TORONTO – The Toronto Rock hit the road this weekend to face the Philadelphia Wings in a crucial game on Saturday April 11th. Despite a couple of strong scoring streaks, the Rock could not finish with a win as Philadelphia defeated Toronto, 16-14.
Wings forward Merrick Thompson opened the scoring 40 seconds into the first quarter followed by another from Athan Iannucci giving Philadelphia a two goal lead early on. Luke Wiles put Toronto on the board with an outside shot but Drew Westervelt responded with a third Philly goal and Iannucci put another past Rock goaltender Bob Watson putting the Wings up by three. Forward Craig Conn scored another for the Rock with just over seven minutes left in the first quarter before Iannucci scored his third of the night. Jordan Levine scored another for the Wings before the quarter ended with Philadelphia ahead, 6-2.
Toronto dominated the scoring in the second quarter beginning with a power play goal from Kasey Beirnes. Defender Stephen Hoar put one past Philadelphia goaltender Rob Blasdell with 7:35 left and Lewis Ratcliff scored his first of the night followed by a shorthanded goal from defender Rob Marshall to tie the game. Blaine Manning broke the tie giving Toronto their first lead with just over three minutes left in the first half. Merrick Thompson scored the Wings’ first goal of the second quarter along with Drew Westervelt and Geoff Snider scoring back to back goals for Philadelphia closing the first half 9-7 in favour of the Wings.
As they did in the second quarter, the Rock scored another five straight to begin the second half. Rock newcomer Jason Clark scored his first of the game quickly into the third followed by another from Craig Conn, his second of the night. Forward Jason Crosbie put another past Rob Blasdell, giving Toronto their second lead of the game and Jason Clark and Lewis Ratcliff each scored their second of the night putting the Rock up by three. A pair of Geoff Snider goals followed and Westervelt scored another for Philadelphia tying the game at 12-12 with 2:42 left in the third quarter and remaining tied closing out the third.
Mat Giles opened the scoring in the fourth quarter for Philadelphia but Kasey Beirnes responded for the Rock and two teams remained tied at 13-13 until Bill McGlone put one in from behind the net for Toronto with just under nine minutes left in the game. Jon Harasym scored for Philadelphia to tie the game once again and Drew Westervelt gave Philadelphia the lead and the game winner with a minute left. Kyle Sweeney scored on a Rock empty net bringing the Wings to a 16-14 win over Toronto.
Toronto scoring was spread out among Craig Conn, Kasey Beirnes, Jason Clark and Lewis Ratcliff who all scored twice with Conn recording 4 assists on the night. Bill McGlone, Luke Wiles, Rob Marshall, Blaine Manning, Stephen Hoar and Jason Crosbie contributed a goal each.
The Rock (5-10) are no longer in the playoff hunt for the 2009 season and play their final regular season game at home next weekend on Saturday April 18th when they host the San Jose Stealth at 7:00 p.m. EST.