Rock Doubled Up By Roughnecks 16-8

Game Slips Away From Rock In Second Half, Ending Winning Streak

Toronto, ON – The Calgary Roughnecks (2-5) defeated the Toronto Rock (4-3) by a score of 16-8 on Saturday night at Air Canada Centre. The loss ends the Rock’s four-game winning streak as they get set to embark on a two-game road swing over the next couple of weeks.

It was the tale of two halves, but young goaltender Christian Del Bianco stole the show for Calgary, limiting the Rock offence to just 8 goals on 55 shots. Even more impressive was the fact that he only allowed two goals in the second half and none over the final 17:10 of the game as Calgary finished the game on a 9-0 run after trailing in the third quarter.

Toronto held a lead at 8-7 with just over two minutes left in the third quarter, but the game turned with a couple of goals in the final minute of the third and the Rock were never able to get the offence going again and respond to the Calgary offensive onslaught.

“We just thought we were going to out there and was just going to happen,” said Rock Head Coach Matt Sawyer after the loss. “Tonight we got what we deserved and (Calgary) deserved that win. We weren’t willing to put in the effort to pay the price we needed to in order to be successful.”

The Rock played catch-up throughout the first quarter, but the score was tied 3-3 at the end of one. Toronto got out to a 5-3 lead early in the second quarter with goals just nine seconds apart from Adam Jones and Latrell Harris. For the most part, the Rock protected that lead for the quarter but only led 6-5 at the break at halftime.

Toronto scored twice in the third quarter with a pair of Calgary goals in between to lead 8-7 late in the third quarter. However, from there it was all Calgary, finishing the game with nine straight tallies to seal the win.

Rock goals came from Rob Hellyer with three while Jones, Harris, Tom Schreiber, Brett Hickey and Challen Rogers all scored once. The eight goals was a season low for the Rock who averaged 20.5 goals for per game during their win streak.

The Rock travel to Rochester to take on the Knighthawks next Saturday night at Blue Cross Arena. The game is an 8 p.m. start and will be streamed live on NLLTV.com.

For more information on Toronto Rock tickets, please visit torontorock.com/tickets or call 416-596-3075.