Photo courtesy of the Toronto Rock Instagram
The Toronto Rock (6-10) visited the Las Vegas Desert Dogs (4-13) in NLL action Sunday. This was the second meeting between the Rock and the Desert Dogs, with Toronto winning the first matchup 16-11 in Las Vegas on March 1, 2024.
The Rock are in a difficult position, where they need to look at what they have in the organization in order to take full advantage of a number of high draft picks in the 2025 draft. At the same time, they need to keep up their level of compete as everyone is playing for jobs on next year’s team.
Las Vegas has had another tough year and more rebuilding is necessary. Jack Hannah, Holden Cattoni, Jonathan Donville, and Casey Jackson are good pieces to build around, and should be fairly strong fairly quickly.
The goaltending match-up had Troy Holowchuk in net for Toronto facing Justin Geddie in net for the Desert Dogs.
The first half saw both teams show moments of greatness. Josh Dawick and Nathan Grenon led the way for Toronto accounting for five of their seven goals in the half. Las Vegas had a much more balanced attack using eight different scorers to take an 8-7 lead to the intermission.
The second half went back and forth with Toronto taking a two goal lead late into the fourth quarter. The Desert Dogs fought hard getting goals from Kyle Killen on the power-play, and Jackson Webster with the goalie on the bench to tie the game. With the game destined for overtime, Vegas goalie Landon Kells took a five minute high sticking penalty to put his team behind the eight ball to start the overtime.
In overtime, Jack Hannah converted a Jonathan Donville pass shorthanded at 1:16 to give the Desert Dogs the 14-13 victory.
To The Game:
The Desert Dogs opened the scoring with a laser from Kyle Killen converting a Jonathan Donville pass at 1:10.
https://twitter.com/NLL/status/1908991221172740444?t=C4rnXdmtRI_g9o4wXsQoHQ&s=19
In transition Josh Dawick tied the game firing a high to high blast off a Josh Jubinville pass at 3:04, followed by a bounced shot by Dawick off a Brian Cameron pass at 4:06. Nathan Grenon added another sidearm snipe from the outside off a Chris Boushy feed at 4:37.
Las Vegas replaced Justin Geddie with Landon Kells.
Adam Poitras got one back for Las Vegas with a charge to the net off a Dylan Hutchison pass at 7:20, but Challen Rogers fired an outside blast off a Josh Dawick pass at 12:26 to restore the two goal lead.
While shorthanded Connor Kirst went coast to coast beating Holowchuk to the far side unassisted at 14:47.
After one quarter, Toronto 4 Las Vegas 3.
Second Quarter:
Jonathan Donville and Holden Cattoni both scored quickly to open the quarter giving the Desert Dogs the lead at 1:23.
Elijah Gash tied the game scoring in transition off a long lead pass from Troy Holowchuk answered 4:51, but Brandon Goodwin got it back for Las Vegas on a broken play unassisted at 7:35.
Josh Dawick continued his hot hand converting a Corey Small feed at 8:29, but Sean Westley then scored in transition finishing a Brandon Goodwin pass at 14:00.
The last minute saw the teams trade goals once again. Nathan Grenon blasted a Brad Kri pass at 14:23, but was answered by Jack Hannah with just 0:06 seconds left in the half.
https://twitter.com/NLL/status/1909005099499729143?t=JLJf2bUg-bLAWdtVfHmm9w&s=19
At the half, Las Vegas 8 Toronto 7.
Third Quarter:
Las Vegas started the half on fire with Jonathan Donville picking the corner off an Adam Poitras pass at 2:25, followed by Sean Westley converting a Donville feed at 4:49 for a three goal lead.
The Rock sorted themselves out, and controlled the rest of the quarter. Josh Dawick scored his fourth of the game with a blast off a Dan Craig pass at 5:21, followed by Craig himself scoring from in close off a Challen Rogers pass at 9:31. Josh Dawick added his fifth of the game also off a Rogers pass at 14:43 to tie the game.
After three quarters, Las Vegas 10 Toronto 10.
Fourth Quarter:
Challen Rogers continued the Rock run with a long blast off a Chris Boushy pass at 4:07, followed by Justin Martin in transition off a Brad Kri pass seconds later.
https://twitter.com/NLL/status/1909018770758058343?t=K527gyJPiOkLwps49EPk8Q&s=19
Adam Poitras got one back, but was answered by a laser from Nathan Grenon to the far corner at 10:17.
Toronto had a two goal lead with just over two minutes to go when Vegas came to life. Kyle Killen scored on the power-play off a Holden Cattoni pass at 12:53, followed by Jackson Webster with the goalie on the bench and an sixth attackernon the floor, off a Jack Hannah pass at 13:49.
With just 0:15 seconds remaining, Desert Dogs goalie Landon Kells took a five minute high sticking penalty that would carry through to the overtime period.
After regulation, Las Vegas 13 Toronto 13.
Overtime:
While shorthanded, Jack Hannah converted a Jonathan Donville pass at 1:16 to give Vegas the victory.
https://twitter.com/NLL/status/1909027630852038718?t=ep9n8rznvXPz-SSss3t9Ig&s=19
Final score, Las Vegas 14 Toronto 13.
The Three Stars:
1. Josh Dawick
2. Adam Poitras
3. Jonathan Donville
Game Stats:
- Shots on goal favored Las Vegas 50-49.
- The faceoff battle went to the Desert Dogs 17-14.
- The loose ball battle was won by Toronto 70-65.
- The Rock went 0 for 2 on the power-play, while Las Vegas went 1 for 2, also scoring two shorthanded goals.
Don’t forget to check us out every Sunday night at 8pm (ET) on StreamPunkEnt.com
