Even the best make mistakes. And Philadelphia Wings goaltender Dallas Eliuk's mistake, with under two seconds left in their game versus the New York Saints at Nassau Coliseum, proved to be critical.

The game started out well for the Wings, who came in with a three-game winning streak and were hoping to reamin in the fourth and final NLL playoff berth. While New York's newly-acquired attacker Chris Panos started the scoring 4:22 into the first quarter, the Wings took over with two goals from Tom Marechek and one from Fred Jenner.

The second quarter went even further south for the Saints. Though they again began the scoring for the period on a goal by Roy Colsey, the Wings struck back hard. The Saints defense appeared to be in disarray, and Saints goaltender Sal LoCascio looked slow, as Marechek, Jenner, Jake Bergey, and Kevin Finneran took the ball to the net fearlessly for a total of five goals. Jason Wulder chimed one more in for New York before Finneran's goal, and the half ended 8-3 in favor of Philadelphia.

Things evened up some in the third quarter. Panos fed Jason Wulder a shot to again open up the period's scoring, but the Saints followed it up with a breakaway goal from Colsey, and an equally impressive score from Panos, taking a feed from behind the net and faking out Eliuk. The Saints defense also tightened up, allowing lower quality shots, and almost holding Philadelphia scoreless for the entire quarter. The Wings did manage to close out the quarter with a goal, scored by Sean Radebaugh with 16.3 seconds left in the third. This was after the Wings were denied on two good attempts by a warmed-up LoCascio, and one breakaway where Philadelphia's attacker stepped in the crease, and had his goal called back.

With New York down 9-6 going into the fourth quarter, they had their work cut out for them. It took just over two minutes for the Saints to make up the difference, as Panos fed scoring passes to Wulder and Matt Panetta, and Mark Millon converted on the power play unit, with Wing Jamie Hanford in the box for roughing. The scoring went back and forth after that, as Marechek tried to put the game on his shoulders by scoring whenever the Saints tied things up. The latter half of the final period was marked by rough play, and several players on both sides took minor penalties.

With five minutes left, the Philadelphia held a controlling 13-11 lead, and that's when their mistakes started to compound into problems. First, the Wings' defense over-committed to one side, and Chris Massey found an open seam to score for New York and drop their deficit to one. Then, at 10:51 of the fourth, Dallas Eliuk took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, presumably for offending one of the officials during a discussion that ensued after he stopped a shot. Jon Hess connected with Panetta to convert the power play, and tie the score again. LoCascio bailed out the Saints on a crucial save with 2:30 left. The Saints failed to score on their next possession, and the tension was growing. With 1:31 left, after the Saints recovered a loose ball in their zone, Jake Bergey flattened the ballcarrier with a check in the back, and that landed him in the penalty box for two minutes. The defensive pressure from the Wings penalty killing unit got them the ball back, but in trying to find a shot, Wing attacher Kevin Finneran dropped a pass, then New York recovered it with 53 seconds left and called a time out.

After the Saints set up their offense, they set up a shot which Eliuk stopped with 26 seconds remaining. The Saints picked up the rebound, however, and continued the pressure. When Jason Wulder, standing at the left of the crease, got the ball, he took his shot over Eliuk's right shoulder. Eliuk leaped up to block it, but in doing so, he collided with the crossbar and moved the net a full 90 degrees off to his right. The ball went in anyway, and the light went on, but the officials did not signal a goal, with 1.9 seconds left on the clock. The only signal was a raised fist for a penalty. Dallas Eliuk was being called for a delay of game penalty, which, in that situation, is settled by a penalty shot.

The entire crowd held it's breath as Jason Wulder jogged toward the goal to take his potentially game-winning shot. It appeared as if Dallas Eliuk was expecting a fake, as Wulder only cradled a few times and shot before reaching the crease. The shot took Eliuk by surprise, and he wasn't able to stop it from going into the lower right corner of the net.

The game ended with pushing and shoving, and Saints attacker Tom Naglieri was tossed out with a game misconduct penalty right at the end. The Philadelphia coaching staff gave the officials an earful, but the result would not change.

After the game, Saints head coach Scott Huff said that he felt the difference in the second half was a combined effort on the part of the players, in winning face-offs (Saints went 12-for-22 in the second half), getting more lateral movement on offense, and a playing more solid defense. He gave the defense special credit, calling the team terrific.

The Saints play again this weekend, tonight at Syracuse, and meet Philadelphia for the rematch next week, 3 April, which is the Wings' next game.

BOX SUMMARY
                                  1  2  3  4     TOT
Philadelphia Wings (4-6)          3  5  1  4  --  13
New York Saints (4-5)             1  2  3  8  --  14

PHILADELPHIA WINGS            NEW YORK SAINTS
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS
Marechek       6 - 0     6    Wulder         5 - 1     6
Bergey         1 - 5     6    Panos          2 - 3     5
Finneran       2 - 3     5    Panetta        2 - 2     4
Jenner         2 - 2     4    Colsey         3 - 0     3
S Radebaugh    1 - 2     3    Millon         1 - 2     3
D Radebaugh    0 - 3     3    Hess           0 - 2     2
Hanford        0 - 2     2    Locascio       0 - 2     2
Busza          1 - 0     1    S Sombrotto    0 - 2     2
Katanchik      0 - 1     1    Massey         1 - 0     1
Oglesby        0 - 1     1    Lowe           0 - 1     1
Rogers         0 - 1     1    Naglieri       0 - 1     1
Slate          0 - 1     1

Shots on goal           49    Shots on goal           51
Saves made by (GA)      37    Saves made by (GA)      36
   Eliuk (14)        37          Locascio (13)     36
Loose Balls             77    Loose Balls             62

*** STATS OFFICIAL BY VERIFY WITH NEW YORK SAINTS ***