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Lacrosse Spotlight:
Bandits Steal Wings' Winning Streak
Philadelphia Falls to Buffalo, 12-8

Saturday, February 17, 2007

By Jennifer Stefani
Philadelphia Wings Correspondent

PHILADELPHIA - The Wings ended a four-game winning streak with a 12-8 loss to the Buffalo Bandits Saturday at the Wachovia Center in front of 12,688 fans. Buffalo took the lead in the first minute of play and never looked back. Goalie Steve Dietrich led the Bandits with 49 saves. John Tavares recorded a hat trick for Buffalo. Kyle Wailes led the Wings with three goals and an assist.

"We started out slow, maybe feeling too good about ourselves from our previous wins," said Wings' General Manager and Head Coach Lindsay Sanderson. "Buffalo jumped on us and got ahead. They took care of business when they had too and we had a lot of missed opportunities."

Buffalo took early control of the game, scoring a goal by Kevin Dostie just 50 seconds into the first quarter. The Bandits were able to kill off an early Philadelphia power play, but the Wings capitalized on their second man advantage to tie the game at one on a Kyle Wailes goal. The goal was the Wings only tally of the quarter. John Tavares rounded out the scoring in the quarter to give Buffalo the lead once again. Delby Powless assisted on both Bandits goals.

Buffalo continued to dominate in the second quarter, shutting out the Wings. The Bandits added four goals to their lead. Teat started the offense with a power-play goal. Rich Kilgour continued the scoring and Tavares added his second score of the game. Kyle Couling finished the scoring to give Buffalo a 6-1 lead at halftime. Bandits' goalie Steve Dietrich stopped all 15 Philadelphia shots in the second quarter.

The second half started out slow, but Philadelphia eventually put the ball in the net at the 4:06 mark. The goal was exactly the same as the team's first of the game, scored by Wailes and assisted by Sean Greenhalgh and Dan Marohl on the power play. Buffalo answered with Cory Bomberry's first goal of the game. The Wings got back in the action with an Athan Iannucci tally, but the Bandits continued their attack with scores from Tavares and Delby Powless to take their biggest lead of the game (9-3). Jake Bergey netted another goal for the Wings, but Brendon Thenhaus got the goal right back for Buffalo. Philadelphia trailed 10-4 going into the final quarter.

The Wings started their comeback attempt with three goals at the start of the fourth quarter. Wailes completed the hat trick with a goal identical to his first two. Geoff Snider added a final goal for Philadelphia, but the Bandits took advantage of an empty net with goals by Kyle Laverty and Mark Steenhuis.

Kyle Wailes led the Wings in scoring with four points (3G,1A). Four other players scored goals for Philadelphia, including Athan Iannucci (2G,1A), Dan Marohl (1G,4A), Marc Morley (1G), and Jake Bergey (1G,1A). Goaltender Matt Roik made 23 saves.

John Tavares led the Bandits in scoring with six points (3G,3A). Nine other players scored for Buffalo, including Mark Steenhuis (1G,3A), Dan Teat (1G,1A), Rich Kilgour (1G,2A), Kyle Laverty (1G,1A), Brendon Thenhaus (1G,1A), Kyle Couling (1G,1A), Kevin Dostie (1G,3A), Cory Bomberry (1G,1A), and Delby Powless (1G,2A). Goaltender Steve Dietrich had 49 saves on the night.

NOTES: The National Lacrosse League inducted the class of 2007 into the Hall of Fame Friday, February 16 in Philadelphia. The inductees included Wings co-owner and former player, coach and general manager Mike French, the Wings' all-time leading scorer Tom "Hollywood" Marechek and Buffalo Bandits head coach and former player Darris Kilgour. The Hall also recognized lacrosse journalist Tom Borrelli, who has covered the Bandits and the league as a whole for the past 16 years...Philadelphia Wings' defenseman Ian Llord was named the NLL's Rookie of the Week for his performance in the Wings' 10-7 win over the Calgary Roughnecks last Saturday. Llord scored his first NLL goal in the contest, added one assist, and collected seven loose balls.


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