Oakville, ON – A whirlwind of a week comes to a head on Friday night at Air Canada Centre when the top two teams in the NLL’s East Division square off at 7pm on Alumni Night presented by True North Lacrosse. The Toronto Rock (11-3) and the Rochester Knighthawks (7-4) will meet for the third and final time this season and fans can watch live at tsn.ca and on TSN GO.
Earlier in the week, the Rock completed a blockbuster deal just moments before the trade deadline when they shipped Garrett Billings to New England for Kevin Crowley. The Knighthawks also made a deal to increase their depth by moving defender Jamie Batson and a couple of picks for forward Joe Resetarits from the Buffalo Bandits. Both players will be available to their new teams on Friday night.
“I’ve seen Kevin grow up in the league, he’s a great teammate and I think he’s one of the elite offensive players in the game, he’s a very versatile player,” said the Rock’s Brodie Merrill, who played with Crowley when the two were members of the Philadelphia Wings. “I think he’ll fit well with out group.”
The tiebreaker between the two teams is at stake and for some time, this game has been looked at as the contest that would likely decide the East Division winner. The regular season leader of the division receives a first round playoff bye.
“I think it’s important, especially if you end up playing the one game playoff. It’s always important to have home floor advantage,” said Rock Head Coach John Lovell. “But our goal is to get first place and avoid that game. Rochester is coming off of a difficult loss last weekend, so it’s going to be a tough game. It’s a tiebreaker game, so it’s going to be a good battle.”
The Rock will be without forward Rob Hellyer for the second consecutive game and with the mid-week move of the young sniper to the second level Injured Reserve, he’ll also miss next week’s game against Vancouver.
Toronto Rock Alumni Night also highlights Friday night’s game. At 6pm when the gates open, fans will be able to get an autograph from several Rock greats of the past at section 108 on the concourse. At halftime, fans will surely want to remain in their seats, as their Rock heroes of yesteryear will take to the ACC turf to play an abbreviated game. For the BEST ticket in town and more information, please visit torontorock.com or call 416-596-3075.
