Coming off their third (and final) bye week of the season, the Toronto Rock won their first major road trip of the season Friday night 12-7 in San Diego. CJ Kirst once again showed why Toronto picked him first overall with the best offensive game of his career – five goals, and six points.
However, the focus postgame was on the defensive effort. The San Diego Seals scored twice on the power play including an opener from former Rock Corey Small (1 goal/1 assist in the game) leading to a 3-2 lead after the opening quarter; a quarter which also saw Latrell Harris leave early with an injury. Nick Rose (who made 41 saves in the game, passing 1,700 in his career) only allowed five more goals in the remainder of the game.
“Just good resolve,” said head coach Matt Sawyer postgame. “Whenever we faced adversity, Rosey was on top of his game.”
He did admit, Toronto did not play its best 60 minute game – a common theme so far this season. “We shot ourselves in the foot a few times,” he said. “But we stuck with it and played out best down the stretch.” From the last minute of the third quarter when the game was tied at six to the final horn, the Rock finished the game on a 6-1 run. During the stretch Owen Hiltz put up four (1/3) of his five points in the game.
“The word of the day was trust,” said Kirst. “We trust each other every step of the way, first period to the fourth, and we were able to get it done.” They ‘got it done’ against Cameron Dunkerley who filled in between the pipes for the injured Chris Origlieri. Both from Orangeville, Dunkerley is in his first season in San Diego. He stopped 33 of 45 shots.
Other contributors included Toronto’s only other multi-goal scorer, Challen Rogers (2/1) and Mark Matthews (1/3). Defensively Phil Mazzuca secured eight loose balls and three blocks, Hugh Kelleher and Josh Jubenville both finished with six loose balls and two caused turnovers, and Brad Kri was his usual force with five loose balls, three blocks and three caused turnovers.
San Diego saw multi-goal efforts from Wesley Berg (2/2), Tre Leclaire (2/1) and Zack Currier (2 goals).
The week seven matchup comes off Toronto’s third, and final, bye of the season. The Rock will now play every weekend from their win January 9 to their final game in Saskatchewan April 18 – 15 straight weekends.
