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With only a few games left in regular season play, every game has playoff implications. Both the Toronto Rock and Colorado Mammoth have clinched playoff spots, but both are battling for first place in their respective divisions with their opponents only half a game away. With the Calgary Roughnecks losing to the Rochester Knighthawks, the Mammoth currently hold first place atop the West with two games to play while the Roughnecks are a half game back with only one more game. With the loss, the Rock move to second place in the East as the Philadelphia Wings hold the series 2:1 over the Rock. Both teams have two games left to play, so first place in the East may come down to that series. One thing is for sure, other than who will host the first round, very little else about the playoffs has been decided.
1st Quarter
Less than 30 seconds in to the game, Stephan Leblanc scores for Toronto after Chris Levis initially blocks his shot but subsequently deflects the ball into the net. The next play, Gavin Prout gets the Mammoth on the board which is somewhat impressive as the play was almost killed when a Mammoth defenseman trying to get off the floor got entangled and was tripped by the Mammoth ball carrier almost taking both players down. Making it look super easy, John Grant Junior gets his first goal of the night from center field near the retention line on the power play. Jamie Lincoln scores a pair of quick goals including one undefended at the crease before the Rock are able to break the Mammoth scoring streak. Garrett Billings takes advantage of blown coverage by Rory Smith to get a goal at the crease.
In what looked like either a deflected pass or possibly an off speed shot, Sean Pollock scores over Nick Rose’s right shoulder. Mat MacLeod scores on an unusual spinning bounce shot from the side of the net. After the goal, Toronto Rock goalie Nick Rose is pulled for Paddy Campbell. After the Mammoth give up three shot rebounds, Kasey Beirnes manages to score giving the Rock their first power play goal.
Notching his 100th season point in his chase for John Tavares’s record, JGJ gets around his defender for a clear shot on net. Colin Doyle scores on a bounce shot through the pack in front of the net. With just under two minutes remaining in the quarter, Prout gets a 1:1 breakaway opportunity with Campbell. He shoots and bounces the ball off both the cross and left side bas before bouncing out. No flag is thrown and play continues along a very fast pace with Levis facing several shots. In a perfect example of a tic-tac play, Beirnes scores his second power play goal.
Toronto Rock 5, Colorado Mammoth 7
2nd Quarter
John Grant Junior kicks off the second quarter with an effortless 5-hole shot. Colin Doyle gets a solid 1:1 opportunity with Chris Levis after catching a long outlet pass from Paddy Campbell but Levis comes up with the save. A couple minutes later, Ilija Gajic gets a 2:2 opportunity wherein he splits the defenders for an unassisted goal. Jamie Lincoln gets his third goal on the night after securing a blocked shot rebound. In an aggressive play, Sean Pollock at the crease takes a shot as he is knocked to the ground. Campbell falls into the net blocking the goal. The goal is ruled on the floor no good, but Bob Hamley throws the challenge flag. Upon further review, the goal is ruled good much to Mammoth fans’ delight.
Toronto Rock make a second goalie change putting Nick Rose back in net. Almost immediately, Ilija Gajic, stepping around two defenders leaps and scores on the power play. With under six minutes remaining in the half, Stephan Leblanc gets ahead of his defender getting a nice shot off at the crease to stop the Mammoth’s scoring streak. In his first disallowed goal of the night, Adam Jones scores with a beautiful high to low shot, but it’s ruled no goal due to a shot clock violation.
Lincoln, on fire in the first half continues his streak with a wide open quick stick shot at the crease off a pass from Pollock to give the Mammoth another power play goal. With under twenty seconds left in the quarter, Leblanc scores his own power play goal to close out the half. Some pushing and shoving after the quarter ends leads to penalties on Rory Smith, Kasey Beirnes and Blaine Manning to start the third.
Toronto Rock 7, Colorado Mammoth 13
3rd Quarter
Sean Pollock gets a bit of a garbage goal to kick of the third. He shoots the ball, Nick Rose blocks it but apparently thinks it went in as he’s looking over his left shoulder into the net while the ball trickles forward. Pollock scoops it up and shots it over Rose’s right shoulder. On the next play, Garret Billings, who made league history two weeks ago by recording a point on all 15 of the Rock’s goals in their win against Buffalo, utilizes a screen to score from midfield. Scott Stewart gets a breakaway opportunity after ducking his defender, scoring at the crease before a second defender can catch up to him.
In a show of acrobatics, Kasey Beirnes looking like a stuntman, scores on a diving roll. The goal is waived off, Toronto challenges. Upon further review, the call on the field holds and it’s ruled no goal. In his second disallowed goal of the night, Adam Jones comes around the side of the crease to score, but it’s ruled a crease violation. Notching his fifth goal of the night, Jamie Lincoln gets Rose out of position to score.
In an interesting play with just over thirty seconds left in the quarter, on one end of the floor you have Mac Allen and Colin Doyle posturing to fight but neither going at it: leaving it 4:4 on the other side of the floor where Pollock gets to the crease and scores. Surprisingly, Allen and Doyle didn’t throw down, even after Allen taunted Doyle with Pollock’s goal.
Toronto Rock 8, Colorado Mammoth 17
4th Quarter
Brenden Thenhaus kicks off the scoring for the Toronto Rock after recovering a rebound at the crease. Jordan McBride scores for the Mammoth on a diving shot on the crease. Apparently, several Mammoth fans didn’t realize it was #14 who scored, not number #44 and so thinking Jamie Lincoln had scored his sock trick goal, several people launched socks on to the field. I can only imagine what people possibly tuning in to their first game on CBS thought.
In a beautiful play, Garrett Billings does a behind the back pass to Thenhaus who scores on a wind up shot at midfield. McBride gets his second goal, undefended with a wind up shot. Although the cliché drives me absolutely batty, in a true example of the goalie really wanting a goal back, for some reason, Chris Levis comes out of the net an attempt to check Kasey Beirnes into the boards. He doesn’t’ quite succeed and instead loses his helmet and hits the ground. With the net untended aside from a Mammoth D man, Beirnes passes to Leblanc who gets an easy goal. Hard to believe that was just the first five and a half minutes of the final quarter.
The rest of the quarter, while chippy really wasn’t overly eventful, with only one more goal being scored by Colin Doyle on the power play. With just over five minutes remaining, Mac Allen got into it with Patrick Merrill, however, it wasn’t much of a fight as Merrill did a perfect Judo throw on a charging Allen to end the fight without much of a punch even thrown. As both received fighting majors, they simply left the floor. Apparently, not to be outdone, a minute later, Blaine Manning and Ian Hawksbee got into it. Manning definitely the winner in that one and again, both players sent off the field. About thirty seconds later, Chris Levis started getting into a it bit with the Rock players and Hamley decided it would be best to send him off the floor as well, replacing him with Tye Belanger. Although the game wasn’t what I personally was expecting it to be, it was certainly aggressive, and as it was being televised nationally, hopefully got some new fans in to the sport.
Final Score
Toronoto Rock 12, Colorado Mammoth 19
Attendance: 15,215
1st Star – Jamie Lincoln, with five goals and an assist, he definitely made his mark on the game.
2nd Star – Sean Pollock, had a fantastic game with four goals and three assists he was right on the heels of Lincoln.
3rd Star – Stephan Leblanc , with four goals and five assists, if the Toronto Rock would have been on the winning side, there’s no doubt Leblanc would have been the MVP. He had a phenomenal night and truly kept the Rock in the game.
Around the league:
Calgary Roughnecks 12, Rochester Knighthawks 14
Washington Stealth 9, Minnesota Swarm 14
Buffalo Bandits 8, Edmonton Rush 11
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