Philadelphia Huge over Mammoth, Wings Defeat Colorado, 15-12

Friday, March 18, 2005

By Jennifer Stefani
Philadelphia Wings Correspondent

Eight different players scored for the Wings (6-6) as they defeated Colorado, 15-12, Friday at the Wachovia Center in front of 11,742 fans. Jeff Ratcliffe led the offense with four goals and three assists. Goalie Dallas Eliuk earned the win with 31 saves. Former Wings’ MVP Gary Gait returned to Philadelphia for his final game. He will be retiring at the end of the season. He had one goal and two assists. Gavin Prout led the Mammoth with five goals and two assists.

“We are a team that if we don’t have everyone play, we’re very ordinary,” said Wings’ new head coach Lindsay Sanderson. “When everyone is playing hard we’re a good lacrosse team and that’s what we need to bring to the table every night. We addressed stuff in the locker room and came out fired up in the second half. It was a real strong win for us. ”

The two teams went scoreless for nearly 10 minutes at the start of the game. Mammoth goalie Gee Nash made several early saves, while Philadelphia goalie Dallas Eliuk stopped former Wings’ start Gary Gait. Colorado finally put the ball in the net on a shot by Brad Self. Philadelphia evened the score on the power play with under two minutes left on the quarter as Marc Morley converted on a pass from Dan Marohl.

The second quarter also started slowly, but quick picked up with four goals in just over a minute. Jeff Ratcliffe started the scoring for Philadelphia and Andrew Burkholder added another goal to give Philadelphia a 3-1 lead. Brian Langtry and Gavin Prout answered for Colorado to tie the game at three. The two teams traded goals by the Wings’ Dan Marohl and Mammoth’s Prout. Colorado rounded out the scoring in the half with a goal by Gait.

Philadelphia scored two goals in nine seconds to open the second half. Ratcliffe netted his second goal and Keevin Galbraith added his first to give the Wings a one-goal lead. Jake Bergey increased Philadelphia’s lead, but the Mammoth fought back with three straight goals (Dan Stroup, Prout, Jay Jalbert). The Wings’ gained control of the game once again as Ratcliffe completed the hat trick, Bergey got his second tally, and Dan Finck scored his first. Philadelphia took a 11-8 lead into the fourth quarter.

Finck started the final quarter with his second goal, but the Mammoth took over scoring three unanswered goals. Prout notched his fourth, while Josh Sims scored the next two to pull Colorado within one. Eliuk was replaced by Nick Schroeder after the second goal by Sims. The new goalie quickly helped out, making a save and then assisting on a goal by Tom Marechek. After the goal, Eliuk return to the game. Prout quickly netted his fifth goal, but Ratcliffe struck with Philadelphia with his fourth to give the Wings a two-goal cushion. Finck completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal in the final seconds of the game.

Jeff Ratcliffe led the Wings in scoring with seven points (4G,3A). Seven other players scored goals for Philadelphia, including Keevin Galbraith (1G), Dan Marohl (2G,1A), Andrew Burkholder (1G,1A), Jake Bergey (2G,2A), Tom Marechek (1G,5A), Dan Finck (3G), and Marc Morley (1G,2A).

Gavin Prout led the Mammoth in scoring with seven points (5G,2A). Six other players scored for Colorado including Brian Langtry (1G), Jay Jalbert (1G,2A), Gary Gait (1G,2A), Brad Self (1G), Josh Sims (2G), and Dan Stroup (1G).

NOTES: The game was Mammoth forward Gary Gait’s last regular season game in Philadelphia. Gait, a 14-year NLL veteran, has announced his retirement for the end of the 2005 season. The six-time league MVP played five season in Philadelphia and won two World Championships with the club…Individual game tickets for the Wings indoor lacrosse are $10, $20, $27 and $29in advance ($10, $22, $29 and $31 on game day) and on-sale now at the Wachovia Center Box Office and all Ticketmaster outlets. Get your boarding passes now and take flight with Wings season tickets starting as low as $80 and are available by calling 215-389-WING (9464).