TORONTO ROCK HEAD INTO TWO-GAME WEEKEND

The Toronto Rock head into a double-header weekend that starts with a 7:30 p.m. ET game at the Air Canada Centre against the Calgary Roughnecks. TSN2 will be broadcasting the game on tape delay at 10:30 p.m. On Saturday, the Rock head to Philadelphia on Saturday to face the Wings at the Wachovia Centre at 7:00 p.m.

“We are aware that we have to have a big weekend and that starts with the Calgary game,” said Rock GM-assistant coach Terry Sanderson. “I’ve said it before, but we have to focus on the first game, we can only worry about Calgary and on Saturday we’ll worry about Philadelphia.”

The Rock (6-6) have been on a downward spiral, dropping their last five straight games. The close scores could have gone in either team’s favour, but Toronto has ended in the wrong column with no points since February 12.

Sanderson and the rest of the Rock coaching staff led by Troy Cordingley will not make any drastic changes to the line-up or style of play.

“We feel we should have won three of the last four games,” said Sanderson. “We have been preparing the same and like what the guys are doing. We may not be getting the results we want, but we believe in what we’re doing.

“If you don’t believe in your system then you go and make changes. We have young guys and we knew from the get-go that they’ll need room to grow. We believe in them.”

The entire team will need to buy into the coaching system to get past the Roughnecks who also come into Friday’s game off a loss. The fourth place Minnesota Swarm took last weekend’s decision 17-13 over last year’s champs.

After Toronto’s home game, they’ll hit the road for Philadelphia to take on the struggling 4-8 Wings.  Even though Philadelphia sits at the bottom of the East division their last two games have been dominating wins. The Rock hope to break this streak to start one of their own.

Friday’s game can be viewed nationally on TSN2 at 10:30 p.m. ET. Fans outside of Canada will be able to view the NLL Network live stream at www.nll.com on Friday, and it will be available to all viewers on Saturday.