Shawn Palmer, Toronto Rock Correspondent
Lacrosse is Awesome©
Featured Image Photo Credit: Christian Bender
The Toronto Rock (5-12) hosted the Halifax Thunderbirds (11-7) on Friday night April 18, 2025, for their last home game at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre, their temporary home for the 2024-25 season and will be back in Hamilton next season. Halifax was coming in having already clinched a play-off spot and were hoping for the win to solidify their spot in the standings to secure a home play-off game. The Thunderbirds jumped out quickly in the first and led by three, going into the second. The Rock continued to chip away, getting to within one at the end of the third quarter before Halifax pulled away in the fourth quarter. Final Score: Thunderbird 16—Rock 9.
The Thunderbirds opened the scoring with a four-goal run that started three minutes into the first quarter. While on a delayed powerplay, Cody Jamieson (3g, 2a) passed to Wakeriat BowHunter (1g) whose quick stick beat Troy Holowchuk (54 saves) to the short side for the early 1 – 0 lead. Six minutes later while on the power play, Randy Staats (2g, 5a) would take a high to low shot that squeezed through Holowchuk’s legs, just over the line and they were up by two. Two minutes later Thomas Hoggarth (3g, 2a) went by his defender, jumped over the crease, went far side and they led by three. Their final tally in the frame came with 1:34 on the clock. Jamieson came off the boards and fired a high to low shot that went far post, and it was 4 – 0 Halifax. In a bold move to try and stop the bleeding, Toronto would pull Holowchuk in favor of the extra attacker and with less than a second left in the frame, Corey Small (1g, 2a) fired a low-to-low shot that beat Drew Hutchinson (31 saves) through the legs to make it 4 – 1. The shots on goal at the end of the first quarter were Halifax 14 and Toronto 8.
Less than two minutes into the second quarter, Josh Dawick (2g, 2a) came over his defender, and his high to low shot went five-hole cutting the Halifax lead in half at 4 – 2. The scoring would slow a bit as the defenses worked the floor. Finally, after about four minutes, the T’Birds would get that one back. Hoggarth fired a laser high-to-high to the top corner that went over Holowchuk’s shoulder, and it was 5 – 2. Within 19 seconds of the ensuing faceoff, Clarke Petterson (7a) found a cutting Dawson Theede (4g, 6a) and his low-to-low shot went through the legs and it was 6 – 2 just over five minutes into the second. Less than 30 seconds later while in transition, Robert Hudson (1a) would find a cutting Chris Boushy (5g, 1a) coming off the bench and his shot beat Hutchinson stick side low and the Rock cut the lead in half, 6 – 3 for Halifax. Boushy would notch his second in a row three minutes later while playing four on four. He came in from the corner and put a bounce shot five-hole and they were within two, 6 – 4. Then at the 8:28 mark in the frame, Jake Jubenville would get hit with two penalties, illegal cross checking and slashing putting the Rock on a four-minute man down situation. Holowchuk was stellar making multiple point-blank saves keeping Halifax from finding twine. After the penalties were killed off, and just under four minutes left in the first half the T’Birds would put up another. While in transition, Ryan Terefenko (2a) would pass to Mike Robinson (3g, 3a) and his quick stick went short side to increase the Halifax lead to 7 – 4. Nineteen seconds later Jamieson was the recipient of a pass from Petterson, and his high-to-high shot beat Holowchuk to the short side and once again, they had doubled up Toronto at 8 – 4. Just like the first, the Rock would put up the final tally in the frame. With 50 seconds left in the first half, Boushy came over the top and his low-to-low shot beat Hutchinson to the far corner giving him a hat trick goal. Score at the end of two: Halifax 8—Rock 5. The shots on goal were Halifax 31 and Toronto 18.
Toronto would surge in the third, outscoring Halifax 3-1. They’d open it up 1:46 in when Dawick fired a high to low shot short side for his 40th goal of the season and they closed the gap to two, 8 – 6 still in favor of the Thunderbirds. Halfway through the frame, Challen Rogers (4a) made a nice flip pass to Boushy who was cutting to the net and his low-to-low shot beat Hutchinson through the legs cutting the lead for Halifax to 8 – 7. The Rock would get hit with their eighth penalty on the night with 2:34 left in third, but were still able to put up a short-handed marker a minute later. Brad Kri (1a) made a pass to a streaking Justin Martin (1g, 1a) and he went in all alone on Hutchinson and beat him with a shot to the stick side to tie the game at 8-8. Unfortunately, Halifax would capitalize with 15 seconds left on the man up. Jamieson got a pass from Staats on the crease and found an opening on the short side to regain the lead at the end of the third quarter 9 – 8. The shots on goal were Halifax 52 and Toronto 31.
The Thunderbirds were unstoppable in the fourth and opened it up right off the face off. Theede took a high to low shot that went stick side and they were up by two and it was 10 – 8. Two minutes later while in transition, Terefenko passed to Theede coming off the bench and his low shot went far side, and it was 11 – 8. They’d put up another less than two minutes later. Robinson took a shot that hit a Rock defender’s stick and changed direction, catching Holowchuk off guard and it went in on the short side and it was 12 – 8. At the 9:54 mark in the fourth, Billy Hostrawser waws hit with an unsportsmanlike and Halifax capitalized. Theede fired a high to low shot far side and Halifax was in front 13 – 8. Toronto would finally stop the Thunderbirds run after not having scored for over nine minutes. On a nice passing play, Dawick passed to Rogers behind the net who fed a cutting Boushy and his bounce shot beat Hutchinson over the shoulder for his 5th goal of the game and the Rock’s final tally on the night and it was 13 – 9 with just over half of the fourth quarter left to play. But Halifax was unrelentless and 20 seconds later, got that one back. Hoggarth blew up his defender in front, got a pass from Staats and he beat Holowchuk over the shoulder increasing the lead to 14 – 9. Halifax would put up two more before the final buzzer sounded. Staats cut around his defender and beat Holowchuk to the far side to make it 15 – 9 with less than 4:27 left in the fourth. Their final tally came 27 seconds later when Robinson came off of the boards and took a floater shot that beat Holowchuk over the shoulder for his hat-trick goal on the night. Immediately following the T’Birds goal, Toronto would change goalies and put Gowah Abrams in net for the last four minutes, but Halifax didn’t take another shot the rest of the game and secured the 16 – 9 win.
The Three stars of the game were:
Dawson Theede – Halifax Thunderbirds: 4 Goals, 6 Assists
Randy Staats – Halifax Thunderbirds: 2 Goals, 5 Assists
Chris Boushy – Toronto Rock: 5 Goals, 1 Assist
GAME STATS:
Halifax Thunderbirds: SOG 70; Saves 31; Sv% .775; FO 25-28; PP 3-8; PIM 12
Toronto Rock: SOG 40; Saves 54; Sv% .714; FO 3-28; PP 0-2; PIM 22
NEXT UP:
The Toronto Rock (5-12) will close out their season and travel to Blue Cross Arena to face the Rochester Knighthawks (10-7)*** on Saturday April 19th, 2025, game time 6:00 p.m. EST. Fans in the USA can see the game on ESPN+, while fans in Canada get to catch the action on TSN+.
The Halifax Thunderbirds (11-7) as the No. 3 Seed, will wait to see who they will play as the No. 6 Seed for the single elimination, First Round Quarterfinals which start on April 24, 2025. Winners of the single-game quarterfinals scheduled for April 24-27 will advance to the best-of-three semifinal round starting the weekend of May 1-4.
Shawn Palmer, Toronto Rock Correspondent
Lacrosse is Awesome©
***Record at time of article