Toronto Defeats Las Vegas 16-11
Las Vegas, NV – The Toronto Rock (9-2) sit alone at the top of the NLL standings after a 16-11 win over the Las Vegas Desert Dogs (4-7) on Friday night in Las Vegas, NV at Michelob Ultra Arena.
Over the last few weeks, Mark Matthews has really settled into a groove with the Rock and while most of his career points have come in a Saskatchewan Rush jersey, on Friday night he needed just two points to hit 1,000 for his NLL career, a milestone he achieved early in the Rock win.
“It’s pretty sweet,” said Matthews of becoming the 15th player in NLL history to reach 1,000 career points. “It really doesn’t mean anything unless you’re winning. And obviously, playing in Saskatchewan, I had a lot of great players, and we won a lot. So when you’re scoring a lot of goals and winning a lot, the numbers come. Hopefully, we can keep that rolling here. And the championship will come, and the numbers will come.”
Since being a healthy scratch two weeks ago against New York, Chris Boushy has taken his game to another level. In Friday’s win he tied a Rock single game franchise record with seven goals and added four assists for an 11-point game. He now has nine goals in the two games since.
The other Rock players to score seven goals in a game were Rob Hellyer at Calgary 4/30/16 and Brett Hickey 4/10/15 vs. Vancouver.
After falling behind 2-0 in the first quarter, the Rock scored four straight to lead 4-2 and would never trail again the game. Matthews’ 1000th point came as an assist on a Boushy goal, the Rock’s fourth tally of the quarter.
Early in the second quarter it was another milestone for a Rock player, as once the game’s 17th minute had elapsed, it meant Rock goaltender Nick Rose had passed NLL Hall of Fame netminder for sixth place on the NLL’s all-time minutes played list for goaltenders.
The goals kept coming in the second stanza with each team finding the back of the net five times each. While Boushy hit the halftime break with three goals, the Desert Dogs’ Jack Hannah had scored five times for the home side, but the score rested at the halftime break with the Rock up 9-7.
The third quarter saw the Rock stretch their lead to three goals, leading 13-10 through 45 minutes. During that third frame, Josh Dawick scored three goals to net his first hat trick. Boushy scored the other Rock goal.
In the fourth, it was more Boushy, as he scored another three goals, running his milestone total to seven.
The Rock were 4-for-5 on the power play while the Desert Dogs were 2-for-2 with the man-up.
Rose made 27 saves to earn his league-leading ninth win of the season. Landon Kells made 34 saves getting the loss for Las Vegas.
The Rock will be back in action on Saturday night in San Diego with an eye on sweeping the weekend western swing with a win over the Seals. The game is a 10pm ET start time and will be available on TSN+ with a subscription.
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.
