# 2008 Philadelphia Wings season

The Philadelphia Wings are a lacrosse team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania playing in the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The 2008 season was the 22nd in franchise history.
The Wings had not made the playoffs in five years, the longest playoff drought in the history of the franchise. But the Wings began the season 6-0, and second-year players Athan Iannucci and Geoff Snider were rewriting the record books. Iannucci broke Gary Gait's single-season scoring record in the Wings' 14th game, and ended up with 71 goals. Snider set new records for loose balls (242), penalty minutes (103), and faceoffs won (318), and won 73.8% of his faceoffs, just short of his own record of 75% set in 2007. The Wings finished 4th in the East and made the playoffs again, but were beaten in the division semi-finals by the Buffalo Bandits.

## Regular season
### Conference standings

Reference:
East Division :
| P | Team | GP | W | L | PCT | GB | Home | Road | GF | GA | Diff | GF/GP | GA/GP |
| 1 | Buffalo Bandits – xyz | 16 | 10 | 6 | .625 | 0.0 | 7–2 | 3–4 | 203 | 174 | +29 | 12.69 | 10.88 |
| 2 | Minnesota Swarm – x | 16 | 10 | 6 | .625 | 0.0 | 6–2 | 4–4 | 199 | 196 | +3 | 12.44 | 12.25 |
| 3 | New York Titans – x | 16 | 10 | 6 | .625 | 0.0 | 5–1 | 5–5 | 197 | 186 | +11 | 12.31 | 11.62 |
| 4 | Philadelphia Wings – x | 16 | 10 | 6 | .625 | 0.0 | 7–1 | 3–5 | 225 | 220 | +5 | 14.06 | 13.75 |
| 5 | Rochester Knighthawks | 16 | 8 | 8 | .500 | 2.0 | 4–4 | 4–4 | 197 | 171 | +26 | 12.31 | 10.69 |
| 6 | Toronto Rock | 16 | 7 | 9 | .438 | 3.0 | 4–5 | 3–4 | 172 | 174 | −2 | 10.75 | 10.88 |
| 7 | Chicago Shamrox | 16 | 6 | 10 | .375 | 4.0 | 3–5 | 3–5 | 176 | 212 | −36 | 11.00 | 13.25 |
West Division :
| P | Team | GP | W | L | PCT | GB | Home | Road | GF | GA | Diff | GF/GP | GA/GP |
| 1 | San Jose Stealth – xy | 16 | 9 | 7 | .562 | 0.0 | 4–4 | 5–3 | 185 | 172 | +13 | 11.56 | 10.75 |
| 2 | Colorado Mammoth – x | 16 | 9 | 7 | .562 | 0.0 | 6–2 | 3–5 | 184 | 167 | +17 | 11.50 | 10.44 |
| 3 | Calgary Roughnecks – x | 16 | 7 | 9 | .438 | 2.0 | 5–3 | 2–6 | 183 | 178 | +5 | 11.44 | 11.12 |
| 4 | Portland LumberJax – x | 16 | 6 | 10 | .375 | 3.0 | 3–5 | 3–5 | 179 | 194 | −15 | 11.19 | 12.12 |
| 5 | Edmonton Rush | 16 | 4 | 12 | .250 | 5.0 | 3–5 | 1–7 | 141 | 197 | −56 | 8.81 | 12.31 |
x: Clinched playoff berth; c: Clinched playoff berth by crossing over to another division; y: Clinched division; z: Clinched best regular season record; GP: Games Played W: Wins; L: Losses; GB: Games back; PCT: Win percentage; Home: Record at Home; Road: Record on the Road; GF: Goals scored; GA: Goals allowed Differential: Difference between goals scored and allowed; GF/GP: Average number of goals scored per game; GA/GP: Average number of goals allowed per game

### Game log

Reference:
| Game | Date | Opponent | Location | Score | OT | Attendance | Record |
| 1 | January 12, 2008 | Chicago Shamrox | Wachovia Center | W 19–11 | | 11,974 | 1–0 |
| 2 | January 18, 2008 | Rochester Knighthawks | Wachovia Center | W 15–14 | | 9,248 | 2–0 |
| 3 | January 26, 2008 | Buffalo Bandits | Wachovia Center | W 15–14 | OT | 10,542 | 3–0 |
| 4 | February 15, 2008 | @ Colorado Mammoth | Pepsi Center | W 15–13 | | 17,109 | 4–0 |
| 5 | February 22, 2008 | Minnesota Swarm | Wachovia Center | W 17–8 | | 10,342 | 5–0 |
| 6 | February 29, 2008 | New York Titans | Wachovia Center | W 16–12 | | 11,419 | 6–0 |
| 7 | March 1, 2008 | @ Buffalo Bandits | HSBC Arena | L 12–21 | | 13,720 | 6–1 |
| 8 | March 14, 2008 | San Jose Stealth | Wachovia Center | W 16–13 | | 11,737 | 7–1 |
| 9 | March 22, 2008 | @ New York Titans | Sovereign Bank Arena-Trenton, NJ | L 13–20 | | 5,239 | 7–2 |
| 10 | March 29, 2008 | @ Rochester Knighthawks | Blue Cross Arena | L 12–20 | | 8,940 | 7–3 |
| 11 | April 5, 2008 | @ Chicago Shamrox | Sears Centre | L 14–15 | OT | 5,427 | 7–4 |
| 12 | April 6, 2008 | Toronto Rock | Wachovia Center | W 11–9 | | 10,244 | 8–4 |
| 13 | April 11, 2008 | @ Portland LumberJax | Rose Garden | W 13–10 | | 9,195 | 9–4 |
| 14 | April 12, 2008 | @ Minnesota Swarm | Xcel Energy Center | L 14–15 | OT | 12,830 | 9–5 |
| 15 | April 19, 2008 | New York Titans | Wachovia Center | L 8–11 | | 17,340 | 9–6 |
| 16 | April 27, 2008 | @ Toronto Rock | Air Canada Centre | W 15–14 | | 15,332 | 10–6 |

## Playoffs
### Game log

Reference:
| Game | Date | Opponent | Location | Score | OT | Attendance | Record |
| Division Semifinal | May 2, 2008 | @ Buffalo Bandits | HSBC Arena | L 12–14 | | 9,344 | 0–1 |

## Player stats

Reference:

### Runners (Top 10)

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; LB = Loose balls; PIM = Penalty minutes
| Player | GP | G | A | Pts | LB | PIM |
| Athan Iannucci | 16 | 71 | 29 | 100 | 138 | 35 |
| Jake Bergey | 13 | 29 | 31 | 60 | 89 | 8 |
| Merrick Thomson | 15 | 26 | 29 | 55 | 59 | 26 |
| Geoff Snider | 16 | 13 | 38 | 51 | 244 | 103 |
| Jason Crosbie | 16 | 11 | 40 | 51 | 80 | 8 |
| Jamie Rooney | 15 | 20 | 23 | 43 | 59 | 12 |
| Johnny Christmas | 13 | 5 | 20 | 25 | 61 | 10 |
| Kyle Sweeney | 16 | 5 | 20 | 25 | 127 | 4 |
| AJ Shannon | 9 | 11 | 7 | 18 | 35 | 2 |
| Totals | | 324 | 549 | 440 | 1283 | 44 |

### Goaltenders

Note: GP = Games played; MIN = Minutes; W = Wins; L = Losses; GA = Goals against; Sv% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average
| Player | GP | MIN | W | L | GA | Sv% | GAA |
| Rob Blasdell | 14 | 659:16 | 8 | 2 | 153 | .739 | 13.92 |
| Brandon Miller | 7 | 295:28 | 2 | 4 | 60 | .788 | 12.18 |
| Jay Preece | 9 | 6:57 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .727 | 25.90 |
| Matt Roik | 0 | 0:00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .00 |
| Totals | | | 10 | 6 | 220 | .751 | 13.75 |

## Awards

| Player | Award |
| Athan Iannucci | NLL Most Valuable Player |
| Athan Iannucci | Overall Player of the Month, January |
| Athan Iannucci | Overall Player of the Month, February |
| Athan Iannucci | Overall Player of the Month, April |
| Athan Iannucci | First Team All-Pro |
| Geoff Snider | Second Team All-Pro |
| Athan Iannucci | All-Stars |
| Geoff Snider | All-Stars |
| Taylor Wray | All-Stars |

## Transactions
### Trades

| February 29, 2008 | To Philadelphia Wings conditional third round pick, 2008 entry draft | To Edmonton Rush Brendan Thenhaus |
| March 5, 2008 | To Philadelphia Wings AJ Shannon (from Edmonton) fourth round pick, 2008 entry draft (from Minnesota) | To Minnesota Swarm Keith Cromwell (from Philadelphia) Dan Marohl (from Philadelphia) second round pick, 2009 entry draft (from Edmonton) | To Edmonton Rush Mike Hominuck (from Minnesota) first round pick, 2008 entry draft (from Minnesota) |
| March 5, 2008 | To Philadelphia Wings Brandon Miller second round pick, 2008 entry draft | To Chicago Shamrox Matt Roik Brad Self first round pick, 2009 entry draft second round pick, 2010 entry draft |

## Roster

Reference:
| No. | Position | Player |
| 27 | Def | Beisel, Brian |
| 66 | Fwd | Bergey, Jake |
| 31 | Goalie | Blasdell, Rob |
| 2 | Fwd | Borell, Jim |
| | Def | Burke, Zach |
| 1 | Trans | Christmas, John |
| | Fwd | Cromwell, Keith |
| 54 | Fwd | Crosbie, Jason |
| | Fwd | Eckerel, Matt |
| | Fwd | Fiat, Kyle |
| | Fwd | Ford, Conor |
| 28 | Def | Hajek, Thomas |
| 25 | Fwd | Heim, Patrick |
| 23 | Fwd | Iannucci, Athan |
| 24 | Def | Jacobs, Peter |
| | Fwd | Marohl, Dan |
| 36 | Goalie | Miller, Brandon |
| No. | Position | Player |
| 22 | Fwd | Mitchell, David |
| | Fwd | Morley, Marc |
| 15 | Fwd | Moyer, Brett |
| 34 | Def | Nadelen, Shawn |
| 30 | Goalie | Preece, Jay |
| | Goalie | Roik, Matt |
| 14 | Fwd | Rooney, Jamie |
| 88 | Fwd | Shannon, AJ |
| 4 | Trans | Snider, Geoff |
| 7 | Def | Sweeney, Kyle |
| | Fwd | Thenhaus, Brenden |
| 9 | Fwd | Thomson, Merrick |
| 77 | Fwd | Van Beek, Rob |
| | Fwd | Wailes, Kyle |
| 26 | Fwd | Westervelt, Drew |
| 44 | Def | Wray, Taylor |