Uniondale, NY – The Toronto Rock (2-2) delivered a dominating 15-7 win over the New York Riptide (0-3) on Saturday night at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY. The win was the first on the road for the Rock.
“We got good efforts from everybody up and down the lineup and Rosey was outstanding, helped by our defence,” said Rock Head Coach Matt Sawyer. “This team feeds off our defence and goaltending and it’s pretty easy to go out and perform when they’re playing like that.”
The Rock may have started slow, but it won’t be something anyone really focuses on in this one. Toronto may have started slow, down 3-1 after one, but they were getting looks and when the balls started dropping, it didn’t stop.
Four straight goals to begin the second quarter were truly the beginning of the end for New York. The Rock outscored the Riptide 6-2 in the frame, but it was the way they did it that mattered. The Rock’s defenders got in on the act, with a pair of goals from Mitch de Snoo and Brad Kri added one of the prettier goals of the night scooping a rebound out of mid-air and quickly depositing it into the New York cage. The Rock led 7-5 at the half, but the game wasn’t as close as the score.
The Rock crushed the hopes of any Riptide comeback early in the second half. Stephen Keogh scored twice early in the third quarter to make it 9-5 and Corey Small’s second made it 10-5 before the half was five minutes old. Toronto shutout New York in the third quarter and scored seven times to lead 14-5 heading to the final quarter.
Tom Schreiber made it 15-5 just over two minutes into the fourth quarter, scoring his second of the game. The Rock 9-0 run that began late in the first half, took 18:07 of game play to accumulate. Adding to that dominance, 27:18 elapsed between Riptide goals. New York added a pair of goals late.
“I think regardless of the start, we were a determined group coming here,” said Nick Rose. “We found out a lot about ourselves. We had a lot of time to think about it and I don’t think there was any way we weren’t putting forth one heck of an effort.”
Rose made 34 saves and allowed just 7 goals on 41 shots to earn his second win of the season. The Rock outshot New York 71-41.
Despite the offensive outburst, the Rock came up empty with the man advantage going 0-for-2 on the power play. New York was 1-for-3 on the power play.
Schreiber led the way offensively with 7 points on 2G + 5A. Dan Dawson, the NLL’s all-time assists leader, put up five assists after going pointless in two straight games. Keogh scored three times and Zach Manns, de Snoo and Small with two each were the multi-goal scorers for the Rock. Singles came from Dan Craig, TD Ierlan, Challen Rogers and Kri.
Tickets for the Rock’s next home game at FirstOntario Centre on Saturday, January 14 against the Halifax Thunderbirds at 7pm ET. Fans can watch the game on TSN’s digital platforms via TSN.ca and the TSN App.
For more information on tickets, please visit torontorock.com, call the Rock Ticket Office at 416-596-3075 or email us at tickets@torontorock.com.
