MEDIA RELEASE
Adam Jones’ 5th Goal Of The Night Wins It
Toronto, ON – Adam Jones scored his fifth goal of the night to power the Toronto Rock (2-1) to an 11-10 overtime win over the Philadelphia Wings (0-3) on Friday night at Scotiabank Arena. Tom Schreiber also scored five goals, with his fifth tying the game with 20 seconds to play and force overtime.
“We lost a tough one at home last week (to Georgia), to drop that one we would have been pretty upset,” said Jones. “Schreiber had a great play, Rosey and the D shut it down when we needed to and we were fortunate to get one in overtime.”
A low scoring first half had the Rock up 3-2 after 30 minutes. Both goaltenders were very good and the score reflected it. Brandon Slade scored an important goal early in the third quarter in transition that gave the Rock a 3-1 lead, but the Wings were able to close the gap to a goal at the half with a transition goal of their own.
In the third quarter, the Rock did enough to stay ahead. A three-goal Rock lead became just one after the Wings scored twice in the final minute of the third, leaving the Rock up 7-6.
The Wings kept rolling in the fourth quarter, turning their run into a five-goal outburst and taking a 9-7 lead. Schreiber and Jones scored just 12 seconds apart to tie the game 9-9. The game remained deadlocked for several minutes before Blaze Riorden gave the Wings a 10-9 edge with 2:24 to play.
Cue the heroics.
Schreiber picked up a loose ball in transition with less than 30 seconds to play, while the Rock were shorthanded, and a stutter-step as he crossed into the Wings offensive zone gave him the advantage he needed to get to the goal. In true superhero fashion, the man they call ‘Captain America’ scored with 20 seconds to play to send the game to overtime.
Toronto killed off the final 1:13 of the Sheldon Burns penalty that rolled over from the fourth quarter into overtime. A couple of minutes later, Jones buried his fifth of the night, 3:51 into overtime to bring ‘Rock City’ to its feet.
Rock Head Coach Matt Sawyer was happy with the win, but was very quick to point out the team’s offensive struggles that led to too many transition goals for the coach’s liking.
“We gave up a lot of transition goals and that was on us up front,” said Sawyer. “Having said that, sometimes the ugliest (games) end up being the prettiest and we found a way here tonight.”
There were only three Rock goal scorers on the night with Schreiber and Jones each scoring five times. Slade had the other. Schreiber did add 3 assists to finish with 8 points.
Nick Rose turned in another fantastic performance between the pipes stopping 42 of the 52 shots he faced to earn the win.
Toronto will play at Colorado next Saturday and return home in two weeks for a rematch with the Georgia Swarm on Fri., Jan. 18 at Scotiabank Arena.