Josh Dawick’s 5th Goal Gives The Rock A 14-13 Win
The Toronto Rock improved to 2-0 on the preseason with a 14-13 overtime victory against the Colorado Mammoth on Saturday night at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre in Oakville, ON.
The Rock elected to rest three key offensive weapons, with Tom Schreiber, Corey Small, and Dan Craig each getting the night off. Those players stepping in and filling their shoes did not disappoint.
The Rock came out hot, scoring twice in the opening two minutes. Dan Lintner buried one of his trademark crease dive tucks on the power play, followed by a Josh Dawick goal to put Toronto up 2-0. With the score 2-1, the Rock got a goal from rookie Tyler Hendrycks as he took the ball from up high right down to the crease and finished to put the Rock up 3-1. The Mammoth got one back before the end of the quarter, but the Rock led 3-2 through the opening frame.
The offences on both sides got rolling in a big way in the second quarter, combining for 10 goals. Chris Boushy and Dawick with a pair to complete the first half hat trick, gave the Rock a 6-2 lead before the quarter was three minutes old. The Mammoth would score four of the next five goals to make it a one-goal game with the Rock up 7-6. Marley Angus collected a Zack Kearney pass on top of the crease and fired it past Colorado’s Nate Faccin, putting the Rock up by a pair. The Mammoth scored with 2 seconds left in the half to close the gap to 8-7.
There wasn’t any scoring for the better part of the third quarter, but Dawick’s fourth of the game kickstarted the Rock offence. The Rock offence kept rolling and pushed their lead to 12-8 through three quarters.
Just when the game seemed like it was under total control with the Rock leading 13-10, the Mammoth began to chip away. Two Mammoth goals in 1:31 made it a one goal game with the Rock leading 13-12. Colorado’s Connor Kelly scored his sixth of the game to tie things up 13-13 and force overtime.
Colorado had several scoring chances to begin overtime, but each opportunity was turned away by Rock netminder Troy Holowchuk. Off a broken play, Zack Kearney picked up a loose ball, swung it to Dawick who walked into a shot from outside that sent the Rock City faithful home happy. The overtime winner was Dawick’s fifth goal of the night.
“It helped that one went in early,” said Dawick about carrying a hot stick and scoring five times. “There were just a lot of good picks, playing with the guys on the right side, they’ll definitely create space for you. If you look at Boushy on the tape, he’ll get you open. So, it’s just taking advantage of those picks and I was lucky to have a few of them fall there.”
One rookie still looking to lock up a role with the club is Tyler Hendrycks. The big lefty looks like he could be a threat at either end of the floor and scored a goal and assisted on two others.
“Playing the role, playing the game, feeling it out, trying to stay relaxed,” said Hendrycks of how he’s approaching each opportunity to prove himself. “We have a ton of great players out here on offence and it’s pretty easy to get assists when you have those kinds of shooters.”
The Rock will wrap up the exhibition season next Saturday night at 7pm against the Philadelphia Wings at the TRAC.
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.
