Mississauga, ON – The Toronto Rock (5-11) were facing a must-win situation when they faced the Vancouver Warriors (10-7) on Friday night at Paramount Fine Foods Centre in Mississauga. However, it was the visiting Warriors coming away with a 12-10 win over the Rock who rallied late, but it just wasn’t enough to come out on the right end of the result. The loss has officially eliminated the Rock from the playoffs.
“I’m pretty proud of the group for all the adversity we faced and how we’ve tried to overcome it every week,” Rock Captain Challen Rogers said postgame. “We could have mailed it in at halftime, but we kept grinding and competing for the full 60 minutes.”
The two teams exchanged tallies in the first quarter with the Rock getting goals from Josh Dawick and Corey Small as the score stood tied 2-2 nearing the midway mark of the frame. The final 94 seconds of the quarter belonged to the Warriors as they scored three times to lead 5-2 after one quarter. The fifth goal really stung as the Rock had pulled goaltender Troy Holowchuk in favour of the extra attacker in the final seconds of the quarter playing for the last shot. A quick turnover by the Rock led to the ball ending up in their net.
Adam Charalambides scored his third goal of the game for the Warriors five minutes into the second quarter on the power play, followed by a late Keegan Ball goal to lift the Vancouver lead to 7-2. Corey Small scored with 30 seconds left in the half to send the Rock to the locker room down 7-3 at the break.
After the Warriors built a 9-3 lead in the third quarter, the Rock scored three times in a 1:52 span late in the quarter to claw their way back into the game. Vancouver followed up with a goal with just over a minute to play to once again lead by four, 10-6 heading for the final 15 minutes.
Vancouver kept the goals coming and surged ahead by six to lead 12-6. Josh Dawick’s second of the game gave the Rock some life just under a minute after the last Warriors’ goal. With just over five minutes to play, the Rock got goals from Justin Martin and Jake Darlison just 8 seconds apart to make it a 12-9 game. The Rock made good on a power play chance just inside of three minutes remaining, but Toronto just ran out of time, falling 12-10.
“This group has always been known for its compete level,” said Rogers when reflecting on what his team has accomplished thus far with two games remaining. “There’s never been a drop in our compete level. Never been instances of us folding up shop. We’ve worked to earn the results we wanted, but it just didn’t go our way this season.”
Holowchuk made 28 saves on 39 shots, while Vancouver’s Christian Del Bianco made 34 stops on 44 shots fired his way by the Rock.
With two games left in their season, the Rock will host their final home game at Paramount Fine Foods Centre in Mississauga on Friday, April 18 against the Halifax Thunderbirds at 7:00pm on NLL Friday Night on TSN before wrapping up their 2024-25 campaign on the road the following night in Rochester at 6:00pm. Saturday’s game can be seen on TSN+ and NLL+.
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.
