Rock Fall 19-12 To Colorado

Denver – The Toronto Rock (7-7) were defeated 19-12 by the Colorado Mammoth (11-3) at Pepsi Center in Denver on Saturday night.  Toronto fell behind early and could never make up any ground throughout the game as they trailed by as many as nine goals on three different occasions on the night. 

Also as a result of loss, the Rock will have to wait another week to clinch a home playoff game despite Buffalo’s 11-8 loss to Edmonton on Saturday night.

Rock Captain Colin Doyle finished the night with 2 goals and 2 assists to tie NLL Hall Of Famer, and former Colorado Mammoth, Gary Gait for second in NLL all-time scoring with 1165 points.

A wild first quarter saw the Mammoth build a 6-2 lead just before the midway mark of the frame.  The Rock chipped away at the lead and took advantage of a number of power play opportunities, trailing just 7-5 after the opening 15 minutes.  Nick Rose started the game, but was pulled after allowing Colorado’s sixth goal.

Colorado reeled off five straight goals to build a seven-goal edge taking a 12-5 lead.  From there, Toronto outscored Colorado 2-1 as Stephan Leblanc netted his second and third goals of the game to make it 13-7 at the half.  Rose replaced Campbell during the second quarter and would go the rest of the way in goal for the Rock.

Jamie Lincoln and Sean Pollock continued to carry hot sticks for Colorado as Lincoln scored a pair of third quarter goals to give him five after three and Pollock’s single gave him four.  Colorado outscored Toronto 4-1 in the third to lead 17-8 going into the final 15 minutes.

The Rock put up a valiant fight in the fourth quarter outscoring the Mammoth 4-2, however the hole was too deep for Toronto to dig their way out in the fourth quarter.

One bright spot for the Rock was Garrett Billings who has been rewriting history lately and his third assist of the game broke the old single-season team assist mark held by Josh Sanderson of 71 set in 2005.  Billings is also just 13 points away from breaking Colin Doyle’s single season points record of 111 also set in 2005.  Billings finished the game with 2 goals and 4 assists for 6 points.

Next Friday night, the Rock will travel to Everett, Washington for another championship rematch with the Washington Stealth.  Fans can watch the game live on the NLL Network on NLL.com at 10pm ET.