The Niagara Lock Monsters continued their dominance with a 10-7 victory over the Toronto Shooting Stars last night, thus clinching them first place in the Canadian Lacrosse League standings. Niagara swept the season series against Toronto and they are now riding an eight game win streak going into this weekend versus the Barrie Blizzard.
This game was all Toronto early on and it looked the Shooting Star were going to fly past the Lock Monsters and sail to a victory. After Andrew Tober opened the scoring for Niagara, the Shooting Stars responded with three unanswered goals including two back to back markers by Mack O’Brien and it was 3-1 Toronto at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter started slow but then Niagara came alive at about the midway point and quickly got back into the game. The Lock Monsters scored four goals just 3:22 apart to take a brief lead but Toronto answered back 27 seconds later on a Brad Levick goal and it was 5-4 Shooting Stars at half time.
The Shooting Stars opened the scoring in the third quarter on a Brad Mazzocato goal and then goaltenders Gary Muzzin and Connor Danko took over, putting on a show for the next seven and a half minutes. Both goalies made huge saves for their teams as the action went back and forth until Toronto’s Jackson Gair would finally find a hole on Danko. Just 42 seconds after that, Niagara’s Kim Squire would score a highlight reel goal on a feed from Chris Janese to make it 6-6 going into the final frame.
The Shooting Stars once again opened the scoring in this quarter but it would be the last lead they would see in this game. The fourth quarter saw incredible action and was one of the best quarters of lacrosse we’ve seen all year, in any league. The difference was a brief lapse by Toronto that saw Niagara scoring four goals in 1:38 including Corey Fowler and Dylan Llord getting their second goals of the game.
Conor Danko picked up his seventh win of the season while making 38 saves; he now sits second in the league with a goals against average of 9.80. Corey Fowler led all scorers with 2 goals and 3 assists; he leads the league in scoring with 67 points (27g 40a).
