PHILADELPHIA, PA – The Toronto Rock (9-6) came up short on Sunday afternoon dropping a 12-9 decision to the Philadelphia Wings (4-12) at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, PA. The loss snapped the Rock’s three-game winning streak while the win snapped the Wings’ three-game losing skid.
“We weren’t good enough in any area of the game,” said Rock Head Coach Matt Sawyer. “You have to respect your opponent in this league and you can talk about what you want to do and what you’re going to do but actions speak louder. Our actions weren’t good here tonight. We weren’t committed to doing what we needed to do to be successful and there’s the result.”
The two teams came into Sunday’s game from very different perspectives. The Rock are trying to climb the standings and at the very least lock in a playoff spot but still aspire to host a first-round home playoff game. Whereas the Wings have been eliminated from postseason contention and sat in last place in the 14-team NLL.
Bill Hostrawser opened the scoring for the Rock just 99 seconds into the opening quarter. Not only was it Hostrawser’s first goal of the season, but it was his first goal since April 6, 2019, against the original Rochester Knighthawks. A stretch of 97 regular season games without a goal.
Philadelphia answered with a goal but rookie Owen Hiltz scored to restore the Rock lead at 2-1. The Wings weren’t deterred as they played like they had nothing to lose all afternoon long and took a 3-2 lead after one. The second quarter was even and Philadelphia carried a 5-4 lead into the half.
The Rock surrendered the first two goals of the second half and quickly fell behind 7-4 and would chase the game for the remainder of the contest. The closest the Rock came to the Wings was at 8-7 in the third quarter when Josh Dawick and Sam English scored in succession to close the gap to a goal. The Wings scored twice more before the end of the third to lead 10-7 heading to the final 15 minutes.
After the two teams traded goals, Philadelphia scored an empty net marker to seal the game at 12-8. Dawick added another goal before all was said and done but it was too little, too late and the Wings had pulled off the 12-9 upset of the Rock.
Troy Holowchuk got the nod in the net for the Rock and stopped 38 of 49 shots. Nick Damude made 41 saves and was tremendous in the Wings goal, earning the game’s first star after denying the Rock on glorious chance after chance.
Philadelphia was 2-for-7 on the man advantage, while the Rock 2-for-5 on the power play.
“We need to learn some things from that game, it just wasn’t good enough and that was pretty apparent the entire game,” said Rock captain Challen Rogers. “Ultimately, we just need to be better, completely.”
The Rock are back at home on Saturday, April 4 against the San Diego Seals at TD Coliseum in Hamilton on Fan Appreciation Night presented by TekSavvy.
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.
