Mid-Season Showdown Friday
Oakville, ON – After an exciting 13-12 overtime victory over the New England Black Wolves last week, the Toronto Rock (7-1) face their stiffest test of the season when they travel to Edmonton to face the Rush (4-2) on Friday night at Rexall Place. Fans can watch the game live at TSN.ca and on TSN GO.
The Rock trailed for the better part of 40 minutes in their last game and universally believe a better, more complete effort will be required in order to achieve success on Friday.
"We consider ourselves a little bit fortunate to win that game, it wasn't our best effort," said Rock Head Coach John Lovell. "It certainly wasn't our best defensive effort by any means, we managed to stay in the game, got some big goals when we needed them and of course a big goal by Josh (Sanderson) to win it. We know we have to play a lot better, especially this week."
NLL leading scorer Josh Sanderson echoed his coaches sentiment about last week's effort and didn't sugar coat the fact that the Rock will need to bring their best against the Rush.
"It was a big win for our club, but we know we're not going to get away with that effort on Friday night in Edmonton," said Sanderson.
Sanderson leads the NLL in scoring entering this weekend's action with 52 points in just 8 games. His 44 assists are also tops in the league and with 10 games remaining, the veteran forward is currently on pace to smash the league assist record of 82 held by Garrett Billings. Brett Hickey's team-leading 22 goals are also the second best total league-wide.
Nick Rose came in to relieve Brandon Miller in Toronto's last game and was spectacular stopping 21 of 24 shots in 26 minutes of play. Rose is 2nd in GAA at 9.45, while Miller is 3rd at 9.68. Rose's .798 save percentage is 2nd in the league and Miller is 3rd at .782. The man who leads both categories will guard the opposition's net on Friday as Edmonton's Aaron Bold leads the NLL in both GAA (8.67) and save percentage (.800)
While the Rush are without forward Curtis Knight, Mark Matthews continues to lead the Edmonton offence and is their main weapon up front. 2014 first overall pick Ben McIntosh has been terrific so far and is second to Matthews in team scoring with 29 points.
These two teams will meet again on Saturday, March 21st in Toronto on Josh Sanderson Bachly Construction bobblehead night.
The Rock will be on the road again next weekend at Colorado. Toronto will be at Buffalo on Friday, March 13th to wrap up the 3-game road swing. The Rock's next home game will be the back half of a home-and-home with Buffalo on Saturday, March 14th. For tickets and more information, please visit torontorock.com or call 416-596-3075.