Christopher Crane, NLL Correspondent
Lacrosse is Awesome©
Featured Image Photo Credit: Christian Bender
With only two weeks left in the regular season of the NLL and prior to this game, three teams had clinched, four teams had been eliminated from earning a playoff spot which left eight teams fighting for the five spots in March to May. This weekend in an Eastern Conference matchup that had playoff implications for both teams as each needed the win with the Philadelphia Wings (7-9) traveling north to First Ontario Centre to take on the Toronto Rock (13-4) in front of 10,320 Rock fans. Leading the Wings on the night was Mitch Jones (5g) with five goals on the night and for Toronto it was “Dangerous” Dan Dawson (3g) with a hat trick on the night along with Tom Schreiber (3g, 5a) with eight points. The Rock would also control at the face off dot going 14-23 (61%) and also outshot the Wings 64-42 (SOG). Both teams would keep things close, but Toronto would have big second and fourth quarters to help secure a 12-7 win.
Dan Dawson would get the first quarter started for Toronto’s going back-to-back at 12:40 and 9:33 to go up 2-0. Philadelphia would answer back with back-to-back tallies of their own from Mitch Jones netting the first at 6:08 on a power play opportunity and teammate Taite Cattoni (1g, 1a) netting the second at 4:36 to make it a 2-2 game. The Rock’s Tom Schreiber would notch the go-ahead marker to put them up 3-2 at 3:44. But Jones would notch the equalizer for Philadelphia with 2:52 on the ticker closing out the frame 3-3 and his second on the night.
The second quarter was all Toronto as they would outscore Philadelphia 5-1 with each score coming from five different players. The Rock would jump out to a 6-3 lead after going on a three-goal run with Brandon Slade (2g, 1a), Dan Craig (1g, 3a) and Phil Mazzuca (1g) all putting up scores. Philadelphia finally got one on the board with 5:53 left in the frame with a score from Kiel Matisz (1g, 1a) to make it 6-4. Toronto put up two more to close out the frame with Challen Rogers (1g, 4a) netting the first with 3:34 on the clock and Dawson notching his hat-trick on a power play opportunity with 1:57 to go to put the Rock up 8-4 heading into halftime.
Both teams would only combine for three scores in the third with the Wings winning that battle 2-1. Philadelphia’s Jones would net the first just 1:14 in to make it an 8-5 game. Toronto’s Corey Small (1g) put up the only Rock marker at 2:53 increasing the lead back to four 9-5. But the Wings would put one more up with 6:20 left with another from Jones and it was 9-6 and the net minders both holding strong for the rest of the frame.
The fourth quarter swung back in favor of Toronto as they would outscore Philadelphia 3-1. Getting things started for the Rock was Schreiber with back-to-back scores netting his tallies at 1:22 and 3:30 giving him his hat-trick making it an 11-6 game. But the Wings were not going to give up and at the 8:55 mark Jones would net his fifth on the night on a power play opportunity to an 11-7. The Rock would close the door on scoring for the night with Slade adding the finally tally with 5:57 on the timer to secure a 12-7 win.
STATS:
Philadelphia Wings—SOG 42; Saves 52; Sv% .812%; FO 9-23; PP 2-4
Toronto Rock—SOG 64; Saves 35; Sv% .833%; FO 14-23; PP 1-2
NEXT UP:
Toronto (13-4) now holds the first-place spot in the Eastern Division just one game ahead of the Buffalo Bandits (12-4) and will travel to Key Bank Centre to face the Bandits on Saturday April 22, 2023, game time 8:00 p.m. EST. Toronto is in a must win situation if they want to keep their number one spot over Buffalo. This is the Game of the Week for fans in the USA and they can see the game on ESPNU. Fans in Canada can see the action on TSN.ca or the TSN app.
The Philadelphia Wings (7-9) hold the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference and will have to win out the season and get some help from other teams for the hopes to head to the playoffs this year. They will head to MVP Arena to face the Albany FireWolves (3-13) on Sunday April 23, 2023, game time 3:00 p.m. EST. Fans in the USA can see the game on ESPN+. Fans in Canada can see the game on TSN.ca or the TSN app.
Christopher Crane, NLL Correspondent
Lacrosse is Awesome©