Wings Open Season with Road Win Against New York

FINAL: WINGS 13, RIPTIDE 9 

The new season started brilliantly for the Philadelphia Wings on Saturday night, as they sprinted out to a 5-0 lead over the New York Riptide and held on for a 13-10 victory in the season-opening contest for both teams. Several members of the Wings’ offense picked up right where they left off last season, with new captain Blaze Riorden scoring four goals to lead the way while Mitch Jones added two goals and contributed six assists for an eight-point game, his 11^th game of six points or more as a Wing in 13 games with the club. Joe Resetarits assisted on five of the goals, while Holden Cattoni picked up a pair in his first game with the Wings.

On the defensive side, Zach Higgins was the team’s player of the game with 48 saves on 58 Riptide opportunities. Mike McCannell had a pair of points in his Wings debut, and Scott Dominey picked up five loose balls in his. Mitch Armstrong and Jackson Ganton made their NLL debuts on the back end.

The Wings picked up two power play goals in the first quarter as part of a 3-0 opening period, with Cattoni, Riorden and Ben McIntosh all finding the back of the net; Jones assisted on all three tallies. Sam LeClair scored an early transition goal in the second quarter and Jones made it 5-0 a few minutes later before the Riptide got on the board with two quick tallies. That was part of a 5-1 run for New York over the rest of the second quarter that drew them within 6-5 at halftime.

Riorden gave Philadelphia a much-needed boost at the start of the second half with two goals in the first 3 ½ minutes, which completed his hat trick and pushed the lead back out to 8-5. The teams essentially traded goals from that point on – Alex Pace and McCannell each contributed goals during the stretch, along with tallies from Riorden, McIntosh and Jones.

The Wings are back in action next Saturday when they head north of the border to visit the Toronto Rock. The home opener is less than two weeks away, on Saturday, December 16 against the Albany FireWolves. Tickets are available now at WingsLAX.com.

A look at the numbers:

Mitch Jones: 8 Points (2G, 6A)

Joe Resetarits: 5 Assists

Blaze Riorden: 4 Goals

Ben McIntosh: 4 Points (2G, 2A)

Sam LeClair: 1 Goal, 2 Assists

Holden Cattoni: 2 Goals

Alex Pace: 1 Goal, 1 Assist

Mike McCannell: 1 Goal, 1 Assist

Zach Higgins: 49 Saves, 1 Assists, W