Third Time’s A Charm, Rock Win In OT

Toronto Defeats Georgia 12-11 In Overtime

Duluth, GA – The Toronto Rock (7-5) went to overtime for the third time this season and for the first time, came out with a win, defeating the East Division leading Georgia Swarm (8-4) by a score 12-11 on a goal by Reid Reinholdt on Friday night at the Infinite Energy Center in Duluth, Georgia.

“I saw them pushing out, pressuring Steph (Leblanc) out on to the sideboards pretty hard,” explained Reinholdt of how the play developed on his OT winner. “I just took a little bump, my guy switched on to him and I had a lot of open space and Steph put the ball right there where I could do something with it.”

Toronto fell behind 2-0 early, but goals from Kasey Beirnes and rookie Latrell Harris tied the game 2-2 before the end of the first quarter. Goaltender Nick Rose was the busier of the two netminders over the opening fifteen minutes, stopping 10 of 12 Georgia shots.

After the two teams traded goals to begin the second quarter, Jordan Magnuson gave the Rock their first lead of the game, 4-3. The Swarm answered the go ahead goal with four straight tallies over their own in a span of just over three minutes. Brett Hickey scored before the end of the half to draw the Rock back to within two goals, trailing 7-5 heading into halftime.

The Rock’s Tom Schreiber opened the second half scoring, followed by Hickey’s third goal of the game, tying the score 7-7. Once again, Georgia rallied with three straight goals to take a 10-7 lead. Hickey’s fourth of the game closed the gap to a pair, 10-8 after three quarters.

Less than a minute into the fourth quarter, Georgia’s Randy Staats gave the Swarm a three-goal lead but it didn’t last long as Hickey’s fifth goal and Stephan Leblanc’s first made it a one-goal game. With just over a minute to go, the Rock called timeout and pulled Rose to go six-on-five. Reinholdt scored with 58 seconds left to tie the game and send it to overtime.

In the extra period, the Swarm had the first crack at things but Rose stood tall in the Rock cage and upon gaining possession, Toronto called a timeout. It didn’t take long for Reinholdt to play hero again, sinking the game winner from right on top of the crease.

“It was about time the boys got rewarded, we’ve had a lot of one goal games, it’s nice to come out on the right side of one,” said Rock Head Coach Matt Sawyer after the team’s first OT victory in three tries.

Hickey’s five goals paced the Rock offence. Leblanc, Schreiber, Beirnes, Magnuson and Harris all had singles to go along with Reinholdt’s two difference makers. Nick Rose finished with 46 saves, earning win number seven.

Tomorrow night, the Rock will host the Vancouver Stealth on Canadian Lacrosse Night, presented by Tim Hortons, at Air Canada Centre. For tickets, please visit torontorock.com or the Air Canada Centre Box Office.