By Tim Panaccio, Inquirer Staff Writer
Two defensive lapses, including one at the start of the final quarter, cost the Philadelphia Wings first place and a home playoff advantage last night as the New York Saints defeated them, 8-5, in their Major Indoor Lacrosse League regular-season finale before a sellout crowd of 17,177 at the Spectrum.
The Wings (6-2) will play New York (4-4) again in a semifinal playoff game at the Spectrum on April 7. If the Wings win, they will visit the New England Blazers (6-2) to defend their MILL title in the championship game April 13.
“We have to play New York again, and I’m hoping like hell we’ll get to go to New England, which I wasn’t really looking forward to, until now,” said Wings coach Dave Evans.
New York scored two goals in the first 31 seconds of the final quarter to ice the game.
Jeff Nicklas got the first goal off Wings goalie Kevin Bilger at 18 seconds, and 13 seconds later, Matt Crowley beat Bilger with a 40-footer to make the score 7-5.
“We gave up a couple of bad goals, far out, but Kevin did keep us in the game,” said Evans. “We have some things to work on. If it were just shooting, it wouldn’t be difficult. One of them is that every time Bilger made a save tonight, our guys turned around and looked at the ball and just stood there.”
New York scored an open goal in the final minute.
Although the Wings and New England finished with identical records, the Blazers have been awarded first place, based on last week’s 14-11 win at the Centrum in Worcester, Mass.
Earlier in last night’s game, the Saints scored three quick goals when the Wings fell asleep midway through the second quarter.
New York pulled starting goalie Vinne Pfeifer for the start of the second half, and his replacement, Sal Locasio, was rocked for three goals as the Wings, trailing by 4-2, tied the game at 5-5 going into the fourth quarter.
The key goal in the third quarter came on Andy Wilson’s backhander with Bob Cummings and Scott Huff all over him in the slot.
That score tied the game at 4-4 and set the tone as the Wings controlled offensive play the rest of the third quarter.
That’s where their momentum ended.
New York dominated the first half in both scoring opportunities and checking as the Wings seemed to be looking over their shoulders every time they had the ball.
Not that either team did much with the ball, anyway. Three goals in 3 minutes, 30 seconds enabled the Saints to break a 1-1 tie and pull ahead by 4-1 in the second quarter.
Two of those goals came five seconds apart as David McCulloch buried a crossing pass past Bilger at 9:02 for a 3-1 New York lead.
Five seconds later, John Driscoll scored on a breakaway. The 4-1 deficit was the largest the Wings have faced at home this season.
Chris Flynn’s end-to-end break and subsequent bounce shot past Pfeifer made the score 4-2 at 10:33.
Tony Resch scored the other Wings’ goal in the first quarter off an illegal running pick by John Tucker.
(Philadelphia Inquirer, March 25, 1990)