Blazers Edge Wings; Dawson Posts Six Points
by Patrick Gordon | NLL.com
Dan Dawson scored four goals to go along with two assists and
goaltender Anthony Cosmo recorded 38 saves to lead the Boston
Blazers over the Philadelphia Wings, 11-9, in front of 7,289 fans
at the TD Garden on Saturday.
Daryl Veltman cemented the Blazers' win with his goal late in the
fourth quarter. He finished with four goals and an assist in the
win.
"We have been making steady improvements over the past couple
games," said Blazers Head Coach Tom Ryan. "We started out 0-3 and
maybe that loss in Toronto was a good thing. We've been asking for
a big effort out of the guys and I think we got that tonight. Our
defense has played well for three weeks in a row and our offense
has scored when they needed to."
Dawson, the reigning NLL MVP, scored on all four of his shots on
net and picked up six loose balls.
"He's one of the more intelligent players I've ever been around,"
Ryan said. "He understands the game and how it works. You saw it
today, they have two or three guys around him and he still can get
a shot off. He's very difficult to cover with one or two guys and
he plays the floor really well."
Drew Westervelt, who entered the contest as the Wings' leading goal
scorer, finished with a goal and four assists. Mat Giles netted
three goals to go along with a pair of assists and Kyle Wailes
added a pair in the losing effort.
"I thought we probably played better offensively than our goals
indicated," said Wings Head Coach Dave Huntley. "Defensively I
think we gave them a lot of easy goals and we had some mental
breakdowns and they capitalized on it and the next thing you know
they get the win and we get the loss."
Kevin Huntley's goal with one second remaining in the second half
cut Boston's (2-3) lead to 7-5 and capped an entertaining quarter
that saw the teams combined for eight goals and 23 shots on
net.
Giles and Westervelt notched back-to-back goals within a 17-second
span late in the second quarter to bring Philadelphia (1-3) within
two before Brenden Thenhaus answered with a goal from the outside
to push the Blazers to a 7-4 lead.
Thenhaus finished with a goal and three assists to go along with
four loose balls.
Giles netted a power play goal early in the second quarter to bring
the Wings within one before Boston's Gary Binning netted a goal and
Dawson added a pair within a 22-second span to push the Blazers
lead to 6-2.
Brandon Miller stopped 30 of 41 shots in the losing effort.
Geoff Snider picked up an assist and won 12 faceoffs, but led the
Wings with 11 penalty-minutes and played a role in a third quarter
saddled with seven roughing penalties.
"We have played Philadelphia six times in two years, so when you
play against a team that many times you create a dislike for them,"
Dawson said. "There is a rivalry there, and the division is so
close this year so every game matters."
The loss knocked the Wings to fifth place in the Eastern
Division.
"We have to make other teams work as hard for the results as we're
working," Huntley said. "Right now we are doing a good job of
beating ourselves and teams in this league are good enough that
they don't need our help. That happened last week and it happened
again this week."
Both clubs will face off against divisional rivals next week as
Philadelphia visits Toronto and Boston entertains Rochester.
