Wings Exterminate the Swarm in Georgia

The Philadelphia Wings used a 5-0 fourth-quarter run to overtake the Georgia Swarm and held on for a 13-12 road win Saturday night, picking up their first victory of the season. Ben McIntosh, Joe Resetarits and Blaze Riorden all had hat tricks, with McIntosh posting a seven-point night and Resetarits and Riorden chipping in five points each to lead the charge.

The Wings led 2-1 when the game was less than five minutes old on goals by Riorden and Sam LeClair, but Georgia sprinted out from there and took a 6-4 lead at the end of the first quarter. A very defensive second period yielded just one goal to each side, and the Wings trailed 7-5 at halftime. Ben McIntosh had two of the first five tallies to help keep the Wings close.

The teams traded goals during the third quarter, with Riorden and Resetarits contributing for Philadelphia, but the Swarm picked up one additional marker to expand their lead to 10-7 at the quarter break.

The Wings were able to take over from there, including taking full advantage of two power plays during the final frame. Resetarits started off the scoring just under five minutes in, and then McIntosh and Cory Vitarelli scored power play goals 35 seconds apart to pull the Wings even at 10-10. Nineteen seconds later, Resetarits gave the Wings their first lead since the first quarter and that was followed up by Riorden’s third with 6:18 to play. The entire 5-0 run turned the game on its heels in about 5 ½ minutes.

Georgia was able to cut the lead to one with just over three minutes remaining, but Hunter Lemieux scored the eventual game-winner with 2:29 to play; that restored a two-goal lead that the Wings needed to survive the second goal of the night from Lyle Thompson that came in the final minutes.

Zach Higgins rebounded from the Week 1 loss with 38 saves on 50 Georgia shots, manning the crease for all 60 minutes. Philadelphia fired a total of 44 shots on the Swarm net, mostly at Craig Wende, who played the majority of the game except for a brief spell where the Wings got one past backup Brett Dobson. Trevor Baptiste put the Wings in great starting position time and time again, as the team won 22 faceoffs with Baptiste collecting 15 loose balls.

Philadelphia is now off through the holiday break, with their next action coming on January 6 when they visit the new Las Vegas Desert Dogs.  They’ll open the home portion of the season on January 14 against Panther City.

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