Toronto Is Now The Only Team In The NLL With A Spotless Record
Hamilton, ON – The Toronto Rock (5-0) just keep finding ways to win and this time decided to call it a comeback, with a 12-9 win over the Georgia Swarm (4-3) on Saturday night at FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton, ON in front of 7,420 fans who never stopped supporting their squad.
“The first half was not a recipe for long-term success, the way we played that game but you know sometimes you need to find a way to win those games,” said Rock Head Coach Matt Sawyer. “Our defence and goaltender gave us an opportunity to pull that out at the end and over the last 20 minutes our offence was outstanding. It wasn’t for the first 40.”
Nick Rose and Brett Dobson put on a wonderful display of goaltending in this game, but especially in the first quarter. While Dobson was good in the Swarm net, Rose was spectacular for the Rock in the first quarter. If it wasn’t for Rose’s play early on, this game might have run away on the Rock, and we might be talking about the team’s first loss instead of extending their franchise-best start to 5-0.
The Rock opened the scoring in this one with an unassisted Brandon Slade breakaway goal. But the lead only lasted a few seconds as the Swarm’s Lyle Thompson tied the game 1-1. Those goals came just past the midway mark of the quarter and from there it was all Rose and Dobson as the score remained tied all the way until the first quarter ended.
Following Phil Mazzuca’s unassisted shorthanded breakaway strike that gave the Rock a 2-1 lead, Georgia went on a three-goal run to surge ahead 4-2. The two teams exchanged goals to round out the second quarter scoring and the visitors led 5-3 at the half. The Rock’s other goal in the frame came from the stick of Chris Boushy who scored his first home-goal of the season after scoring three times on the road thus far.
In the third quarter, the Rock were able to chip away at the Swarm lead, finishing the quarter down by just a goal 8-7. Corey Small found his stroke, scoring three times in a span of about eleven minutes. Mark Matthews delivered the Rock’s seventh goal.
The final quarter belonged to the Rock. Dan Craig scored just 24 seconds into the stanza to tie the game 8-8. Small would add his fourth of the game and while the Swarm did tie the game, 9-9, the Rock never trailed again. Josh Dawick scored finishing off a great transition play that had Justin Martin firing a perfect pass to a streaking Dawick off the bench. Dawick’s goal would stand up as the game winner, but Craig’s second goal of the game sealed the win. Challen Rogers added an empty net goal to round out the scoring.
“It’s part of the game. There are swings, right? There are swings that last two minutes. There are swings that last an entire half,” said Craig. “We knew that our time to have a couple of bounces go our way were going to happen, and we had to capitalize on those. But to be honest, I think the start of that second half, we dictated more than we did in the first half. And we were just able to put the ball in the net.”
The Rock were 1-for-3 on the power play while the Swarm went 2-for-4. Rose got his fifth win of the season, making 38 saves. Dobson was credited with the loss and made 35 stops.
The Rock will be back at home again next Saturday night when they take on their biggest rivals, the Buffalo Bandits. It’s Beach Bash night!
For more information on Toronto Rock tickets, please contact a Toronto Rock account executive by phone at 416-596-3075, by email at tickets@torontorock.com or visit torontorock.com.
