The Philadelphia Wings completed a sweep of their weekend series in thrilling fashion Monday night, holding off the Toronto Rock 11-10 to move to 5-5 on the season. Zach Higgins made a career-high 55 saves to anchor the victory, which was Philadelphia’s first over the Rock in seven tries since re-joining the NLL in 2018.
Matt Rambo and Blaze Riorden provided first-quarter goals to give the Wings an early 2-0 lead and they never trailed from there, although Toronto tied the game up on multiple occasions. It was 4-4 just over seven minutes into the second quarter after Dan Craig tied it up for the Rock, but the Wings scored the game’s next four goals and ended up in the locker room with a 7-4 lead at the break.
A stingy third quarter saw only one goal per side, and it was 8-5 when Kiel Matisz scored a highlight-reel behind-the-back goal 1:11 into the fourth quarter to give the Wings a 9-5 lead. They needed every bit of that cushion, as the Rock charged back with the next four to tie things at 9-9 with less than five minutes to play.
Philadelphia was able to re-establish the lead for good when Riorden snuck one through with 3:05 to play, and Ben McIntosh finished off a hat trick with an all-important insurance goal less than a minute later. That stood up as the game-winner when Tom Schreiber scored with 51 seconds left.
Joe Resetarits (1G, 6A) and Mitch Jones (2G, 5A) led the Wings with seven points apiece, while McIntosh added two assists to his hat trick for a five-point game. Trevor Baptiste also scored while going 16 for 25 on faceoffs and grabbing nine loose balls. Chad Tutton had 10 loose ball pickups and forced three turnovers on the evening.
The Wings continue their busy month of March on Saturday night the 11th when they visit the New York Riptide. They are back home on Saturday, March 18 for Bark in the Bowl at 11 AM when they host the Georgia Swarm.
