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Now fully in ‘win-out-and-hope’ mode, the Toronto Rock gave its most dominant performance of the season on Saturday.
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The Rock outdistanced the Philadelphia Wings 15-8 at Paramount Fine Foods Centre. The home side scored three times in the first five minutes and had an 8-2 lead at halftime, taking full advantage of several mistakes by the Wings. Goaltender Troy Holowchuk, making his first home start, made 33 saves and looked in control throughout the contest.
With four games left, the Rock (5-9) still have a very outside shot at a National Lacrosse League playoff berth. A climb up the standings looked promising after a win in Halifax on March 7 but took a hit in a lethargic loss in Vancouver on March 14. Even if Toronto climbs to 9-9, it may need some tiebreaker luck as well.
The game saw the return to Mississauga of both Mitch de Snoo and Chris Corbeil, who were traded by the Rock to the Wings on Feb. 25, the same day that Rock owner/general manager Jamie Dawick traded long-time goaltender Nick Rose and defender Tyler Hendrycks to the Calgary Roughnecks. Toronto was also missing forward Tom Schreiber to injury.
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Corey Small, Dan Craig and Challen Rogers scored in that first five-minute span. Chris Boushy scored twice in the second quarter including an acrobatic flying effort from behind the net. This first-half performance was a far cry from last week’s effort against the Vancouver Warriors where the Rock could only manage two goals in the first two periods.
“We moved the ball well,” Boushy said. “Last week in Vancouver we had some lulls so we were trying to clean that up.”
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Boushy completed his hat trick in the fourth quarter. Josh Dawick continued his fine season with two goals. Nathan Grenon, a recent acquisition for Toronto, also scored twice to surpass the 100 career point mark in his NLL career. Craig added two more late in the game. The rest of the scoring was off transition with Latrell Harris, Justin Martin and Josh Jubenville all earning an appearance on the scoresheet.
Sam LeClair had a hat trick of his own with Liam Patten, Michael Sowers, Brennan O’Neill and Shane Simpson adding singles for the Wings who also stand at 5-9.
“We started right from that first whistle and got that first goal,” Grenon said. “But it all started at the defensive end.”
“Troy stood tall and enabled us to get possessions and the shots that we wanted.”
The Rock will go to Las Vegas next Sunday to face the Desert Dogs. It will return to Mississauga on April 11 to face the Vancouver Warriors.
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