Hamilton, ON – The Toronto Rock (11-2) pulled away from the Colorado Mammoth (4-9) in the final quarter to post a 12-7 win on Saturday night at FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton, ON. The victory gives the Rock their best-ever win-loss record through 13 games in franchise history.
“We’re just trying to win every single game here,” said Dan Lintner. “We think we’re the best team in the league every night and we’ve got some of the best D, goaltending, and offence in the game. So we’re just taking it game by game.”
Nick Rose was beyond excellent in this game, he was incredible. Making save after save, turning away point blank scoring opportunities and going post-to-post to slam the door shut and deny the Mammoth on some truly dangerous scoring opportunities.
Speaking of Dangerous, the Rock also honoured NLL legend Dan Dawson with a bobblehead tonight, commemorating his brilliant NLL career and marking his NLL all-time assists record. Dawson was on hand and received a massive ovation when he was shown on the videoboard.
But, back to Rose. He continues to get better and better as the season goes on. Tonight, on his 35th save, he passed NLL Hall of Famer Dallas Eliuk for fifth place on the NLL all-time saves list. He’s also now just one win away from passing Rock legend and NLL Hall of Famer Bob Watson for third place on the NLL all-time wins list. Rose had one win with Boston earlier in his career, so as far as the Rock all-time mark, he’s two away from holding that distinction. He’s also closing in on the Rock’s all-time saves mark, just 32 saves away from another milestone.
The Rock, backstopped by Rose’s perfect opening quarter, jumped out in front 4-0 through the first fifteen minutes. Lintner scored the first two goals of the game and just refuses to quit on every play, something that is truly endearing himself to the Rock City faithful. Tom Schreiber and Josh Dawick rounded out the Rock scoring in the first.
In the second quarter, Colorado ran off three goals in just under a minute to pull within one, trailing 4-3. Hamilton native Joey Cupido scored in transition for the visitors to pull even at 4-4. Chris Boushy answered the bell with a power play goal, the Rock’s only man-up tally of the night, to give Toronto a 5-4 lead at the half.
Following the halftime break, it was the Mammoth that came out firing. Two early goals gave Colorado their first lead of the game, 6-5. Dan Craig, returning after missing three games with an upper body injury, got a lucky bounce off the Mammoth defender to tie the score 6-6. Colorado surged ahead once again, but it was Lintner capping off his hat trick with just 11 seconds left in the frame to tie the score 7-7. Colorado threw the challenge flag too late, thus denying them the opportunity to challenge the ruling on the floor of a good goal.
In the final quarter, it was all Toronto Rock, all the time. Zack Kearney was up on offence for a shift and made the best of it, capitalizing on a chance right on top of the crease, beating Dillon Ward in the Mammoth net. Mitch de Snoo upped the Rock lead to 9-7 just 18 seconds after the Kearney goal. Schreiber made it 10-7 and Chris Weier scored into an empty net to give the Rock a four-goal lead with just over two minutes remaining. 23 seconds later, with Ward back in the Colorado net, Mark Matthews got his first of the night, to go along with six assists, to round out the scoring.
With 5 caused turnovers, 12 loose balls and a goal, de Snoo was all over the scoresheet tonight and show the dominant form that earned him the 2022 NLL Defensive Player of the Year Award. The always humble defender pointed the spotlight on the team’s last line of defence after the game.
“(Rose’s) on fire, he made some saves tonight, like breakaways, coming across the net on quick sticks, they were just unbelievable,” said de Snoo of his superstar goaltender Rose. “Seven goals against. He’s killing it.
“I think we just focused on playing our game. I think a lot of the goals against were in transition as well. I think that with our athleticism and the intelligence that we have on the back end, that we should be able to shut down anybody like that.”
The Rock were 1-for-4 on the power play while the Mammoth went 2-for-2. Rose had a fantastic night between the pipes, but Ward was also terrific at the other end of the floor. On this night, Rose gets the win with 38 saves, while Ward suffers the loss making 46 saves, as the Rock outshot the Mammoth 58-45.
Next weekend, the Rock will travel to Buffalo for a highly anticipated matchup against the Bandits on Saturday night at KeyBank Center at 7pm ET. It’s also the NLL on TSN Game of the Week.
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.
