Philadelphia Sneaks Past Stealth, Wings Defeat San Jose, 14-13

Saturday, February 5, 2005

By Jennifer Stefani
Philadelphia Wings Correspondent

The Wings broke a three-game losing streak with a 14-13 win against the San Jose Stealth Saturday at the Wachovia Center in front of 10,025 fans. It was the Wings first home victory this season. Jeff Ratcliffe and Tom Marechek led the scoring with three goals each. Dan Marohl added two goals and five assists and goalie Dallas Eliuk made 42 saves. The Wings face the Rochester Knighthawks in their next game on Saturday, February 12 at Blue Cross Arena.

“That’s what hard work does for you,” said Wings’ coach Lindsay Sanderson. “We played real well in the first three or four games, but we just stopped working hard. Our energy tonight was awesome and there was a lot of great leadership from the guys. It was a full-team effort.”

Jeff Spano opened the scoring in the first quarter after a scrum between the two teams. Philadelphia’s Andrew Guindon and San Jose’s Luke Gilbert ended up in the penalty box, with Guindon getting two extra minutes for an illegal cross-check. The Wings special teams came through with Spano’s short-handed goal. Brad Dairon tied the score at one with a power-play goal, but Philadelphia added their own goal on the man-advantage complements of Ryan Ward. Steve Toll rounded out the scoring in the quarter to tie the game at two with just 10 seconds left on the clock.

Jeff Ratcliffe gave the Wings the lead at the start of the second quarter with a diving shot. Curt Malawsky and Kevin Fines answered for the Stealth to give San Jose the lead for the first time. The lead lasted less than a minute when Andrew Burkholder tallied for Philadelphia, but Fines added another goal to give San Jose the 5-4 lead. A key point in the quarter came when the Wings were able to kill of two minutes down two players. Following the important penalty kill, the team took control of the game, scoring five unanswered goals, including two on the power play. Dan Marohl and Tom Marechek each contributed with two goals and Keith Cromwell added the other goal. The Wings led, 9-5, going into the locker rooms.

The Stealth cut the Wings’ lead in half with two quick goals to start the second quarter (Luke Gilbert, Cam Sedgewick). Philadelphia scored its only goal of the quarter five minutes later, with Ward’s second of the night. Gary Rosyski capitalized on a late power play to pull the Stealth within two going into the final quarter.

The Wings took a four-goal lead with scores from Ratcliffe and Cromwell at the start of the final quarter. Cromwell’s goal, his second of the game, came on the power play. Curt Malawsky answered with his second of the game, also on the man advantage. Matt Ogelsby added another San Jose goal to make it a two-goal game. The two teams traded goals with two by Rosyski and one each from Ratcliffe and Marechek. Fines completed the hat trick with the goalie pulled for an extra attacked to bring San Jose within one with 47 seconds left in regulation. Peter Jacobs blocked a shot and goalie Dallas Eliuk made a save in the last 10 seconds of play to give the Wings the victory.

Dan Marohl Ratcliffe led the Wings in scoring with seven points (2G,5A). Six other players scored goals for Philadelphia, including Keith Cromwell (2G,3), Andrew Burkholder(1G,1A), Tom Marechek (3G,1A), Ryan Ward (2G,1A), Jeff Spano (1G,2A) and Jeff Ratcliffe (3G,3A).

Gary Rosyski led the Stealth in scoring with six points (3G,3A). Seven other players scored for New San Jose including Curt Malawsky (2G, 5A), Steve Toll (1G), Kevin Fines (3G), Matt Ogelsby (1G,1A), Brad Dairon (1G), Luke Gilbert (1G) and Cam Sedgewick (2G,3A).