When the No. 1 teams in each division face each other, you hope for a down-to-the-wire contest and that’s what we got on Friday night when the Toronto Rock beat the Edmonton Rush 16-15 in overtime.
The Rock improve to 8-1 on the season—best in the NLL—while the Rush drop to 4-3 and are now tied with the Colorado Mammoth for first in the West Division.
The first quarter saw both teams exchange goals, with Zack Greer scoring twice for Edmonton and Kasey Beirnes answering twice for Toronto. The Rock pulled ahead 7-5 in the second quarter on the strength of a hat trick from Rob Hellyer, who would go on to have a five-goal, five assist night.
The third quarter was a wide-open affair that saw the Rock pour in six goals and the Rush score five times. The 11-goal explosion by these two teams was uncharacteristic for these two teams—Edmonton hadn’t given up 10 or more goals in a game since their second game of the season; Toronto had only given up 12 goals on three occasions in 2015 prior to this game.
In the final frame Toronto extended the lead to 15-11 before the Rush mounted their comeback, scoring four unanswered goals to tie the game and force overtime.
Hellyer’s fifth goal of the game sealed the deal for the Rock 4:17 into the extra period, locking up the first star of the game for the sniper.
The Rush scored their goals in bunches, notching three goals in an 18-second span in the third quarter and then racking up another three goals in a minute and 18 seconds but ultimately they were unable to overcome Toronto’s 11-goal output in the second and third quarters.
The Rock put their record on the line again next weekend when they travel to Denver to face the Mammoth while the Rush host the Calgary Roughnecks next weekend in a worst-versus first matchup.
