Rock Drop Home Opener In Heartbreaking Fashion

Toronto, ON – The Toronto Rock (2-1) fell by a score of 8-7 to the Philadelphia Wings (2-0) on Saturday night at Air Canada Centre in front of 11,703.  The Rock carried a lead into the late going, but were unable to close things out in front of their fans on home floor.

Nick Rose continued his sensational play in the opening quarter of the game holding the visiting Wings scoreless.  The Rock dented the twine on a pair of occasions to lead 2-0 after one quarter.

Philadelphia finally got on the board 5:20 into the second quarter breaking up Nick Rose’s 20:20 of spotless goaltending.  Each team tallied once in the second quarter and the Rock carried a 3-1 lead into the half.

The Wings rallied with a pair of behind the net dunk goals to draw even at 3-3 early in the second quarter.  The Rock got goals from Kasey Beirnes and Garrett Billings to regain their two-goal edge through three quarters.

After Philadelphia scored the first goal of the fourth quarter, Colin Doyle scored a pair to stretch the Rock lead to 7-4.  The Wings were far from dead as they struck for a pair of goals just 30 seconds apart with just over 5 minutes to play to draw to within a goal.  Kevin Crowley scored his third of the game to tie the score 7-7 with 2:14 to play.

With well under a minute to go, Philadelphia’s Drew Westervelt set up behind the goal and cut back and dove out from behind the goal and tucked the ball behind Rose in the Rock goal to give the visiting Wings the win with just 11 seconds left.

Colin Doyle (2 goals, 2 assists) and Garrett Billings (1 goal, 3 assists) each had four point nights to lead the Rock offensively.  Stephan Leblanc, Patrick Merrill, Kasey Beirnes and Josh Sanderson all scored once for Toronto.

The Rock will play back to back games for the second time in three weeks when they host Minnesota next Friday night at 7:30pm at Air Canada Centre and then travel to Rochester next Saturday to face the defending NLL champion Knighthawks.  For the best ticket in town, please call 416-596-3075 or visit www.torontorock.com.