the better team with a 19–16 win on their way to a league high 4th title. 1996 saw the Bandits return to their prior form, while both teams finishing 8–2 and tied atop the league standings. Once again, the teams found themselves in the final, and the Bandits returned the favor of stopping a threepeat with a dominating 15–10 performance. 1997 saw that Wings move from the Spectrum to the new CoreStates Center (now the Wells Fargo Center). It would also be the first time that the Wings and Bandits would not meet in the playoffs since the Bandits had been introduced in 1992. The Wings won another regular season title with a 7–1 record, but were upset in the semifinals by the eventual champion Rochester Knighthawks. NLL era The league name changed for 1998, but the Wings success did not. Despite the loss of Gary Gait to the Baltimore Thunder, the Wings still claimed their 4th regular season title in 5 years at 9–3. Once again, the Wings were paired up with their arch-rival Bandits in the semifinal round, and the Wings dispatched the Bandits just as they had in the previous semifinal matchup. The Wings advanced to play the Thunder and Gary Gait in the final round, which was a best 2 of 3 series for the one and only time in league history. The Wings opened the series with a 16–12 victory at home, before sweeping the series with a dominating 17–12 road victory in Baltimore Arena. Wings goaltender Dallas Eliuk was named Championship Series MVP. 1999 saw the end of the heated Wings-Bandits rivalry, as the Bandits started to rebuild and fell to a 4–8 mark, missing the postseason. The Wings also had regular season struggles, finishing at just 5–7 and squeaking into the playoffs as the fourth seed. Wings fans probably wish the team had missed the postseason, as the team was pummeled in a record breaking 13–2 loss to the eventual champion Toronto Rock. 2000 saw the team improve slightly to 7–5 during the season, but it ended the same way, with a semifinal loss in Toronto by a more respectable 14–10 score. That set up the 2001 season, with the Wings once again seeing their league dominance challenged by a newcomer to the league. The Rock and the Wings did not disappoint, with the Rock going 11–3 and the Wings 10–4 in the