Swarm Spoil Dawson’s Historic Night With Victory Over the Rock 3/26/22

Shawn Palmer, Toronto Rock Correspondent
Lacrosse is Awesome©

Featured Image Photo Credit: Christian Bender

Prior to the game the Toronto Rock (8-5) celebrated Dan Dawson, who broke the All-time games played record in the NLL as he was playing his 307^th career game. He surpassed the legend John Tavares for the record and also tied Tavares’ All-time assist record at 934 during the game. Saturday’s game was the first one at home for the Rock where fans were allowed to attend without having to wear a mask and in turn they packed the arena with the biggest crowd of the season, 8,841. On the other side the Georgia Swarm (8-6) found out prior to the game that their leading scorer, Lyle Thompson would not be able to play due to a lower body injury. So with the energy in the arena and the loss of scoring for Georgia this looked like a sure win for Toronto. Georgia’s strong defense, great goaltending and the Rock’s sputtering offense lead to a Swarm win to spoil the party for Toronto. Final Score: Swarm 10—Rock 6.

Georgia started the scoring less than three minutes into the first quarter when on transition Jeff Henrick (1G) received an outlet pass from Mike Poulin (43 saves, 2A) and went in on Nick Rose (35 saves) and his bounce shot beat the net-minder through the legs. The Swarm doubled their lead when Brendan Bomberry (3G) cut to the net and received a pass from Shayne Jackson (1G, 4A) and his shot went over the shoulder to make it 2 – 0. The Rock would finally get on the board just over 11 minutes into the frame on the power play when Tom Schreiber (2G, 1A) took a low to high shot that beat Poulin to the far side cutting the Swarm lead in half at 2 – 1. Georgia would get that one back less than a minute later when Adam Wiedemann (1G, 1A) fell to his knees and while on the ground took a shot to the stick side to make it 3 – 1 for the Swarm. With less than a minute on the clock, Jackson fed Bomberry with a skip pass and his bounce shot went far side to end the first quarter with the Swarm having a three goal lead. The shots on goal in the first quarter favored Toronto 12—Georgia 10. Score at the end of one: Swarm 4—Rock 1.

The second quarter had a lot of defensive plays, with Georgia intercepting many passes, Toronto causing three 30 second clock violations and both goalies making saves. Near the half way point of the second Toronto scored their second of the game when Zach Manns (3G, 1A) took an over hand high to low shot that beat Poulin under the glove getting Toronto back within two at 4 – 2. Three minutes later while on the power play, Georgia’s Bomberry fired a bounce shot to the far side to beat Rose for his hat trick goal extending the Swarm lead back to three at the half. The shots in the first half still favored Toronto 22—Georgia 20. Score at the end of two: Swarm 5—Rock 2.

Toronto came out in the third quarter and hit the ground running as they were on the power play and after some good ball movement Manns fired a shot far side making it 5 – 3. A couple of minutes later with a delayed penalty coming up to Georgia, Manns would notch another taking a high to low shot stick side for his hat trick goal and the Swarm lead was now one. It took just over six minutes before Georgia was able to get on the board when Bryan Cole (1G) cut to the net, received a pass from Jackson and his shot beat Rose over the shoulder restoring the two goal lead for Georgia at 6 – 4. The Rock scored the final goal of the frame when Schreiber’s hard side arm from the top squeezed through Poulin’s legs and trickled over the line putting them within one. After three, Toronto had a commanding lead in shots 39 with over Georgia who had only 29. Score at the end of three: Swarm 6—Rock 5.

The Rock’s excitement would be short-lived as the Swarm would outscore them 3-1 in the fourth. Georgia would open the scoring with Jackson coming off of the bench, receiving a feed from Wiedemann, cutting to the net and diving across the crease to beat Rose to the far side to make it 7 – 5 for the Swarm. A minute later Toronto responded when in transition Brad Kri (1G) was on a two-on-one, passed it to Dan Craig (1A) who returned it to Kri and his quick stick beat Poulin to the open side. This made it 7 – 6 for Georgia but that was as close as Toronto would get. Thirty seconds later Stephan Leblanc (1G, 1A) took a shot from the top with a high to low shot that beat Rose stick side. For the next nine minutes Toronto continued to fire shots at Poulin but could not get one past him with both teams having some big hits and even some pushing and shoving after a few of the whistles. In the last minute the Rock pulled Rose for an extra attacker (EA) and Georgia’s Kason Tarbell (1G) picked up a loose ball and shot it from center into the open net to make it 9 – 6 for Georgia. The Rock would continue to press with the EA and again a loose ball at center turned into a Georgia goal when TJ Comizio (1G) picked it up and threw it into the empty net to finish off the scoring securing a much needed win for Georgia over the Rock. The shots on goal at the end of the game were Toronto 49—Georgia 45. Final Score: Swarm 10—Rock 6.

There were a few other milestones that were reached during the game as Toronto’s Nick Rose became the ninth goalie in NLL history to reach 5,000 saves and Rob Hellyer (2A) hit the 600 point mark for his NLL career.

The three stars of the game were:

Brendan Bomberry—Georgia Swarm: 3 goals
Zach Manns—Toronto Rock: 3 goals, 1 assist
Mike Poulin—Georgia Swarm: 43 saves, 2 assists

STATS:
Georgia Swarm—SOG 45; Saves 43; Face-offs 5-20; Assists 13; LB 55; PP 1-3
Toronto Rock—SOG 49; Saves 35; Face-offs 15-20; Assists 8; LB 82; PP 2-3

NEXT UP:

The Toronto Rock (8-5) will travel to Georgia to face the Swarm (8-6) at Gas South Arena on Friday April 1^st game time 7:30.pm EST. Fans in the USA can catch the game on ESPN+. Fans in Canada can see the action on TSN.ca or the TSN app.

Then they will head back to Toronto the next night on Saturday April 2^nd to host the San Diego Seals (9-3) at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton, Ontario, game time 7:00 p.m. EST. Fans in the USA can catch the game on ESPN+. This is the “Game of the Week” in Canada so fans can catch the action for free on TSN.ca or the TSN app.