An area wing lover is serving up a March Madness bracket of his own, and the competition is getting spicy.

LUZERNE COUNTY, Pa. — Things are heating up in northeastern Pennsylvania as this season’s March Madness is getting a little saucy.

What started as a fun idea by wing lover Matty Centak has turned into a full-blown battle between bars.

“You can’t get a barstool, you can’t get a table. It’s crazy everywhere. ‘Wing madness,’ we’re calling it,” said Centak, NEPA’s King of Wings March Madness creator.

Centak started the NEPA Chicken Wing Bulletin’s March Madness competition on Facebook last year. 

But this year it’s expanded to a full-on flavor face-off online, pitting the Wyoming Valley’s best against Lackawanna County.

“I think it goes back to NEPA because we have a bar basically on every corner. You could throw a rock from here and hit five or six bars. Every one of them have different sauces, cook them differently, prepare them differently. It’s a competition every day. It’s not just during the madness, you know?” said Centak.

So far, more than 116,000 votes have poured in online, narrowing it down to the two heavy hitters, Murphy’s in Swoyersville and Haggerty’s in Scranton.

“It’s our 20th anniversary, and I’m pretty sure it’s their 20th anniversary too. So that’ll make it pretty interesting with two Irish bars,” said Eric Murphy, Murphy’s Pub owner.

Over at Murphy’s, the fryers can’t catch a break, “Last night we went through 1,000, about five cases, so that’s a lot,” said Eric.

And Haggerty’s is trying to make room for all the madness.

“We added a few more tables. This normally isn’t like this here. We had a dartboard over there- we took the dartboard out. We added a few more tables and stuff. We’ll see how long it lasts going into summer,” said Tony Konasavage, Haggerty’s owner.

Centak says this is the goal: some fun competition bringing big business to local spots. “It’s great to see for all the small businesses. Because I have all the owners reaching out to me that they’re doubling their sales in chicken wings. A lot of new customers. So it’s good for everybody.”

Voting ends on Facebook on Sunday when they will crown the official NEPA King of Wings.

“Every year, it’ll hopefully go to a new place. But if the same person keeps winning, it’ll stay there. So it’s going to up everybody’s game to make better chicken wings and go against each other,” said Centak.

Until then, the heat is on.