Rock Struggles Against Buffalo Continue
Hamilton, ON – The Buffalo Bandits (6-6) defeated the Toronto Rock (6-5) by a score of 14-9 on Saturday night at TD Coliseum in Hamilton front of the Rock’s largest crowd of the season with 8,960 fans in attendance.
“We have to be at our best night in and night out to give ourselves an opportunity (to win) and tonight there were moments that we were (at our best) but we weren’t for the full 60,” said Rock Head Coach Matt Sawyer. “They’re three-time champs for a reason and you need to find a way to play against a team of that caliber and we’re going to face another one next week in Vancouver.”
This game was tightly contested in the first half with Buffalo holding a narrow 6-5 lead at the half. Down by two, Challen Rogers scored on a penalty shot to bring the Rock back to within one heading to the break.
Chris Boushy scored 61 seconds into the second half to tie the game 6-6 and it appeared that we had a brand new game on our hands. A trading a of goals between the two clubs had the score tied 7-7, however Buffalo scored the final two goals of the third quarter and took a two-goal lead into the fourth quarter leading 9-7.
The lead quickly ballooned to three goals when Buffalo’s Josh Byrne scored 55 seconds into the fourth quarter, putting the Bandits up 10-7 and shifting the momentum in the direction of the visitors. A punch back by the Rock’s Mark Matthews, his fourth goal of the game, breathed some life into things for Toronto to bring them back to within two.
After a few minutes of back-and-forth play that saw both teams come up empty, Buffalo scored three times in 1:54, with two of the goals coming in transition, to take full control up 13-8 with less than five minutes to play. A goal apiece the rest of the way and the Bandits left Rock City with a 14-9 win.
“I thought we put a lot of chances up,” said Matthews. “That third quarter, we got away from everything that was working and couldn’t seem to find the rhythm coming back in the fourth quarter and they are a tough team to come back against.”
The Rock and Bandits were both 2-for-3 on the power play. Toronto outshot Buffalo 55-44.
The Rock will be back at home on Friday, March 20 for Marvel Super Hero Night against the Saskatchewan Rush. On Friday, March 6, the Rock will play at Vancouver against the Warriors and fans can watch the game at 10:30pm on TSN.
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.
