One victory won’t be enough for Rock
Win over Rochester would force series to be decided by 10-minute tiebreaker
The Toronto Rock are facing more than a must-win lacrosse game on Saturday. They are facing two mustwin games, all in the same night.
When the Rock (14-4) host the Rochester Knighthawks (12-6), they must win the National Lacrosse League playoff game and a minigame tiebreaker.
The three-time defending champion Knighthawks won the first game of the two-game East Division final last week 10-9 in Rochester.
Awin for Toronto at the Air Canada Centre (7 p.m., TSN) would square the series, forcing a mini-game, or 10-minute tiebreaker, to settle things.
Rock head coach John Lovell said he believed that, going into the series, Game 2 would be the most important.
“As nice as it would have been to win Game 1, you don’t win the series unless you win Game 2,” Lovell said. “We worked hard all season long to gain some kind of advantage in terms of having home floor. We have it, so we have to use it.”
The Rock’s second-leading scorer, Rob Hellyer, who is a five-year veter- an, says he is looking forward to the mini-game, which the league is using for just the second year.
“It’s pretty cool,” he said. “It’s the first time I’ve been a part of it. It’s kind of exciting. I think it’s good for the fans and keeps everyone on their toes.”
The five-foot-eight,180-pound Hellyer recently returned to action after missing almost six weeks (four games) with an upper-body injury suffered on March 21. He finished second on the Rock with 31goals and 90 points in 14 games.
Hellyer says the mini-game will play in Toronto’s favour because conditioning is a team strength. “I think we’ll have enough gas in the tank and hopefully finish the job off.”
The winner of the East final will face either the Edmonton Rush or the Calgary Roughnecks for the NLL’s biggest prize, the Champions Cup. Edmonton won the opener of the West final 10-8 last week.
The championship final will be a best-of-three series. Last year, the NLL applied the two-game series plus tiebreaker game to the division finals and the championship series.
As the top overall seed, Toronto would host Games 1 and 3 (if necessary) in the best-of-three championship. But the Rock have to get past Rochester first.
If Toronto wins the regular game Saturday, there will be a two-minute break before play continues. If the tiebreaker is tied, sudden death overtime will decide the outcome. Teams will not be permitted to make lineup changes after Game 2.
All penalties and ejections will carry over into the tiebreaker, while players who are ejected during Game 2 will not be permitted to play in the tiebreaker.
Each team can call one timeout during the tiebreaker and teams will have one instant replay challenge opportunity.
Last week, the Rock fell behind 5-1 and were forced to play catch up all game. Brett Hickey gave Toronto hope when he tied the score 9-9 with 3:59 to play.
Rochester’s Dan Dawson shook off the check of Brodie Merrill in front of the net and scored the winner with 37 seconds remaining.
“It was a bad start,” Hellyer said. “Getting down 5-1is tough. Our loose balls weren’t the best they could be, and the little battles all over the floor weren’t quite as good.”
Toronto is 1-3 against Rochester this season.