Toronto Lets Late Lead Slip Away
SASKATOON, SK – The Toronto Rock (11-7) were in full control of Saturday’s season finale against the Saskatchewan Rush (12-6) until they weren’t. A late lead slipped away and the Rush scored the winning goal 1:34 into overtime to steal a 10-9 victory.
As a result of tonight’s game, the Rock will not host a first round playoff game in Rock City, however the Rush will be at home to open the playoffs. The NLL will officially announce the playoff matchups on Sunday.
“We were lacking in execution in a couple areas and momentum swung (the other way),” Rock Head Coach Matt Sawyer said of the disappointing finish to the game. “We need to flush this one away and have a short memory because we’re back at it next week and that one is do or die.”
The Rock built a 3-2 lead after one and scored another pair in the second quarter to lead 5-2 at halftime. Nick Rose held the Rush off the scoreboard for the final 22:41 of the opening 30 and made 27 saves on the 29 shots he faced.
In the third quarter, the Rush opened the scoring but the Rock were there to answer their first two tallies, but the Rush got the last score in the frame on a Jake Naso goal to trim the Rock lead to 7-5 through three quarters.
The back-and-forth scoring continued in the fourth quarter and the Rock restored their two-goal lead on Chris Boushy’s second of the game with just under 9 minutes to play.
There was no scoring until the game had less than 100 seconds to play and first it was the Rush’s Levi Anderson with 1:20 to play and just 20 seconds later it was Robert Church scoring to tie the game.
In overtime, both teams had a chance to score but it was Saskatchewan’s Brock Haley who fired a long range laser past Rose to give the Rush the win and a home playoff game.
“We got a taste of playoff lacrosse tonight to end the regular season and we’re just going to have to find a way to be a lot better (next week) than we were tonight,” said Rose.
The Rock were 0-for-4 on the power play, while Saskatchewan was 0-for-5. The Rush outshot Toronto 50-39.
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.
