Oakville, ON – It was another packed house on Saturday night at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre as the Toronto Rock finished up the preseason with 14-10 win over the Philadelphia Wings. The Rock went 2-1 win exhibition with wins over Saskatchewan and Philadelphia and their only loss coming last weekend in OT to Colorado.
The first half was incredibly even with the score tied 2-2 at the end of one quarter and 5-5 at halftime. It wasn’t until the second half when the Rock would eventually put some distance between themselves and their opponents.
Toronto came out hot in the third quarter. They scored the last goal of the first half and potted four-straight to open the scoring in the third quarter to take an 9-5 lead. The five-goal run was capped off by goals just 17 seconds apart from Owen Hiltz and Sam English. The Wings answered with a three-goal run of their own to close the gap to a goal, trailing the Rock 9-8 through three quarters.
The Rock came over the top with four straight tallies to take a stranglehold on this one, as the string of scoring started just 21 seconds into the frame. Three goals in 1:31 and two from captain Challen Rogers helped shoot the Rock into a 13-8 lead. The Wings had a pair to the Rock’s single the rest of the way and the Rock locked in the 14-10 win.
Late in the third quarter, Rock goaltender Nick Rose left the game following a Brennan O’Neill Wings’ goal strictly as a precautionary measure. Holowchuk came in cold off the bench and allowed just three goals in just over 19 minutes of work in the Rock cage.
At the other end, the same could be said for Wings’ goalie Nick Damude who left the game with 9:16 remaining in the game after making several lower body stops, kicking the ball out. Deacan Knott played the final minutes giving up a pair of goals.
Number one overall draft pick CJ Kirst continued to make plays that further justify his top selection by the Rock in the 2025 NLL Draft. Late in the first quarter, he weaved through traffic like a seasoned New York City taxi driver and scored shorthanded, much to the delight of the Rock City faithful on hand at the TRAC.
Rock Goal Scorers: Rogers 3, Chris Boushy 3, Dan Craig 3, Hiltz 2, Sam English 2, Kirst 1, Josh Dawick 1
Wings Goal Scorers: O’Neill 3, Eric Fannell 2, Dalton Young 1, Brian Cameron 1, Landen Sinfield 1, Joe Resetarits 1, Liam Patten 1
“We just wanted to stack shifts up throughout the game and feel confident every time we were going out there,” said Rogers. “All in all, I think we played pretty well to our systems and worked on some things and feel confident going into Friday.”
All teams must cut down to their 21-player Active Roster by Monday at 12noon ET. Teams may sign up to four players to their Practice Roster. Players that were on a team’s Training Camp Roster can be signed to the Practice Roster but only after 24-hour period has elapsed after being released from the Training Camp Roster.
The Rock will practice on Tuesday night at 7pm at the TRAC in preparation for their regular season opener on Friday, November 28 at 7:30pm ET at Oshawa against the recently relocated FireWolves at the Tribute Communities Centre. Fans can watch the game on the season debut of NLL Friday Night on TSN and TSN+.
For more information on Toronto Rock tickets, please contact a Toronto Rock account executive by phone at 905-426-4744, by email at tickets@torontorock.com or visit torontorock.com.
