Dave Holusha
Outsider's Guide Game Correspondent
The New York Saints defeated the defending champion Philadelphia Wings, 21-18, in front of over 6,200 raucous fans at the Nassau Coliseum on Saturday night. Eight goals in the final period sealed the deal for the Saints, as they rallied from a four goal half-time deficit.
Led by rookie sensation and Game MVP Gavin Prout (four goals, two assists), the Saints battled back time and again, ultimately knotting the game by the end of the third stanza. Philadelphia received strong contributions from forwards Jeff Ratcliffe (five goals), Tom Marachek (eight points) and Jake Bergey (seven points).
New York actually started off quickly as Roy ("The Pocket Rocket") Colsey found the back of the net just under a minute and a half into the game. Two minutes later Colsey struck again, as he ripped a sharp angle shot through Philadelphia netminder Dallas Eliuk’s five-hole. The Wings would answer back when Marachek blasted a good hard shot that goaltender Gee Nash got a piece of, but allowed to dribble into the net. The Saints' Tom Naglieri found the scoresheet when he completed a beautiful tic-tac-toe play from Josh Black and John Rosa, giving the Saints an early 3-1 lead.
The physical play picked up considerably at this point as Prout and the Wings' Tom Ryan were spotted jousting continually in front of the Philadelphia net. A combination of New York’s undisciplined play and somewhat overzealous refereeing would contribute to Philly ripping off the next three goals, with tallies from Mark Millon, Marachek and Bergey, to close the period up by a goal.
New York began the second period much like the first, this time with Prout scoring a minute and a half in. Dallas Eliuk made three sensational saves in rapid-fire succession on shots by Colsey, before Prout finally gained possession and blasted it in from dead center. Then Jonas Derks would score two quick goals in a twenty second span, from nearly the exact same spot -- just to the right of Eliuk. Ratcliffe brought the Wings back with an impressive overhand "swinging an axe" shot at even strength, before the Saints' parade to the penalty box afforded Philadelphia three consecutive power play goals. New York pulled one back on a man-up goal by Derks, before Philly would close out the half with three more goals and a commanding 11-7 lead.
Under a minute into the second half, Rocket Roy cashed in on the man advantage for his third goal of the night. Bergey answered that back for the Wings, as he executed an impressive bull run to the net, with Saints defender-extraordinaire Brian ("Nails") Spallina draped all over him. However, the Saints, responding to the inspired play of Prout, elevated their game to the next level and ran off the next four consecutive goals. Tallies by Rusty Kruger, Prout, Derks and Brad Dairon pulled the teams level, before Millon John Rosa traded goals (the latter with Nash pulled and 1.5 seconds on the clock) to end the third period all even, 11-11.
Colsey opened the last period by scoring his fourth and final goal of the night, as he caught the Wings' Tom Phair woefully out of position, to give the Saints the lead they would not relinquish. Phair, clearly upset by the defensive gaffe, attempted to take out his frustration by taking liberties with the Saints' Joe Ghedina and then challenging him to a fight. A full-on scrum broke out behind the Philadelphia goal with Saints tough guys Naglieri, Spallina and Ghedina throwing down, with obvious culprits Phair, Tom Ryan and Peter Jacobs in the mix for Philly. Phair was sent packing with a game misconduct.
The Saints ripped off the next three goals with a marker from Dairon and two from Kruger -- the latter two coming on five-on-three and five-on-four advantages. Marachek added a power play goal for the Wings when Naglieri was sent off for two minutes. But man-of-the-match Gavin Prout took his game to yet another level by scoring on an unbelievable individual effort. Philly would not quit, however, and scored two successive goals by Bergey and Kevin Finneran to close within two.
With just under six minutes to play and the game still up for grabs, Mark Frye slipped behind a pressing Wings side and broke in all alone on Eliuk, blasting over the Philadelphia netminder’s shoulder to put the Saints back up by three. Twenty seconds later, Rusty Kruger fired a pass to Jonas Derks, who made no mistake about it and re-established New York’s dominance. But the Wings would close the gap one more time when Ratcliffe scored twice, the first one in from the right side of Nash, after a quick restart, and again, after pulling their goaltender for an extra attacker and capitalizing with one second left on the shot clock.
But the Saints did not panic, and head coach Sal LoCascio wisely used his final timeout to refocus his side. As play resumed, Prout gained possession and rushed the Philadelphia zone down the right. Using Spallina as a decoy on the left side, he hit the empty net with 35 seconds remaining, sending the hometown crowd into a frenzy celebrating the 21-18 victory.
The second half of the home-and-home series will be played this Friday, as the teams meet again at the First Union Center in Philadelphia.