Black Wolves welcome Toronto and its six-game winning streak
The Toronto Rock come to play the New England Black Wolves at Mohegan Sun Arena at 1 p.m. today with a record of 7-1. The Rock have six straight wins to their credit, four of them decided by one goal.
The way Black Wolves coach Glenn Clark figures it, that takes consistency.
"What makes them good in those games is that they sort of recognize it's a battle of attrition and consistency wins," Clark said in his weekly teleconference. "When you start looking for shortcuts and getting out of your systems and patterns, you get yourself in trouble.
"I think Toronto has done a very good job of just playing consistent lacrosse, not getting rattled and delivering the same product game in and game out."
And consistency is what Clark is looking for from New England (5-4). Last weekend, the team split a twogames-in-two-days series against the Philadelphia Wings, one in Philly and one at the Sun. Sunday's game yielded a 17-11 victory for the Black Wolves, which Clark was especially pleased with, as it shows his team can respond under adverse circumstances.
The coach said it wasn't "all rainbows and butterflies" after Saturday's loss. "There's growth in the ugliness. They know that. They expect that," he said. "I wasn't happy with what they did (Saturday). We're learning a little bit about ourselves and working through that consistency.
"The defense has been pretty solid. Offensively, when we're on, we're real good. When we're struggling and not being systematic, you see the results sometimes. We've recognized it. If you could bottle and sell it, you'd be very wealthy."
The Black Wolves are led in scoring by Callum Crawford with 62 points (27 goals, 35 assists); Crawford had a career-high 12 points in Sunday's win over Philly. Stephan Leblanc is next with 46 points and Reilly O'Connor has 42. The Wolves are three games behind first-place Buffalo in the NLL's Eastern Division.
Toronto, which hasn't lost since Dec. 28 against Georgia, is led by Tom Schreiber (16 goals, 31 assists, 47 points).