Photo Credit Featured Image: NLL
Justin Ivey, Beat Writer New England Black Wolves
Lacrosse is Awesome
Last week’s games set up New England Black Wolves and Toronto Rock for their third meeting of the year. Both regular season matchups were only decided by one goal, and the Black Wolves came out on top both times. Toronto earned the second seed in the East and the right to host the first round one game playoff. The Black Wolves were coming off a heartbreaking loss to Vancouver in their final regular season game. The game would start close, but Toronto would pull away at home for the dominating victory. Final Score: New England 10—Toronto 18.
The first quarter was exactly what we expected from the two teams. Fast play up and down the floor and a very close game. Toronto would strike first when Kasey Beirnes (2G, 1A) let loose a rocket from outside to hit the top corner 2:27 in. They would add to that lead a few minutes later. Goalie Nick Rose floated a beautiful outlet pass to a streaking Damon Edwards (2G) who took it all the way. Up two goals five and a half minutes in, Toronto looked poised to run away. Reilly O’Connor (1G, 2A) would finally get New England on the board 7:54 in with a transition goal before either team set up in the Toronto zone. Feeding off of the energy, Kevin Crowley (2G, 1A) would spin his way to the crease on the next possession and beat Rose from in close to tie the game. Tom Schreiber (4G, 3A), referred to as Captain America by many fans, would break the tie on the next possession and put Toronto back in front. Kyle Buchanan would tie the game on the next possession. With the delayed penalty and the extra attacker coming on, he streaked down the middle, catching the pass from O’Connor and hitting the net. Brett Bucktooth (1G, 2A) would score next, ripping a beautiful underhand shot in transition to put New England back on top. Schreiber would answer two minutes later with a laser from outside. Continuing in ping pong fashion, Crowley would get the next goal. At this point, Nick Rose would be replaced in goal by Brandon Miller to try and stop the New England onslaught. Edwards would put another transition goal in with just 50 seconds remaining to tie the game at five. On the next possession off the face off, Chad Culp (1G, 2A) would score giving the Black Wolves back the lead. The first quarter would end with New England leading Toronto, 6-5.
The second quarter was all Toronto…Seriously. New England could not get anything going at all. Brandon Miller looked like an absolute stud muffin. Nothing got by him. New England tried on defense, but could not contain the Toronto firepower. Brett Hickey (2G, 6A) would get his first of the night on the power play. The shot hit Kirk and softly bounced in. Bad break, but it was the start of the end for New England. Just eight seconds later, Brodie Merrill (2G, 1A) ran down the field and scored the unassisted goal to give Toronto the lead at 7-6. Jesse Gamble (1G, 1A) scored next, unassisted for the two-goal lead just under five minutes later. To finish off the quarter, Hickey would get his second of the night. With the four-goal quarter, Toronto would go into the half leading the Black Wolves 9-6.
The onslaught would continue into the third quarter. Schreiber would give Toronto a four-goal lead 2:22 in. Finally, New England would score. Shawn Evans (2G) would get his first of the night to get the Black Wolves within three halfway through the third. Toronto would answer though. Dan Lintner (1G, 1A) would catch the ball in the middle of the offensive zone, get hit, spin and the ball came out to beat Kirk. It was that kind of night. Less than 30 seconds later, Reid Reinholdt (1G, 3A) would put Toronto up 12-7. The remaining 7:44 of the third quarter would have no goals and the score going into the fourth would remain 12-7 with Toronto ahead.
Last week, New England faced a similar situation and scored six unanswered in the fourth quarter. With many one goal games this year, and some comebacks, the game was not over for the Black Wolves. But Toronto would get the first two in the fourth. Leblanc would score first, a fight broke out between Zac Reid and Kieran McArdle, and then Captain America would put Toronto up seven with 8:36 remaining. Evans would get his second of the game to temporarily stop the blitz, but Leblanc would underhand another past Kirk just less than 30 seconds later. In hopes of salvaging the game and sparking the team, Doug Jamieson would replace Evan Kirk in-between the pipes for New England. On the ensuing face-off, Jay Thorimbert (1G, 1A) would take it all the way himself and make the score 15-8. But Toronto would put the game away with three unanswered goals in the next three and a half minutes. Merrill would get his second on the empty net, Jeff Gilbert (1G) his first, and Beirnes his second. Leading 18-9 with three minutes remaining, the Rock was confident. In garbage time, Sheldon Burns (1G) would score to reach our final. Toronto easily beat New England with a final score of 18-10.
UP NEXT:
Toronto hosts the Georgia Swarm in the first round of the East Division Finals on May 13 at 7:00 PM.
Justin Ivey, Beat Writer New England Black Wolves
Lacrosse is Awesome