits were the league’s highest-scoring team entering the weekend, but goaltender Zach Higgins and the Wings defense kept Buffalo off the board for more than 26 minutes in the middle of the contest en route to a 7-6 win. The Wings allowed just one goal in each of the first three quarters, while Buffalo’s Josh Byrne, who was second in the NLL with 23 goals entering the contest and took 19 shots in the game, was kept off the scoreboard until he scored his only tally with 1:36 left in the game. Kevin Crowley (1G, 2A) and Brett Hickey (2G, 1A) led the Wings with three points each, while Crowley also had 13 shots on goal. Stef Charbonneau grabbed 10 loose balls, and Trevor Baptiste won 14 of the game’s 17 faceoffs. Higgins, who played for Buffalo last season, made 38 saves on 44 Buffalo shots to earn the win. Matt Vinc took the loss with the same amount of saves on 45 Philly bids.
Sunday, February 16, 2020 – Wings 14, New England 11 at Mohegan Sun Arena: The Wings sprinted out to a 6-1 lead and withstood a New England comeback to pull out a 14-11 win. Matt Rambo scored a career-high six goals to set the foundation
for the Wings, who won their second game in as many days to move into sole possession of first place in the National Lacrosse League’s East Division. Rambo had an assist along with his six goals for a seven-point game, while Brett Hickey (3G, 3A) and Kevin Crowley (1G, 5A) both had six-point games. Blaze Riorden had four assists, and Josh Currier finished with a goal and three assists. Trevor Baptiste won 20 of 29 faceoffs, and Zach Higgins earned the win with 50 saves while blanking New England for the first 19 minutes of the game.
WING TIPS
Tonight’s game is the only home game in the month of February for the Wings. They are back on the road next weekend to close out February with a visit to Colorado. From there, the Wings will play four of their final six games at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Wings are 7-3 through 10 games in their second NLL season. Last year at this time, the Wings were 2-8 en route to a final record of 4-14. The Wings have scored 112 goals, which is actually five fewer than last year at this time, but they have allowed 88, which is 46 fewer than they’d allowed through
10 games last year. They’ve also faced 14 fewer shorthanded situations than they had a year ago at this time.
