Rock snap three-game losing streak with road win over Thunderbirds
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Halifax, NS - The Toronto Rock (4-8) snapped a three-game losing streak and stretched their road winning streak to three games at the same time in a 15-12 win over the Halifax Thunderbirds (7-5) on Friday night at Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, NS. The Rock victory also put an end to the Thunderbirds’ five-game winning streak.
It took Nick Rose getting traded to give up the net for the first time in 132 regular season games, but Troy Holowchuk got his first NLL win in his first NLL start making 40 saves.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Holowchuk who couldn’t stop smiling after the win. “The effort those guys put out on that floor, they battled for 60 minutes, it’s something we’ve really been trying to do. We finally put one together, what a place to win here, the offence put up 15 goals, unbelievable performances from top to bottom and it feels amazing.”
The first quarter saw the two teams exchange goals in a back-and-forth up-tempo opening fifteen minutes. Josh Dawick had three for the Rock and Cody Jamieson had three for the Thunderbirds, but it was the Rock that scored last as Chris Boushy scored with 48 seconds left in the quarter to give Toronto a 5-4 lead after one.
After Halifax had scored two straight to take a 6-5 lead, the Rock went on a four-goal run to lead 9-6 at halftime. Small bookended the run to rack up a pair of first half goals. Sandwiched in between were goals by Nathan Grenon, his first as a Rock, and Boushy’s second of the night.
Small scored his third goal of the game just 25 seconds into the third quarter to stretch their lead to 10-6. Halifax scored three of the next four to cut the lead to two, as the Rock hung on to an 11-9 lead. Small scored his fourth of the game and Tom Schreiber scooped up a loose ball off a broken play on top of the crease and threw a behind the back bounce shot for what might be the goal of the year so far, and the Rock lead 13-9 after three.
Halifax scored three goals in 48 seconds just 1:15 into the fourth quarter to draw to within one at 13-12. But that was as close as they would get as Zack Kearney earned one of his career-high five assists by moving the ball to Brad Kri who tossed a behind the back shot to the top corner to put the Rock up 14-12 with 9:26 to go. Holowchuk slammed the door over the final 13:45 of the fourth quarter and Jake Darlison scored into an empty Halifax net with 52 seconds left to seal the Rock win.
“We needed it and it felt good,” said Schreiber. “There’s been a lot going on the last couple of weeks. The focus for a lot of us and for me was to think about the guys getting an opportunity and Troy comes to mind immediately and we play for him. Everybody’s just a competitor at the end of the day, so there’s no quit in our group. That’s a tough team that we beat tonight, and I feel like we earned it. We’re not done, we’re not going to quit, we’re going to keep fighting each week.”
The final shots on goal favoured Halifax 52-43. Toronto was 2-for-5 on the power play, while Halifax was 2-for-4 on the man up.
The Rock will continue their two-game road trip when they head west next Friday night to face the Vancouver Warriors for the first of two meetings in the next month. Toronto will return home on Saturday, March 22 for Marvel Super Hero™ Night against the Philadelphia Wings at Paramount Fine Foods Centre in Mississauga.