ROCK GROUND WINGS 13-6, SWEEP WEEKEND

The Toronto Rock continued their weekend win-streak in Philadelphia tonight with a 13-6 win over the Wings at the Wachovia Center.

The Rock, who previously held a five-game losing streak, now advance to 8-6 on the season after two straight weekend wins.

Stephan Leblanc led the Rock with 10 points (5 goals, 5 assists) to be named game MVP for the second consecutive night and Steve Dietrich recorded the win in Toronto’s net, stopping 37 shots.

Josh Wasson opened game scoring in favour of Toronto after seven minutes of defensive play, followed by Rock rookie Garrett Billings. Toronto out-shot the Wings 7 to 17, with Dietrich stopping all Wings’ attempts.    

Stephan Leblanc, last night’s MVP, continued the Rock roll at the beginning of the second quarter. Blaine Manning was next for the Rock, hitting the top of the net to get past Brandon Miller. After holding off Philadelphia for 24 minutes, Patrick Heim finally sunk a shot on Dietrich to end the half 4-1.

The third quarter began in the same fashion as the first two, with a Rock goal, Manning’s second. Billings was next to bring the Toronto tally to six. Kevin Huntley and Geoff Snider worked to narrow the Rock lead scoring two in succession with five minutes left in the quarter. Manning recorded the hat trick on the powerplay, followed by Leblanc’s second.

Geoff McNulty scored his second career goal, in his second career game, to give Toronto a 9-3 lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Wasson’s second came a minute later to push the Rock into double digits. Leblanc drilled in his third, but it was quickly answered by Snider and Drew Westervelt. The Wings opted for a goalie change, but Leblanc scored again getting past Rob Blasdell, but like his last was matched by Philadelphia this time from Bill McGlone. Leblanc continued his fight, scoring his third of the quarter, fifth of the night with 57 seconds remaining to end the game 13-6.

For the complete box score, please visit the NLL Website.

The next Rock game is Saturday, April 10 when they visit the Buffalo Bandits at HSBC Arena. Game time is 7:30 p.m. and will be broadcast live on TSN2. Toronto will host their final regular season game on Friday, April 16 when they host the Rochester Knighthawks. Tickets are still available through the Rock office, and online at www.torontorock.com.