Playoff State of Mind

Toronto – The Toronto Rock (10-6) will face the Rochester Knighthawks (10-6) on Sunday afternoon at Air Canada Centre at 3:30pm as the NLL playoffs get underway.

Toronto and Rochester met three times this season with the Rock winning all three meetings.  The biggest win was the January 15^th 12-9 victory at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester.  The Rock were unsuccessful in every one of their 15 previous regular season trips to Rochester.  The lone prior Rock triumph in Rochester was a post-season win in the 2003 Champion’s Cup Final.

The Rock followed that January 15^th win up with back-to-back wins on February 18^th and 19^th.  Toronto outscored the Knighthawks 23-11 in that weekend home and home set back in February.

“Zero,” was Rock Head Coach Troy Cordingley’s response when asked about how much of an advantage their regular season wins give them in the playoffs.

“They are a totally different team as opposed to when we played them earlier in the season.  We’re both 0-0 and the regular season means nothing other than it gave us home floor advantage for this game.”

The Rock are not going into the playoffs on a high.  Losers of three in a row and four of their last five, Cordingley expects his team to come into the playoff game ready for a different level of play in all aspects.

“Everybody has their back against the wall at this time of year and we feel our team plays well when we’re in that situation,” said Cordingley.  “We have been collectively disappointed in our performance over the last five games but the guys are upbeat and ready to get at it.”

Rochester comes into the game winners of their last three, where they scored 43 goals in those three games, and finished out the year going 6-2 in the second half of their schedule.

Number one seeded Buffalo will face Boston in the other East Division semi-final on Saturday night in Buffalo at 7:30pm.

Sunday’s playoff game will be broadcast live on TSN2 at 3:30pm.  For more information or tickets you can call the Rock office at 416-596-3075 or log on to www.torontorock.com.