Rock Back In The Win Column

Toronto – The Toronto Rock rebounded from a tough loss a week ago with a 16-12 win over the Rochester Knighthawks on Friday night at Air Canada Centre.  
 
The first quarter was all Rock feeding off the energy from the crowd after watching Bob Watson’s number 29 go to the rafters at Air Canada Centre.  Garrett Billings got the scoring started as the Rock soared out to a 5-0 lead through one quarter of play.  
 
Rochester’s Cody Jamieson answered early in the second quarter to get the Knighthawks on the board.  Rochester kept on rolling scoring four straight in total to close the gap to 5-4.  The Rock came back with a three-goal run of their own to close out the first half with an 8-4 lead.  
 
After scoring early to go up 9-4, the Rock saw their lead shrink to one goal with the Knighthawks going on another four goal run.  Toronto and Rochester each scored a pair to close out the third quarter with the Rock leading 11-10.
 
Toronto dominated the fourth quarter outscoring Rochester 5-2 in the final 15 minutes.  Stephan Leblanc figured in on four of the five Rock goals including scoring two of his own.
 
Kasey Beirnes scored 5 goals and picked up a couple helpers as the top goal scorer on the night for the Rock.  Billings led the point parade with a goal and 8 assists totaling 9 points.
 
Captain Colin Doyle’s injury struggles continued as he left the game in the first half with an upper body injury and did not return.  Before being injured, Doyle had scored a powerplay goal in the opening quarter.
 
The Rock will be at home again next weekend as the Washington Stealth will be at Air Canada Centre for a rematch of the last two Champion’s Cup Finals.  The game will be broadcast live on TSN2 at 7pm on Saturday night.