The Vancouver Warriors (4-9) travel to Philadelphia to take on the Wings (5-7) at Wells Fargo Center.
The Warriors have been building momentum on the offensive end of the floor over the last handful of games and will look to continue that against Philadelphia.
Warriors’ forward Keegan Bal said there’s always some growing pains when you’ve got a new coaching staff, new philosophy and different teammates and getting that chemistry together takes time. A leader for the forward group, Bal says the communication on the bench has improved each game as the season has progressed which has helped their play.
“As a forward group, we pride ourselves on working together as a unit, taking everyone’s opinions into account and trying to do what’s best for the team,” Bal said.
Vancouver showed their resiliency in their last game – a come-from-behind 13-12 win over the Las Vegas Desert Dogs. The game-winning goal was scored by Warriors’ forward Adam Charalambides with 27 seconds left on the clock.
Charalambides and Ryan Martel each had four goals in the win and Keegan Bal led the Warriors on a nine-point night with three goals and six assists. Reid Bowering and Brad McCulley each chipped in a goal in the win. Defender Tyrell Hamer-Jackson played his first game of the season against Las Vegas and was 66% from the faceoff circle going 19 for 29.
“As an offence we’re swinging the ball a lot better, it’s moving faster, and that’s what you want on offence, you don’t want it to be stagnant, stuck in the sticks and then I agree with Curt, going hard into the middle, just knowing that we’re going to take hits is important. In this sport you have to take hits to make plays and I think guys have really bought in and we’re just as excited for someone else to score as for ourselves and that’s how you become a successful offence in this league,” Bal shared.
Aden Walsh and Aaron Bold shared goaltending duties for the Warriors, Walsh turning aside 32 shots and Bold stopping five shots.
Charalambides leads Vancouver with 67 points, (28 goals, 39 assists) and the forward has also collected 62 loose balls. Bal has 62 points (25-37-62) and Martel has 46 (19-27-46) through 13 games.
The team will face former longtime Warriors’ forward Mitchell Jones, who played with Vancouver for four seasons.
Jones played for the Warriors for four years and will see a few familiar faces in this matchup. A Delta native, Jones played Salmonbellies summer ball with Bal who knows how dangerous of an offensive threat his WLA teammate is.
“I just hope we can shut him down because I know how good of a player he is,” Bal said.
Jones leads his team in points with 73 (20-53-73) through 12 games. Forward Joe Resetarits has 67 points, 25 goals and 42 assists, and Port Coquitlam’s Ben McIntosh has 20 goals and 30 assists.
Philadelphia is rolling right now coming off a 13-8 win over the Georgia Swarm and never trailed during the game. The Wings held the Swarm scoreless in the third quarter while scoring five goals of their own taking a 10-5 lead into the final quarter.
Jones had a nine-point outing, scoring four goals and adding five assists. Resetarits had eight points (2-6-8), McIntosh and forward Blaze Riorden each recorded two goals and three assists and forwards Holden Cattoni and Sam LeClair notched a goal each. Ddfender Scott Dominey found the back of the net once and picked up eight loose balls while goaltender Zach Higgins saved 44 of 52 shots he faced.
Both teams are battling down the stretch, this game is sure to have a playoff feel to it. In a testament to the Warriors’ tough defensive core, Vancouver leads Philadelphia in loose balls collected on the season 903 to 736 and turnovers caused 156 to 83. On the other side of the special teams coin the Wings lead on conversions on the power play 57% to 39% for the Warriors.
It’s an early game time if you’re on the West Coast with a 4 p.m. PT face off.
