What to watch for vs. Saskatchewan Rush

Rock Ready For Battle Against NLL’s Top Team

HAMILTON, ON – The Toronto Rock (8-5) will host the NLL’s top team the Saskatchewan Rush (11-3) tonight at TD Coliseum in Hamilton.  It’s the Rock’s second to last regular season home game.

Fans can watch the game vs. Saskatchewan at 7:30pm ET on NLL+ for FREE! Alternatively, tune in on TSN’s digital platform TSN+ via TSN.ca and the TSN App as well as ESPN+.  To stream the game on TSN+ or ESPN+, a paid subscription is required.

Here’s what to watch for in Friday’s matchup.

• Following morning shoot around, the Rock placed forward Dan Craig on the Injured Reserve List with a lower body injury. Moving to the Active Roster is forward Isiah Moran-Weekes from the Practice Roster.
• Matt Sawyer is at 99 career wins behind the bench as a head coach in the NLL. A win tonight would make him just the 8^th coach in NLL history to hit the century mark.  91 of his 99 wins have come behind the Rock bench, the other 8 were in 2011 with the Boston Blazers.
• In 28 all-time meetings, the Rock are 16-12 against the Rush franchise. Since the Rush relocated to Saskatchewan for the 2016 season, the Rock are 5-4 overall against the Saskatoon based club with 3 of those wins coming in Rock City.
• Largey to the rescue! Last week against Halifax CJ Kirst had 10 shots on goal but just couldn’t find the mark and beat Thunderbirds’ goalie Warren Hill and finished without a goal.  We may have uncovered the reason.  Last week was the first time since his freshman year at Cornell that Kirst’s stick was not taped with his favourite brand of white hockey tape.  Enter Rock equipment manager Tim Large, who in true super hero fashion, sourced the tape and it was in the building this morning for shoot around.  The fairy tale ending to this story is CJ Kirst’s stick is now taped to his liking and that could mean bad news for the Rush.
• Challen Rogers’ recent offensive outburst has him third on the team in points with 49. Rogers started the season with just 12 points in the Rock’s first 5 games.  He’s caught fire since then with 37 points in his last 8 games and has been scoring BIG goals for the Rock.  Hello MVP discussion, Challen Rogers has entered the chat.
• Recently acquired defender Josh Jackson made his debut with the Rock last weekend in Halifax and registered a goal and played a steady defensive game with 3 LB and 1 Blocked Shot.
• INJURY REPORT: TD Ierlan is on the PUP List. Zack Kearney, Kobe Handsor, and Robert Hudson are on the Season Ending Injured Reserve List. Justin Martin (Lower), Phil Mazzuca (Upper), Dan Craig (Lower), and Chris Weier (Upper) are on the Injured Reserve List.
• The Rock will hit the road for an afternoon date with the Philadelphia Wings next Sunday, March 29 at 1pm ET.

A new episode of the Toronto Rock Total Access Podcast also dropped as we go behind the scenes with Creative Director Andrew Armstrong and Digital Media Coordinator Shaye Getzinger.

For more information on Toronto Rock tickets, please contact a Toronto Rock account executive by phone at 905-426-4744, by email at tickets@torontorock.com or visit torontorock.com.