Toronto Gets First Road Win
Philadelphia, PA – The Toronto Rock (4-3) posted a convincing 14-7 win over the Philadelphia Wings (5-4) on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA. The win was the first on the road this season after dropping their first two games away from home.
Make no mistake, this game did not start well for the Rock. Just shy of the halfway mark of the first quarter, Toronto found themselves down 4-1 and it wasn’t pretty. The Rock scored a pair of goals to draw to within one at 4-3 and despite trailing 5-3 after one, the momentum had swung in favour of the visitors.
The Rock battled all the way back to even at the half, tied 7-7. From there, it was all Rock for the final 30 minutes.
In the third quarter, the Rock got a power play goal from Rob Hellyer and Tom Schreiber scored his third of the game to put Toronto up 9-7 after three quarters.
In the final quarter, the Rock buried their chances from all over the floor. The Rock scored three times in the opening two minutes of the fourth quarter to lead 12-7 and put the game out of reach, especially with the way the defence and Nick Rose were playing.
“It’s obviously not the start we wanted. It was a big win for us and a good night for us overall in a lot of areas, we found our game,” said Rock Head Coach Matt Sawyer. “I don’t know if I’ve seen Rosey better from the four-goal point on, good for him and good for our team. A lot of guys rebounded with a tremendous second half effort.”
Just how good was the Rock defence? Well, not only did they shutout the Wings in the second half, but the Rock defence allowed just two goals over the final 45 minutes of the game. Rose finished the contest with 43 saves and a season-low seven goals against.
Offensively, Dan Craig and Tom Schreiber couldn’t be stopped, scoring five and four goals respectively. The Rock have been looking for one of their lefties to emerge as their number one guy, and Craig has quietly become that player. And as for Schreiber, his four goals shot him to second in league goal scoring with 19. Schreiber trails Georgia’s Lyle Thompson who leads with 21. Schreiber has played three less games.
“It’s a game of swings,” said Craig. “You either start out with (momentum) or you end with it. We were just being hungry and Rosey was seeing every shot.”
Craig added four assists to his goal scoring binge to finish with nine points. Zach Manns had a pair of goals with Challen Rogers, Brandon Slade and Hellyer each scoring once.
The Rock had just two power play chances and converted on one of them. On the other side of the special teams equation, the Rock were perfect. No visitor penalties meant no power play chances for the Wings at all. A very disciplined game for Toronto.
The Rock’s next game will be Saturday, February 12 when the hottest rivalry in lacrosse is reignited as the Buffalo Bandits come to town. The matchup with Buffalo will be televised as the NLL’s Game of the Week on TSN at 5pm ET.
For more information on Toronto Rock tickets, please contact a Toronto Rock account executive by phone at 416-596-3075, by email at tickets@torontorock.com or visit torontorock.com.