In a hotly contested matinee, the Philadelphia Wings defeated the New York Saints, 15-14, Saturday afternoon in front of 12,863 fans at the First Union Center.

Evidently, Jeff Ratcliffe ate his Wheaties on Saturday morning, as he took control of the sputtering Philly offense near the end of a horrendous first period and carried the Wings to victory with an eight-goal, three-assist performance which included three power play goals.

"Jeff played great," Wings coach Adam Mueller said. "He's been in a little bit of a slump, but he was still getting the loose balls and doing things to draw attention and let the other guys do stuff . He's a guy that is going to do a lot of things for us."

The game began on the wrong foot for Philadelphia, with the Saints' Gavin Prout and Matt Shearer each finding rope in the first 1:15 of play, quieting the smaller-than-usual crowd considerably.

Keith Cromwell scored to put the Wings on the board, but New York increased its lead to 4-1 with a Chris Panos power play goal and Shearer's second goal of the game. Somewhere around this point, Ratcliffe had seen enough, scoring twice on power plays in the last 2:30 of the quarter, bringing the Wings to within one goal, 4-3.

Ratcliffe continued the onslaught by scoring less than thirty seconds into the second quarter, tying the game at four. Dan Marohl's power play goal gave the Wings their first lead, but Shearer, whose six-goal two-assist performance would have qualified him as the star in any other match, answered for the Saints. Panos followed twenty seconds later to reclaim the lead, at 6-5.

Ratcliffe again took advantage of a power play opportunity, then traded goals with Shearer before getting help from Tom Marechek and Andrew Guindon to put the Wings two goals ahead at 9-7.

Panos got past Wings goaltender Dallas Eliuk to bring the Saints within a goal again but Ratcliffe answered back and Tony Henderson extended the Wings lead with a power play net of his own. Panos scored with time running out to reduce the Wings' lead to 11-9 going into the locker rooms at the half.

The penalty-riddled third period saw more players go to the box than balls into the net. When the first goal of the second half was finally scored, at the 7:03 mark, it was again Ratcliffe who made it happen. It was to be the only Wings goal of the period, though. A couple minutes later, Panos began a three-goal rally for the Saints with a power play goal followed by scores from Prout and Shearer. The Saints' late push tied the score at twelve goals apiece at the start of the final period.

Tom Marechek opened the scoring for the Wings in the fourth quarter, again giving Philadelphia the lead. Four and a half minutes later, Shearer knotted the score with his final goal of the game. The game stood 13-13 until less than a minute and a half remained, when Marechek finished his hat trick to retake the lead. New York's Chad Culp silenced the Philly fans for a moment by breaking away and powering a shot past Eliuk at 14:14, but Ratcliff completed his dominating performance by scoring the winning goal thirteen seconds later.

Culp attempted to send the game into overtime with a late shot but Eliuk made a spectacular save, and Philadelphia's Andrew Martin controlled the rebound to end the game.

With the victory, the Wings sweep the weekend home-and-home series, following an 18-17 overtime win on Thursday night, taking sole possession of first place in the Eastern Division, at 6-5. The Saints' losing skid extends to five, putting them 1-11 overall and officially out of playoff contention.

Next up, Philadelphia hosts the league-leading Buffalo Bandits a week from tonight, while the Saints travel to Albany to face the Attack the same night.

BOX SUMMARY
                                      1  2  3  4     TOT
New York Saints (1-11)                4  5  3  2  --  15
Philadelphia Wings (6-5)              3  8  1  3  --  14

NEW YORK SAINTS               PHILADELPHIA WINGS
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS
Shearer        6 - 2     8    Ratcliffe      8 - 3    11
Driscoll       0 - 8     8    Marechek       3 - 3     6
Panos          5 - 1     6    Marohl         1 - 5     6
Prout          2 - 3     5    Henderson      1 - 4     5
Culp           1 - 3     4    Cromwell       1 - 3     4
Carlson        0 - 3     3    A Guindon      1 - 1     2
Nash           0 - 2     2    Frye           0 - 2     2
Paccione       0 - 1     1    Spano          0 - 2     2
                              Barrett        0 - 1     1
                              P Jacobs       0 - 1     1
                              Tower          0 - 1     1

Shots on goal           43    Shots on goal           52
Saves made by           37    Saves made by           29
   Nash              37          Eliuk             29
Penalties               10    Penalties                8
Penalty Minutes         23    Penalty Minutes         16
Power Play Chances       4    Power Play Chances       7
Power Play Goals         2    Power Play Goals         5
   Panos              2          Ratcliffe          3
                                 Henderson          1
                                 Marohl             1
Shorthanded Goals        0    Shorthanded Goals        0
Loose Balls             66    Loose Balls             82
   Nash              12          A Martin          10
   Prout              9          A Guindon          8
   Ghedina            6          P Jacobs           8
   N Polanco          6
   Shearer            6
Faceoffs Won            13    Faceoffs Won            19
   Ghedina      ( 9-14)          P Jacobs     (19-12)
   Brothers     ( 4- 3)          R Traynor    ( 0- 1)
   Shanahan     ( 0- 2)

*** STATS OFFICIAL BY VERIFY WITH PHILADELPHIA WINGS ***