(Christian Bender/NLL)
With early playoff exits to the Buffalo Bandits in back-to-back seasons, the goal for the Toronto Rock in 2024 is simple: home floor in the post-season. On Saturday night, thanks to a 13-6 win over the Rochester Knighthawks, that goal is now accomplished.
Sparked by a 10-1 first half, the Rock now match their franchise-best wins total with 14, doing so in front of a Hamilton record crowd of 11,256.
“It feels like more than that,” said Chris Boushy, who scored a hat trick in the first-half run (and four goals overall). “It’s nice for our fans to show up for us and we can only reciprocate in the same fashion,” he added.
Goaltender Nick Rose – who made 44 saves for career win 107, passing Pat O’Toole for second-most all-time – said the same. “We really feed off them; we enjoy playing here.” He reiterated the importance of home floor saying, “For us to play most of our playoff games here is going to be crucial for us.”
Rose wasn’t the only Rock player with a milestone night. Chris Corbeil played in career game 200, and, early in the second quarter, Corey Small registered career assist 500. Small told TSN’s Ashley Docking after the game, “Especially with the unified standings it’s going to be important to be home as much as possible.”
As Boushy points out, “We could be playing anybody. Every team in this league is really good.”
Small ended the night with five points (3 goals, 2 assists) including perhaps the goal of the game. While on a four-on-three power play, Tom Schreiber swung a behind-the-back pass to Challen Rogers who played his first home game since February 10. Rogers (2 goals, 3 assists on the night) then hit Small at the side of the crease with a perfect no-look feed for an easy quick-stick finish.
Small did admit though, “We’re still working on being perfect.”
Despite playing without Thomas McConvey and Curtis Knight, and with Connor Fields noticeably labouring after an awkward second quarter fall, the Knighthawks closed to within five putting four straight goals in from four different scorers. A major part of the comeback was Rylan Hartley, who relieved starter Riley Hutchcraft (9 goals off 37 shots in 28:22) briefly in the first, and for good at halftime.
Hartley has struggled with injuries throughout his career, and last played significant time December 23 (he also saw 20 seconds of floor time in Week 19). Overall, Hartley allowed just three goals from 26 Rock shots in 31:37, many of his saves of the spectacular variety.
Small observed, “It happens sometimes when a goalie comes in and plays a very different style from the goalie you’ve been shooting on; it’s hard to figure him out a bit.”
Still, the Rock hung on and can now begin focussing on the postseason (with one more game to play in Saskatchewan on Saturday). It’s a focus Rose says they’ve had for a while. “Internally, we’ve been talking about it for about a month now.”
While Small says the team isn’t ‘perfect’, Boushy pointed to the positives. “We’re getting better every game in certain areas. Whether or not we’re bringing it for one part, we’re definitely improving in another”, he said. “These are all good signs when it matters we’ll have the stuff to put together a full 60.”
The Rock last won 14 games in 2015. That season they made the three game final series, losing to Saskatchewan.
