TORONTO, ON – The Buffalo Bandits defeated the Toronto Rock 15-13 on Saturday night at Air Canada Centre to advance to face the Rochester Knighthawks in the East Division Finals.
The Rock didn’t get off to a great start in the opening quarter, falling behind 4-1. A goal from Kasey Beirnes in the final minute of the quarter closed the gap to 4-2 after one.
With Rock down three goals, they rallied to score three straight to tie the game 6-6 on Colin Doyle’s third goal of the game. Buffalo retook a one-goal edge but once again the Rock battled back evening things at 7-7. A late power play goal gave the Bandits and 8-7 lead at halftime.
Toronto scored the first two goals of the third quarter and Toronto took their first lead of the game. After trading goals, Buffalo scored on the powerplay with under a minute remaining in the frame to tie the score 10-10.
Buffalo continued their run scoring the first couple goals of the fourth quarter to make it 12-10. Nick Diachenko scored his second goal of the game to make it 12-11, but Buffalo scored on the man advantage to take another two-goal edge 13-11. Toronto was never able to overcome that two-goal deficit in the final minutes of the game.
Colin Doyle led all Rock point-getters with 3 goals and 5 assists for 8 points. Kasey Beirnes was the top goal-scorer with 4 and he also picked up a pair of assists. Other goal scorers for Toronto were Nick Diachenko with 3, Josh Sanderson had a pair and Rob Hellyer scored once.
2015 season tickets are now on sale, for more information, please visit www.torontorock.com or phone 416-596-3075 to speak with a ticket representative get your hands on the BEST ticket in town.
