A familiar face returned to the CoreStates Center tonight, but he was anything but welcome. Instead, Gary Gait, who orchestrated a trade from the Philadelphia Wings in December, and the Baltimore Thunder were booed, heckled and disrespected as Philadelphia defeated the Thunder 16-12 in the first game of the best-of-three series to decide the league championship.

Philadelphia opened the scoring on a Greg Traynor goal, but the Thunder retaliated with two goals from Gait and one from Matt Shearer en route to an early 4-1 lead. After cutting the lead to 4-3 at the end of the first period, Philadelphia allowed Bob Martino put the Thunder back up by two to begin the second. The Wings then answered with consecutive goals from Bill Miller, Tom Marechek, Michael Busza, and Steve Govett as the Wings took a 9-8 lead into intermission.

After Gait's hot start, in which Philadelphia's all-time leading scorer scored on two of his first six shots, the 1998 MVP was shut down by the tenacious defense of the Wings. Gait, who averaged almost five goals per game coming into the contest, was limited to only three goals on sixteen shots and could register an assist on only three other goals.

"We sent a fresh guy to cover Gait throughtout the game and by the end of the game he started to get very frustrated," said retiring Philadelphia captain Scott Gabrielson. "We wore him down."

The result of the game could have been much different, if not for the play of Wings goaltender Dallas Eliuk. "Dallas was the difference," Gait conceded. "We should have had five or six more [goals], but he was unbelievable."

Eliuk stopped 34 of the 45 shots he faced, one Baltimore goal coming when he was serving a slashing minor in the third period. "I was sick and tired of players taking liberties in my crease so I gave them what they had coming," Eliuk said of the foul that sent him to the penalty box for two minutes and backup Andy Piazza into the game.

"I'd do it again."

Eliuk's defining moment came in the third quarter, when he stopped a half-dozen shots with magnificiant, acrobatic, crowd-arousing saves. The sequence ended with Matt Oglesby scooping up the loose ball and scoring on a fast break, to give Philadelphia a 12-8 heading into the final quarter.

"That was the killer right there," said Eliuk. "That we were able to come back and score off a big defensive effort was really gratifying."

In addition to three-goal, two-assist contributions from Oglesby and Miller, the usual offensive suspects for Philly made impacts. Kevin Finneran was the team's high scorer, with a hat trick and four assists, while Traynor and Marechek each scored two goals.

Game two in the best-of-three series is scheduled for Tuesday evening at 7:00, at Baltimore Arena.