by John Smallwood, Daily News Sports Writer
The Philadelphia Wings got exactly what they asked for. Now all they have to do is make sure it becomes what they wanted.
“We can’t wait,” said Wings veteran forward Scott Gabrielsen. “It’s come down to what everyone anticipated. It’s something we’ve been looking forward to all year. “
Tomorrow at the Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, the Wings get another opportunity to end two years of frustration as they again face the Buffalo Bandits for the Major Indoor Lacrosse League Championship (ESPN, 2:30 p.m.).
Losers to the Bandits in the last two MILL championship games, the American Division champion Wings (7-2) will try to avoid a three-peat while playing in a city infamous for missed championship opportunities.
“Basically the day after we lost the championship (April 11, 1993) to them last year, we made a pact that this year would be our year and we would not lose to them again,” said Gabrielsen, who ranks third on the Wings’ all-time list in games played with 50. “We don’t have a mental block against Buffalo. We feel we probably should have beaten them in the championship last year.We’ve got a great desire to win this game. We want to bring the championship back to Philadelphia.”
Until the Bandits (7-2) came along in 1992, the Wings were the toast of the MILL, having won the North American Cup in 1989 and 1990. As an expansion team, Buffalo beat Philadelphia, 11-10, in overtime at the Spectrum for the 1992 title, and followed that up with a 13-12 championship-game victory at the Aud last year.
“One-goal games are always hard to forget,” said Wings goalie Dallas Eliuk. “Last year, they kind of stole the game from us on a couple of bad calls. I think the attitude is we’re going to take them this time. I don’t think they’re the team they were last year, and we’re a little better. If we play the way we’re capable, we should beat them, regardless of their home- field advantage.”
The Wings have additional confidence after finally ending their winless streak (0-5) against Buffalo with a 16-12 victory at the Spectrum March 19.
“It was very important,” Gabrielsen said. “It was good for us to know and prove we could beat Buffalo. It was good because we always knew what we had to do to beat them, but we were able to execute it in the last game. Now we have to carry it over to the championship game.
“We don’t have to do anything extra special to beat this team. They’re very talented, but we just need to play solid all the way through.”
Led by 30-plus point scorers Paul Gait (37 goals, 16 assists, 53 points), Gary Gait (20-21-41), Tom Marechek (14-23-37), Kevin Finnerman (12-23-35) and Paul Deniken (14-20-34), the Wings topped the MILL in scoring with 15.9 goals a game.
The Bandits have league MVP and points-leader John Tavares (30-24-54), Jim Veltman (14-27-41) and Troy Cordingley (17-15-32).
The key to victory for the Wings will be to win the battle for loose balls and dictate the tempo. A few early goals also would negate the impact of the 16,284 fans expected to cram into the Aud.
“We don’t want them to get going,” said Finnerman, whose goal gave the Wings a short-lived 12-11 lead with 1 1/2 minutes left in last year’s championship game. “You have to take the crowd out of the game. As the visitor, you just tune the crowd out, but as the home team you can definitely feed off them. I’d like to get out to a good lead, because Buffalo is a tough team to come back against.
“If we’re up two or three goals early, we can relax and play our game. Then, unless a fluke happens, we’ll be OK. We don’t want to become the Buffalo Bills of indoor lacrosse.”
(Philadelphia Daily News, April 15, 1994)