Last weekend the Wings were victorious over the Rochester Knighthawks in an intensely emotional 15-14 win at the Wachovia Center. Scoring contributions were made by Athan Iannucci (5G, 3A), Jake Bergey (4G, 3A), Merrick Thomson (3G, 3A), Jamie Rooney (2G, 3A), and Kyle Sweeney (1G). A large part of the Wings’ success over the Knighthawks came from the efforts of veteran goaltender Rob Blasdell who recorded 37 saves.

When asked about Blasdell, Head Coach Dave Huntley commented, “Blazer [Blasdell] is solid and stable, and given the new faces on the team, particularly a lot of young faces that we have, it’s terrific that we were able to get a guy of that caliber.”

Another player whose experience will help lead the young squad this weekend as they host the Buffalo Bandits is Jason Crosbie, who was with the Bandits from 2003 to 2005.

“He’s been a great coach and mentor to some of our younger guys, in particular to Merrick Thomson and Dave Mitchell on the left side, but also Jamie Rooney on the offensive side,” commented Huntley on Crosbie’s contributions to the Wings.

The upcoming game against the Bandits will prove to be a challenge as the Wings hope to improve to 3-0 on the season. Games between the Wings and their division rivals in recent years have been close and decided by only a few goals, but the Wings are focused on the game at hand.

“We’re aware of what has happened in the past, and it’s great rivalry between Philadelphia and Buffalo, but I think that with this group the only thing that matters is the game ahead,” stated Huntley. “What happened two years ago or even 22 years ago doesn’t make a whole lot of difference to them – their minds’ are in the right place on that. It’s an important game because it’s against a divisional team; a great team with one of the all time great players in our sport.”

The Buffalo Bandits are currently 2-1, with their most recent win over New York last weekend. Buffalo’s leading scorers include John Tavaras, who recently became the NLL’s all-time leading goal scorer with his 597^th career goal in his last game, and Mark Steenhuis, who added 17 points (8G, 9A) against New York. Buffalo Goaltender, Mike Thompson, currently has 72.6% save percentage and is expected to start in goal for the Bandits on Saturday.

NOTES: The Philadelphia Wings’ Merrick Thomson was named the NLL’s Rookie of the Week. He has recorded 12 points (7G, 5A) in his two professional career games, leading all rookies in the NLL. The Buffalo Bandits’ John Tavares recently captured the NLL all-time career goal record with his 597^th goal. He as also named the NLL’s Overall Player and Offensive Player of the Week in his performance against the New York Titans last Saturday.