Lukas Nielsen’s hat trick led an offensive effort that featured eight different goal scorers and Nick Damude stopped 41 of the 51 shots he faced as the Wings took a 12-9 victory over the Toronto Rock at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
After Toronto scored two o fthe game’s first three goals in the opening 10 minutes, the Wings picked up the next three tallies of the contest and never trailed after that. Dalton Young’s second goal of the game with just over a minute left in the second quarter gave the Wings a 5-4 halftime lead.
Upon the start of the third quarter, the Wings picked up two huge defenseman goals from Alex Pace 1:42 in and then Ryan Wagner, in a shorthanded situation, at the 3:02 mark. That gave Philadelphia a 7-4 lead, and although Toronto was able to close the gap to a goal later in the third, the Rock never got any closer than that. Nielsen scored two in a row late in the third and then completed his hat trick early in the fourth to help catapult the club to the win.
Brennan O’Neill led the Wings in scoring on the day with two goals and five assists for seven points; six other Wings had three point games, including Nielsen’s hat trick and Dalton Young bagging two goals and an assist. Travis Longboat and Sam LeClair each had a goal and two assists, while Kyle Jackson and Landen Sinfield had three assists apiece. Ron John added a late empty-netter for his first goal as a Wing, and Alex Pace also scored in his 100th career game – one where he also had 11 loose ball pickups, which included the 500th of his career.
Bo Columbus went 13-for-24 in the faceoff circle against former Wing Nick Rowlett and added eight loose balls. Young added 10 loose balls along with nine shots on goal.
The win was the Wings’ 4th on the season and second at home. They’ll have next week off before concluding their home slate on April 11th against Mitch Jones and the Las Vegas Desert Dogs, and then will wrap up the season in Vancouver on April 18.
