Rock Clinch Eastern Division Title

Toronto – The Toronto Rock (10-5) defeated the Rochester Knighthawks (6-7) by a score of 10-9 at Air Canada Centre on Sunday afternoon.  The Rock clinched the East Division title and home floor advantage throughout the divisional playoffs without the services of captain Colin Doyle who was at his wife’s side as she gave birth to the couple’s third child, another girl for the Doyle family.

The Rock stormed out of the gate building a 3-0 lead just past the midway point of the opening quarter.  Rochester would get their offence going, but the Rock also kept things rolling and led 5-3 after 15 minutes on the strength of a pair of goals from Garrett Billings.

The two teams traded goals in the early going of the second quarter and that would be all the scoring until Toronto’s Josh Sanderson scored with less than 2 minutes remaining in the half and to give the Rock a 7-4 lead.

Rochester chipped away at the Rock lead in the third quarter outscoring the Rock 2-1 in a tightly contested frame.  The Rock still led, but now by just a pair, 8-6 after three quarters.

Toronto scored the first two goals of the final quarter to build a 10-7 lead early.  Rochester answered back with one and then Dan Dawson scored with just over a minute to go with the goalie pulled to make it a one-goal game at 10-9 in favour of the Rock.  That was as close as Rochester could get despite a couple of great opportunities in the final minute.

Kasey Beirnes (3 goals, 3 assists) and Garrett Billings (2 goals, 4 assists) each had 6-point games to lead the Rock scoring parade.

The Rock will wrap up their 2013 regular season schedule next Saturday, April 13th in Philadelphia against the Wings.  The game will be broadcast live on CBS Sports Network at 4:30pm ET.  For the best ticket in town, visit www.torontorock.com or call 416-596-3075.