Late Goals Thwart Rock 4th Quarter Rally
Mississauga, ON– The winning streak has come to an end. The Toronto Rock (3-6) fell to the San Diego Seals (4-5) by a score of 11-10 on Saturday night at Paramount Fine Foods Centre. The Rock overcame a four-goal deficit in the final frame and even took the lead, however a pair of late Seals goals gave the visitors the win.
“It’s cliche to say, but we need to play a full 60 minutes and we haven’t done so yet,” Small said after reaching a milestone that only a handful of players have accomplished. “I’m thankful that I’ve been able to have a career where I score goals and number 400 is cool to think about and I hope to score more in the future.”
Toronto began this game shorthanded, with Brad Kri taking a double minor on the first shift of the game and another penalty later in the first that didn’t allow the Rock to play much 5-on-5 lacrosse. San Diego led 2-0 when Rock fans came to their feet for the first time. Elijah Gash took the ball to the net in transition and scored his first career National Lacrosse League goal and made it a one goal game, but the Seals would hold off the Rock and maintain a 2-1 lead after one.
Wes Berg and Dylan Watson widened the lead Seals’ lead to 4-1 before Josh Dawick netted his 19th goal of the season on the powerplay to close the gap to 4-2. Just nine seconds later the Seals restored their three-goal lead. The two teams traded goals, Mitch de Snoo scoring for the Rock, and San Diego took a 6-3 lead to the break.
Tom Schreiber started the Rock off in the second half with a shot that fooled Seals starting goaltender Chris Origlieri just over three minutes into the third which got the crowd back into the game. However, Ty Thompson had other ideas with a goal just 27 seconds later to silence the arena and Berg added another to make the score 8-4. Corey Small scored on the power play but former Rock, and first-year Seal, Rob Hellyer answered right back and San Diego led 9-5 through three quarters.
The Rock looked inspired right off the hop in the fourth quarter scoring twice within the first minute as Chris Boushy and Small scored just 25 seconds apart to suddenly draw the Rock back to within a pair, trailing 9-7. Small completed the hat trick, his 400th NLL goal, to make it 9-8. Brian Cameron then made his way to the front of the goal and switched hands to score right-handed and tie the game 9-9 with just over 8 minutes to play.
Always a threat in transition, Mitch de Snoo then ran the floor and scored the go-ahead goal, the Rock’s fifth straight, to give them their first lead of the night 10-9. Hellyer tied the game with 1:13 left, and Berg scored the winner with just 49 seconds left. The Rock had a couple of chances late but couldn’t find the net, suffering their first loss since January 10th against Buffalo.
Despite the loss, Rock captain Challen Rogers praised Small on the one-of-a-kind accolade.
“It’s a great achievement and he’s been a great player all season and it’s definitely something to celebrate and reflect on.”
Of note, the Rock were without defender Phil Mazzuca who was injured during warmups and was ruled out and then lost Josh Jubenville midway through the second half after taking a slash to the arm.
Rock goaltender Nick Rose made 48 saves on the night while his counterpart Seals’ goalie Chris Origlieri had 39.
The Rock will try to start another three-game win streak when they welcome their archrivals, the Buffalo Bandits to Paramount Fine Foods Centre on Friday February 14 at 7pm for Rivalry Night. The game will be featured nationally on NLL Friday Night on TSN.
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.
