Rock Shuts Down Sting 19-13 to Win NLL Crown
Published on May 14, 2005 under National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Toronto Rock News Release
When Arizona's Peter Seller scored 8:52 into third quarter, his Arizona Sting knew they were in a fight with the Toronto Rock for the NLL Champion's Cup. His goal made it a 12-11 affair and with the Sting's penchant for late-game heroics they could have pulled out the win.
Except for the fact that the Sting's offense dried up after that point, going 19:12 without denting the twine. That led to the Rock capturing its fifth NLL crown in seven years with a 19-13 triumph Saturday afternoon in the Edge NLL Championship Game in front of a league-record crowd of 19,432 at the Air Canada Center.
The reason that the Arizona offense stopped was elementary, my dear Watson, Rock goaltender Bob Watson, that is. Watson put in a stellar second half and shutdown the Sting offense with save after save. it didn't matter if the shots were high, low, bounced or rockets; Watson was there to snuff them all out. He finished with 33 saves on 46 Arizona shots.
After Seller scored, Colin Doyle and Blaine Manning each lit the lamp twice while Sandy Chapman added another one for the Rock to put Toronto up 17-11 with 4:46 left. Arizona's Pat Maddalena scored twice in 17 seconds to bring it close but the Rock's Jim Veltman tallied a pair of empty-net goals to ice the win.
Doyle was named the MVP with his eight-point (5g,3a) effort to lead all players. Josh Sanderson's seven-point game (3g,4a) while Aaron Wilson (3g,3a) and Veltman (2g,4a) each recorded six-point Saturdays.
Arizona's Craig Conn (3g,2a) and Cory Bomberry (1g,4a) led the way with five points for the Sting while First-Team All-Pro Dan Dawson added four points (2g,2a). Lindsay Plunkett (4a) and Maddalena (2g,2a) also turned in four-point games. Goaltender Mike Miron stopped 43 of Toronto's 60 shots on goal.
The outcome could have been decided earlier when Sting forward Jonas Derks was called for a five-minute major for high-sticking 8:08 into the first quarter. Although the Sting didn't give up a goal on the power-play, they let in four goals while Derks was in the box. It took a 2-0 Sting lead and turned it into a 4-3 edge for the Rock through one quarter.
Toronto started to pull away in the second quarter when it held Arizona off the board for most of the quarter. The Rock scored six of the quarter's final seven goals to head into the half with a 10-6 lead. Arizona went the final 13:21 of the second quarter scoreless except for Conn's goal at 9:11.
Arizona charged back by scoring five of the first seven goals of the third quarter, the last of which was the Seller goal.
National Lacrosse League Stories from May 14, 2005
- Rock Shuts Down Sting 19-13 to Win NLL Crown - Toronto Rock
- Rock Finalize Fifth - Toronto Rock
- Toronto Rock Win 2005 Edge NLL Championship Game - NLL
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