Steve Milton: The Rock eliminates Halifax Thunderbirds before 8831 in Hamilton
The Rock aren't ready to vacate FirstOntario Centre just yet.
With a roller-coaster 15-11 win over the Halifax Thunderbirds Friday night, the Rock qualified for the National Lacrosse League East Conference finals which open next weekend. It was the second straight year the Rock have eliminated the T-birds in the loser-goes-home conference semifinal, but it wasn't as anxiety-ridden as last year's overtime victory in which the Rock squandered big leads.
But there was definitely a whiff of that memory as the determined Thunderbirds acted like the release valve on a pressure cooker, periodically leaking some of the steam from the sizeable audience of 8831. Twice they chipped away at substantial Rock leads before the home team's superior depth and floor presence - led by timely goals from Zach Manns, and swarming loose-ball work by Mitch de Snoo, Greg Downing and, at the most critical junctures, Chris Corbeil - prevailed in the latter moments of the game.
It was similar to last year but we didn't make it quite as close," said Rock head coach Matt Sawyer. They're a really good team. They're big and, using hockey terms, heavy up front. They push you around and really test you. We felt we left a lot on the table tonight. We had a lot of opportunities we didn't cash in on that we usually do. Warren (Hill, the Thunderbirds' goalie from Six Nations) was really good early on and I think we were overthinking it a bit."
The Rock now await the survivor of Saturday night's other East semifinal between the Buffalo Bandits and Rochester Knighthawks.
Regardless of which team wins that one the Rock will play next Saturday night at FirstOntario Centre. If the Bandits prevail, Game 1 in the best-of-three conference final will be in Buffalo Friday, with Game 2 in Hamilton the following night. If the Knighthawks emerge, Game 1 will be in Hamilton Saturday and Game 2 the next night in Rochester. If the series requires three games, the deciding match will be played on Saturday, May 20 in either Buffalo or Hamilton.
The Rock hope to have leading scorer Tom Schreiber, who had 48 goals during the regular season, back for next weekend. He was a late scratch after being hurt two weeks ago against Buffalo.
It was an unfortunate circumstance not having who we feel is the best offensive player in the league but it opened opportunities for others," Sawyer said. It shows we're a complete team. Our goal was to win a game here to get an opportunity, not just to get Tom back, but we're playing for our season. We want to get together as a team next week."
The Rock had a couple of big leads, 5-2 in the second quarter which, with Hill making 29 mostly-difficult first-half saves, evaporated into a nervous 5-5 draw at the intermission. And they got to 11-6 on Manns' goal early in the fourth frame before the determined Thunderbirds shaved it to 11-9 within three minutes.
But Manns scored his third goal of the game with six-minutes left to make it 12-9 and vicious defence by de Snoo and Corbeil, who was playing just his third game as a Rock after suffering a pre-season injury, sent de Snoo in for an empty-net goal with Hill pulled. Shortly thereafter, Corbeil's ferocious checking sent Adam Jay in for another empty-netter. The team's traded goals in the final 30 seconds including yet another empty-netter by Downing who had won the faceoff.
Manns, whom Sawyer called Playoff Zach" for his big post-season goals, including two last year against Halifax, had three assists for six points, while Corey Small also had a hat-trick among his five points. Dan Craig and Stephen Keogh each had a pair of goals for the Rock, while singles went to de Snoo, Jay, Downing, Dan Dawson and Latrell Harris.
Chris Boushy had a hat-trick and three assists for the visitors while Randy Staats potted a hat-trick before injuring a knee late in the game and Ryan Bemesch had two goals.
You hear the news that (Schreiber) is out - it's killing him not to be here right now --- but we have a very deep team for this specific reason, for when guys go out in playoffs. So it was really a next man up mentality and guys came out to play tonight. We have a lot of very talented shooters and I feel like on any night any one of us can get hot, and that's the benefit of having such a stacked offence."
Sawyer and Manns both praised the team's rugged rearguards, like Corbeil, in a game that was loaded with hostile squared-up defence on both sides.
One of the reasons we pursued Chris in free agency, among other things - he's a captain, he's won championships - was that we were looking for what I'd call veteran poise in big moments," Sawyer said. With him, along with Greg Downing, tonight you saw that veteran presence."
Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com