Tom Coyne, NLL Correspondent
Lacrosse is Awesome
A great game of lacrosse happened at the Infinite Energy Arena in Atlanta when the Toronto Rock (7-8) came down to Georgia to face off against the Swarm (8-7) hoping to avoid a season sweep and joining New England in the NLL’s Eastern Division cellar. This was the NLL/Twitter Game of the Week. Both teams entered the contest with identical records (7-7) and a win would place the victors in a three way tie for first with Rochester and Buffalo. Final Score: Georgia 11—Toronto 10.
Toronto’s offensive forwards had been shutout in their prior game and they’ve struggled since 2017. To add icing to the cake, Rookie of the Year Tom Schreiber went down with a knee injury on February 10th and prior to Sunday’s game they had gone 2-4 without him
The scoring started quickly when Brad Kri would control the opening faceoff and Sheldon Burns (1G, 2A) burned Swarm goalkeeper Mike Poulin 8 seconds into the game. Kri would continue to control at the face off ‘X’ for most the game although late in the fourth, he left the field with an injury; his dominance at the X would give the Rock a chance for the win. At the 4:50 mark, trying to avoid a shot clock violation Jordan Hall (2G, 2A) shot a slow moving off hip shot that managed to sneak past Nick Rose breaking the ice for the Swarm. They would score again at 6:30 on another slow moving shot trying to avoid a shot clock violation. This time, Randy Staats (1G, 2A) on a low angle-no angle attempt gave Georgia their first lead of the game. The net-minders were making some amazing saves until Lyle Thompson (5G, 1A) scored from up top at the 11:41 mark; and would score again on a heads up pass/assist from Jordan MacIntosh. MacIntosh’s ‘apple’ was a sweet one, a cross field pass as Lyle subbed in ahead of the Rock defenders and was all alone finishing with a beauty of a shot. He leapt vertically and to his right, tucked it to his left and over Rose’s right shoulder with 58 seconds left in the opening frame. Kri would win the ensuing face off which led to Reid Reinholdt’s first and only goal of the contest with 41 seconds left in the quarter. Score at the end of one: Swarm 4—Rock 2.
Toronto continued to control the face-offs tallying six wins out of eight. Kri opened up the second, passing to Dan Lintner with a diving shot from crease but was denied by Poulin. At the 2:52 mark the Rock’s salty veteran of 18 years, Sandy Chapman and Jason Noble grappled in front of the Swarm’s bench and were both sent to the box of shame apparently “to think about what they’d done” costing them two minutes apiece on a dead ball foul. With just over 10 minutes in the second, Georgia’s Chad Tutton was hit with a cross check in the back. But it didn’t faze the Swarm as (L) Thompson drove through a double team with Kri draped over his back, flew through the crease from the flank with a spectacular goal, shooting it around Rose, and getting back to back hat tricks; his third of the season. The Swarm were up 2-5 at the 6:17 mark; 14 seconds remaining on Toronto’s power play and only two on the shot clock when Toronto challenged the goal and lost their second of the half. Since they used their time outs, they were assessed a bench penalty. Fortunately for the Rock, Rose and their defense played solid as a rock and killed off the Swarm power-play. Hall would close out the scoring in the second off a feed from Tutton who would pick up the assist at 12:32. Linter (5G) would hit net off the assist from Brodie Merrill with 26 seconds left in the first half. On the ensuing play, the Swarm cleared it over the timeline with Poulin carrying the ball over to avoid an eight second violation (the furthest I have seen a keeper out of his crease) while Bill Hostrawser got hosed, and then called for an illegal cross check 29 seconds remaining. Score at the end of two: Georgia 6—Toronto 3.
Kri would control the second half opening face-off again and Merrill would score shorthanded on a two-on-one breakaway in the first minute of play and 24 seconds remaining on the Rock penalty bringing them to within two. Toronto would control yet another F/O killing off the remaining man down situation for the Swarm. Adam Jones the NLL’s newest father would follow up at the 2:23 mark finding a piece of the net. This was Jones 29th of the season and almost eliminated the offensive quagmire which the Toronto’s forwards’ were stuck in. Kieran McArdle took a hard crank shot that Poulin deflected to the side and wound up sprawled out in his crease. Lintner would gather the loosie and launch it into the back of the net tying the game for the first time since the first 15. With 10:25 left in the third Joel White was called for cross checking to the back, the Swarm killed off the penalty with their swarming and aggressive man-down unit and with ‘The Poulin Wall’ standing strong. With 4:42 left in frame and six seconds on the shot clock, Lintner and McArdle would team up again to tie the game at six apiece. Four penalties would be called immediately following the ball hitting net. For the Swarm Noble and Tutton received an ‘intentional contact’ penalty as well as Hostrawser from the Rock. Damon Edwards from Toronto went the sin bid for an unsportsmanlike penalty. After controlling the quarter with four unanswered goals, Toronto would lead 7-6.
The Hive was getting rocked by Toronto. Joel White would crank one off of Rose’s noggin with Staats retrieving the rebound. From behind goal line he extended his stick while facing the boards and tossed an apple over his left shoulder right to the waiting stick of Kiel Matisz (1G, 3A) hitting twine at 3:14 to tie the game. Lintner scored his fourth of the game with Burns and Merrill getting the helper(s) and just under seven minutes remaining. Not to be outdone (L) Thompson would score his fourth on an almost impossible low angle shot to tie it back up. Georgia was attempting to secure their first three game winning streak of the season but the Rock were giving them a defensive and offensive battle. Burns would get the assist off a pass to Lintner scoring on another diving shot, putting the Rock up by one. But Georgia wasn’t ready to forego the lead as Miles Thompson (1G) rose up to the occasion with his teammate Jesse King and cranked a rising laser beam of a shot into the back of the net. Locked up at nine apiece and only 4:48 left on the clock, goals would go back and forth the remainder of the game.
Thompson (L) gathered up the ground ball with just over three minutes remaining; dodged from left to right along the restraining line and using a pick, turned and burned a blazing shot past a screened and surprised Rose. He’d been having an amazing game after the first two knuckleball/change-up shots scored on him in the first. The Swarm were up by one with only 2:53 remaining, but that didn’t last long. Toronto would control the face-off, Merrill cleared it up the field to Brett Hickey (1G) on a breakaway and the crafty veteran put one past Poulin to tie the game up at 10 apiece. The crowd was buzzing with excitement and less than a minute remaining, Hall’s diving shot was rejected by Rose and as he scrambled to get out of the crease, the rebound wound up in King’s spoon as Rose was trying to get back. To his far right corner, King did his best ‘Superman’ impersonation and launched himself from behind the crease; slam dunking it home. Toronto sent Jordan Magnuson out to take the ensuing face-off as Kri was injured. He managed to control the ball; and Coach Matt Sawyer would call a quick and timely time out with just 45 seconds remaining. Rose was pulled for the extra attacker but it didn’t pay off as Rob Hellyer’s attempt at a crank shot failed with Georgia getting the rebound. Final Score: Swarm 11—Toronto 10.
Three “Stars of the Game”
Lyle Thompson 5G, 1A
Dan Lintner 5G
Mike Poulin 36 Saves
NEXT UP:
The Swarm (8-7) will face the Saskatchewan Rush (12-3) this Saturday at the Sasktel Centre in Saskatoon. Toronto (7-8) heads home to Air Canada Centre to host their Eastern Division rivals, the Rochester Knighthawks on Friday April 13.
Tom Coyne, NLL Correspondent
Lacrosse is Awesome