Rock Dominate Wings in 15-8 Win
March 22, 2025 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Toronto Rock News Release
Mississauga, ON - The Toronto Rock (5-9) scored a massive victory to keep their playoff hopes alive, defeating the Philadelphia Wings (5-9) by a score of 15-8 on Saturday night in front of a standing room only sellout crowd at Paramount Fine Foods Centre in Mississauga.
While the Rock's offence might steal the headlines, the lead here just might be the play of the Rock's defence and a solid performance between the pipes by Rock starter Troy Holowchuk. The Rock defence didn't give the Wings a sniff early and allowed Toronto to seize control from the outset and never give it up.
"We talked about a complete game from top to bottom," Head Coach Matt Sawyer said following the Rock's fifth win of the season. "We wanted to score early, get some of our younger defenders in the lineup and see what our goalie could do, pleased with the result and performance tonight."
A three-goal run from the Rock in the opening quarter saw them chase Wings starting goaltender Nick Damude after allowing those three goals on six shots. The run was started by Corey Small, then Dan Craig and Captain Challen Rogers finished it. Liam Patten scored Philadelphia's first goal of the night and then with under a minute left in the opening quarter, Josh Dawick fired a missile that found the back of the net to give the Rock a 4-1 lead after one.
2024 first overall NLL Draft pick Brennan O'Neill scored first in the second quarter to make it a 4-2 game, but that seemed the light a fire under the home side. With the Rock holding a two-goal lead, Latrell Harris took the ball to the goal in transition to get the fans back into the game and restore the Rock's three-goal lead, 5-2. It was all Toronto from there with Boushy finding the back of the net twice in just under three minutes to extend the lead before Dawick scored his second of the game to take an 8-2 lead into halftime.
In the third quarter, the two teams exchanged goals throughout with the Wings getting it started and finishing the scoring to outscore the Rock 3-2 in the frame and reduce the Rock's lead to five goals as the Rock carried a 10-5 lead into the fourth quarter.
Toronto kept piling it on in the fourth quarter, scoring five times to Philadelphia's three tallies. The Rock's Brad Kri and the Wings' Ryan Wagner engaged in a spirited bout that ignited the Rock City faithful once again.
"The defence shut them down," Boushy said after a six-point performance. "Troy played amazing tonight and that's the Troy we know who can play a full 60-minute game. When he was backing up Rose, he came into games where the situation was not as great for our team, so it was good for him to play a full 60 minutes at home."
With the win, the Rock keep their playoff hopes alive and will have some extra time without a game next weekend before a trip to Las Vegas.
"Look at our record, we're not looking past our next game, we have to win," Sawyer said. "If we want our remaining games to mean something, we have to win next time. That's our motivation as a team, coaching staff, and organization, is to prepare for each game ahead of us."
In the triumph, Holowchuk picks up his first NLL home win after he stopped 49 of 57 shots he faced. Wings starter Nick Damude made 16 saves while Deacan Knott made 26 in relief.
Toronto outshot Philadelphia 57 to 41 and were 2-for-3 on the powerplay while the Wings went 3-for-7.
The Rock will now enter their final bye week of the regular season before a trip to the Sin City to face the Desert Dogs on Sunday, April 6 and 5:00pm ET. Toronto will be back at home on Friday, April 11 for Yacht Rock Night against the Vancouver Warriors with a special start time of 8:00pm ET. Fans can watch the game on NLL Friday Night on TSN and TSN+.
For more information on Toronto Rock tickets, please contact a Toronto Rock account executive by phone at 416-596-3075, by email at tickets@torontorock.com or visit torontorock.com.
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