All Spirit-Milwaukee Wave games seem to be cut from the same mold.
Close. Low scoring. Undecided until the final minutes. And frenzied.
Last night's was no exception.
Kevin Sloan headed in a pass from Jon Parry with 49 seconds remaining to give the Spirit a 10-9 victory over Milwaukee before 6,233 at the Baltimore Arena.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again -- just call us the cardiac kids," Sloan said, noting that the first time he said it was after a 17-14, last-minute win over the Wave on Dec. 2.
With the victory, the Spirit took a 6-1 lead in the series. All seven games have been decided by three points or less -- two by one point, three by two and two by three.
In the teams' only other match this year, the Spirit wiped out a 14-8 deficit with four goals in the final five minutes, including the game-winner by rookie Chris Morgan with 25 seconds left.
Cardiac kids, indeed.
Much of the scoring last night was packed into the fourth quarter. The Spirit entered the final period with a 6-5 edge. Michael Richardson and Don D'Ambra scored for a 9-6 Milwaukee lead, but the Spirit knocked in the final three goals of the night.
Parry's, on a one-point shootout, was first; it was his third of the game. Tim Wittman followed with a one-pointer on a power play, trimming Milwaukee's edge to 9-8.
Then Sloan, the team's points leader who had been shut out until assisting on Wittman's goal, delivered the game-winner. By then, coach Dave MacWilliams had pulled goalie Cris Vaccaro and inserted Sloan as the sixth attacker.
"From my view on the bench, there was a shot, a rebound and a perfect header by Kevin," Vaccaro said. "He couldn't have put it in any better."
After scoring, the jubilant Sloan raced around the floor in celebration with his teammates, finally dropping to the floor in exhaustion.
"We beat a good team, but I don't know how many times we can beat them in the last minute," MacWilliams said.
The third quarter was similar to the first two -- precious little offense and tenacious defense by both teams.
Parry's second two-point goal of the night was the only score of the period and gave the Spirit a 6-5 lead entering the final quarter.
NOTES: In his first five Spirit games, Franklin McIntosh has 14 assists and four goals for 23 points. . . . Bill Rothe, who resigned in a huff as the Spirit's public address announcer on Nov. 19 after a press box worker called him "a fat bag of wind," returned to the microphone last night. "After 14 years of hard work for the organization, he deserved another opportunity," vice president Drew Forrester said, referring to the fact Rothe has missed very few games over the years. . . . In deference to Vaccaro's sore back, MacWilliams is "leaning toward" Joe Mallia as the starting goalie tomorrow night at Wichita. Ex-Spirit Paul Wright, in his first Wings game, had three goals and an assist in Tuesday night's
12-11 win over the Harrisburg Heat.