It may have been ‘Kid’s Night’ on Saturday when the Toronto Rock hosted the New York Riptide, but it was the home side’s veterans who stole the show. Tom Schreiber earned his 400th career point, finishing the evening with 14 (three off the NLL all-time record), tying a Rock record with 11 assists, in Toronto’s 22-14 win.
Schreiber’s hat trick was just one of five for the Rock offense. Corey Small finished with five goals (nine points), Stephen Keogh with four (seven points), Dan Craig with three (eight points) and defender Latrell Harris with three (four points). Dan Dawson entered the game with 1,492 career points. He scored twice, both using his size to muscle off opponents, including former teammate Brett Hickey, and ended up one point shy of becoming the second ever player to hit 1,500.
Harris, who scored all three of his goals in transition, said of Dawson, “His veteran status, how he is in our room, how he holds himself, it’s just unbelievable.” Harris said the team will be waiting to celebrate when Dawson hits yet another milestone. “To share that moment with him, just to see how hard he works, it’s special.”
Last time New York faced Toronto, the Rock defence held sophomore standout Jeff Teat to just two points. Not tonight, however, as Teat made his TSN ‘Game of the Week’ debut putting up 10 points (four goals). The outburst was not lost on Harris. “Fourteen, personally for us, is a little too much.”
Small also admitted transition and power play chances (the Riptide were four-for-five with the extra man) hurt. “Our ‘D’ is holding them down five-on-five, so it’s more or less taking those opportunities away.”
Harris thought he’d scored midway through the second quarter off a centre-floor turnover. New York head coach Dan Ladouceur would challenge the play, and be correct for the second time in the half. The goal would’ve made the score 10-4 for Toronto. But, the Riptide came out of the time-out with Connor Kearnan scoring on the power play, and Teat completing his hat trick. Teat, from the outside boards, found Kearnan cutting to the net to pull New York within two.
The Rock then ran off a 6-1 run over the next eight-and-a-half minutes to go up 15-8.
Another veteran, goaltender Nick Rose, stopped 23 of 36 shots faced. (Troy Holowchuk played the final 4:31, allowing one goal o three shots).
One youngster who did make an impact was 2022 draft pick Marley Angus. He was physical on offence in his NLL debut, setting picks and finishing with three assists.
Kearnan and Tyler Digby also contributed hat tricks for New York. Hickey scored twice against his old team, adding four assists. And Reilly O’Connor had six points, all assists. Though he only scored once, Larson Sundown was a constant distraction, allowing others to score multiple times whilst the defense watched him behind the Rock net.
Toronto will look to extend their win streak to six straight on Friday in Georgia (7:30 p.m.), while New York will host Albany on Saturday (7:30 p.m.).
