March 11, 2016
CALGARY DEFEATS TORONTO 15-10
Toronto Drops To 2-7 On The Season
Toronto, ON – The Toronto Rock (2-7) suffered a 15-10 loss to the Calgary Roughnecks (4-7) on Friday night at Air Canada Centre in the first half of a double-header weekend.
Calgary’s Mike Poulin was sensational, stopping 38 of the 48 shots that were fired his way. The win was his second of the season in the Calgary cage.
“Poulin was awesome,” said Rob Hellyer following the Rock loss. “We haven’t run into a goalie like that in a long time. He stood on his head and kept them in there.”
The Rock were down 2-0 early but it didn’t take long for the returning Brett Hickey to get them started. Rob Hellyer followed with a goal and the game was tied just past the midway point of the opening quarter. Calgary’s Curtis Dickson wouldn’t be denied putting the visitors up 3-2 after one.
Calgary scored the first two goals of the second quarter and stretched their lead to 5-2. It was Hickey who once again broke up the Calgary run, with a power play marker. With Calgary answering and the teams trading goals, the Rock couldn’t make up any ground and trailed 7-4 at the half.
A healthy scratch for the last two games, Rob Marshall gave the Rock a shot in the arm, scoring the opening goal of the second half. However, Calgary just poured it on, scoring three in a row to lead 10-5. Josh Sanderson and Kasey Beirnes each chipped in singles to draw the Rock to within three goals, trailing 10-7 heading for home.
In the final quarter, the Rock couldn’t make up any ground, with each team scoring three times. The Rock started pulling the goaltender for the extra attacker, but Calgary’s Karsen Leung added a pair of empty netters to seal the win.
Calgary’s Dickson was the first star of the game scoring 6 goals, 2 of which came while the Roughnecks were shorthanded. Calgary scored 3 shorthanded goals in total and 2 more on the power play.
“You have to give credit to a player like Dickson,” Rock Head Coach John Lovell said. “We had him stopped on a number of occasions and he just fires it and it goes in the net.”
The Rock will have one day off before getting right back at it on Sunday afternoon at 3pm when they host the Vancouver Stealth at Air Canada Centre. It’s also Toronto Sun Autograph Day.
Toronto Rock Season Tickets, the Upper Bowl Season Pass, Flex Packs, Single Game Tickets and Group Tickets are also on sale now. For more information about Toronto Rock tickets, please contact our account executives at 416-596-3075 or visit www.torontorock.com.
