Another night, another milestone for Dan Dawson.
When all was said and done Dawson had set two NLL records. Those, paired with career benchmarks for Nick Rose and Rob Hellyer, were not enough to lift the Toronto Rock past the Georgia Swarm, however, as they lost for just the second time at home this season, 10-6.
Prior to the game, Dawson was honoured by the Rock for playing in his 307th career game, passing John Tavares for all-time on the NLL’s games played list. Later in the game, Dawson would assist on a goal by Zach Manns (Dawson’s lone point of the night) to tie Tavares’ record of 934.
Head coach Matt Sawyer wished for a better result saying, “It’s disappointing we weren’t better on a night like tonight.”
Dawson, never one to praise his own accomplishments humbled said, “All games are special.” He’d later add, “I’m very blessed to play this game a long time.”
In the second half, Nick Rose became just the ninth goaltender in NLL history to make his 5,000th save. He made 35 saves on 45 Georgia shots and was saddled with his third loss of the season.
Manns scored three of the Rock’s six goals for his third career hat trick, and second of the season.
Sawyer praised his young forward saying, “In a losing effort, Zach was far and away our best up front.”
OFFENSIVE STRUGGLE
The rest of the Rock offense, however, struggled. Tom Schreiber was the only other forward to score, with Brad Kri netting a transition goal. All five offensive goals came on outside shots, causing Dawson to admit “You’re not going to win many games putting up six, and you’re not going to win many games shooting from the outside all night.”
Georgia’s defense was solid, quarterbacked by a 43 save performance from Mike Poulin. Dawson credited their efforts saying, “their defense held us accountable to the outside.”
Sawyer also admitted, “We certainly didn’t get to the net enough.”
Dawson added, “We’re so lethal from the outside. There’s been games where we’ve gotten away with it, but you’re not going to have consistency living and dying by the outside.”
BIG LOSS
On the other side of the floor, Georgia were dealing with an offensive struggle of their own when perennial MVP candidate Lyle Thompson was placed on IR shortly before game time. The void was quickly erased by Brendan Bomberry, who scored a first half hat trick. His third came on the powerplay after Bill Hostrawser blocked a shot. Shane Jackson passed the rebound to Bomberry who had tons of time to shoot past a Jordan MacIntosh screen.
Said Jackson, “I think we’re believing in one another. We’re playing unselfish right now.”
Bomberry admitted losing Thompson left a huge hole, but “There’s a lot of guys in our locker room who can contribute.” And they did, with eight different Swarm players scoring.
COMING UP
On Friday, the Rock will travel to Georgia for the back half of the home-and-home series. Both Dawson and Sawyer said their side needs to have short memories, with Dawson admitting, “This one stinks.”
With this win, Georgia is now tied with Toronto and Halifax with eight wins. A win Friday will give the Swarm a potential tie-break over Toronto. That wasn’t lost on Sawyer who said, “We faced a team that was much hungrier. A little bit of desperation in their play, they played with a sense of urgency.”
The win was Georgia’s fourth in a row, and ended Toronto’s two-game win streak.
Toronto will follow up Friday’s game by returning home to host San Diego on Saturday night.
