Rock get come from behind win
Not having played a home game in close to a month and a slow start in the first Q did not prevent the Toronto Rock from finding a way to knock off the Vancouver Stealth on Friday night.
The battle at the Air Canada Centre started with the Stealth firing on all cylinders with 6 goals in the first with all of them coming from 6 different players, showcasing the depth of scoring ability all along the Vancouver roster.
The first would end with Vancouver up 6-3 but that lead would evaporate as Toronto came back strong in the 2nd quarter, getting goals from Garret Billings, Damon Edwards, Jesse Gamble and Kasey Beirnes, while Vancouver would only get one more in the half coming from Cliff Smith as the game would go into the break tied, 7-7.
The 3rd would see Billings come alive for the Rock as he would get two more goals for the hat trick, along with goals coming from Josh Sanderson and Stephan Leblanc in the period as the 3rd ended 11-9.
In the 4th Garrett Billings would score twice and end the night with 5 goals.
Vancouver would try and stay in things late in the 4th but in the end the Rock would pull away and even chase Tyler Richards from the Vancouver net for Matt Roik after Josh Sanderson made things a 14-10 game.
In the end Toronto would take this one 17-12, after a first quarter that saw them on their heels.
The Toronto offensive attack wasn’t all Billings though as other big names on the score sheet included Stephan Leblanc having a 9 point night, Josh Sanderson coming up big with 8 points and the captain Colin Doyle having a 4 point night.
In a losing effort Vancouver’s Rhys Duch was able to put up 2 goals and 3 assists on the night and has remained hot early on scoring wise in the 2014 NLL season.
Afterwards Kasey Biernes chatted with me about how was happy about the team’s ability to get back into this game even with a start that was not the greatest.
“It’s a process. The process wasn’t going our way at the beginning but we stuck it and after four quarters we ended up on the good side. It’s not always how quick it happens, it’s not always a sprint its more of a marathon”.
The Rock after this one were back out on the road again on Saturday and would fall back below .500 after losing to the Buffalo Bandits 12-10.
Vancouver’s road trip on Saturday would continue in Philadelphia but a win on this trip could not happen as they fell to the Philadelphia Wings 15-9.
