Mohegan — The New England Black Wolves used to be the Philadelphia Wings before moving their home to Mohegan Sun Arena in 2014 and reinventing themselves as part of the southeastern Connecticut landscape.

Then, with Philly awarded an expansion team beginning this season, the Wings were suddenly back in Philadelphia, too.

This weekend, the two teams played on back-to-back nights, Saturday in Philly and Sunday before 5,805 howling, thunder stick-waving fans at Mohegan Sun, with the two-day lacrosse-fest being billed as "Rivalry Weekend."

Perhaps fittingly, Sunday's game, a 17-11 Black Wolves victory — avenging Saturday's loss — began with a skirmish 15 seconds into the first quarter.

"We had a lot of emotion going into that building," New England's Callum Crawford said of Saturday's game at Philly. "I was pretty emotional, letting dumb things get to me. ... The offense was getting angry with the defense. The defense was getting angry with the offense. That's not something that happens very often.

"(Sunday, it was), 'Hey, guys, I think we can be a little more unified.' We just knew it. Everybody on this team wants to be there for the other guy."

After arriving at Mohegan at 3 a.m. Sunday and getting some rest before the afternoon game with the Wings, New England proceeded to show the unity it was lacking Saturday night.

Crawford finished with five goals and seven assists for a career-high 12 points, including dunking an empty-netter with 1 minute, 49 seconds to play, and Stephan Leblanc had four goals and three assists, as the Wolves (5-4) had their highest-scoring game since April 29, 2017.

Tyler Digby had two goals and six assists, Reilly O'Connor two goals and four assists and defender David Brock a goal and three assists.

Crawford leads the Black Wolves with 62 points, with 27 goals and 35 assists. He's had 11 goals and 17 assists in the past three games, during which time the team is 2-1.

"You need big guns," New England coach Glenn Clark said, asked about the output of Crawford and Leblanc. "Every team has those two or three guys, they carry the load. They expect it from themselves and we need it from them."

Crawford, however, disagreed that the offense has to come from one or two people.

He stuck with the notion that the Black Wolves are at their best when they're playing as a unit.

"That's what we need to do, collectively, as a group," Crawford said of posting Sunday's big number on the scoreboard. "Nobody needs to put it on themselves. Not one person stands out. The collective group stands out. ... The way we played with heart and hustle, everybody contributed to everything that happened on the floor."

The Wings (2-8) led 2-0, scoring a pair of power play goals to start things Sunday. The Black Wolves didn't score until there was 5:56 left in the first quarter on a goal by Leblanc, assisted by Crawford and O'Connor.

Wolves' captain Brett Manney, a defender, made it 2-2, scoring a shorthanded goal in transition off a behind-the-back pass from Brock, and Crawford scored to make it 3-2 at the end of one. New England stretched the lead to 8-5 at halftime and led 12-8 after three quarters.

New England goalie Doug Jamieson had 43 saves to earn the victory.

Matt Rambo, Blaze Riorden, Kevin Crowley, Jordan Hall and Kiel Matisz scored two goals each for the Wings. Crowley, who played for the Black Wolves last season before being acquired by the Wings, has 16 goals and 16 assists for his new team, including four goals in Saturday's win.

Said Clark of Sunday's turnaround: "It was a huge win, divisional. We responded to a game where we weren't our best. I mean, Philly kind of took it to us and, credit to them, they played hard and really outworked us last night.

"We needed that response. The best part of that game for me was our energy and our tenacity. We really set the tone. ... Everything waterfalled off that."

The Black Wolves will play again at home Feb. 24 against Eastern Division-leading Toronto (7-1).

v.fulkerson@theday.com