The Rush fall to the Rock

The Rush fall to the Rock

Published: Sunday, Feb 3rd 2019, 6:02pm

By: David Salisbury (@Ras_rax)

Coming off a 13-10 loss lasts weekend against the Georgia Swarm the Rush (3-2) were looking to rebound against the 5-1 Toronto Rock. The Rush have had troubles when playing out east getting wins, this year 0-2 with the aforementioned loss to Georgia, but as well the season opener loss to New England. If there’s one thing I believe though it’s that the Rush can win anytime anyplace, would this time around, well lets dive in and find out.

The first quarter started with the Rock being rewarded the face-off win, and managing to score the first of the game 35 seconds in to make it 1-0 Rock. The Rock would not get that ugly 5-0 run that Georgia got on us last weekend, but would manage to make it 2-0 before the Rush would score their first. Ben McIntosh would open the scoring for the Rush off a feed from Matthews, and then Matthews would get the tying goal shortly after. Adding to the excitement McIntosh would net his second of the evening to give the Rush a 3-2 lead, all 3 goals coming in a 56 second span. Nick Finlay would net his first goal of the season in the first quarter as well to bring the Rush back to within 1 after a 3 goal run by the Rock. Toronto and Saskatchewan would both net 1 more to end the quarter to end the quarter 6-5 in favour of the Rock.

Quarter number 2 would see the Rock continue to score putting up another 5 and the Rush slowing down offensively with only 2, Curtis Knight getting one and Dinsdale getting the other with a great diving play to beat Toronto goaltender Nick Rose. The highlight of the 2nd, more so for us Rush fans, was a great hit on Rock forward Tom Schreiber by Mike Messenger in which Messenger put Schreiber over the boards head over heels into his own bench.

The second half would see the defenses tighten up as the Rock and Rush only put in 3 a piece in the 3rd quarter, one of those goals being the 3rd of the night Ben McIntosh, putting up yet another 3 or more goal game this season keeping him right up there in the race for most goals this season. On the other side of the ball, the Rock had Adam Jones having a stellar night scoring 4 on us, including a powerplay goal near the end of the 3rd. At this point the Rush being 0-2 on the penalty kill for the night.

Fourth quarter action would begin with the Rush down by 4, could they comeback, the were within range last week, but couldn’t, maybe this would be it. Unfortunately Toronto would open scoring in the 4th to put them up by 5, Kyle Rubisch would answer back shortly after though with a shorthanded transition goal, to bring us back within 4. The Rush defence would kill off that power play giving themselves a chance to still mount a comeback. Ryan Keenan would put in his lone goal of the night about half way through the 4th, the Rock lead now only 3. Unfortunately with 11:21 left in the game Messenger was given a 5 minute major for elbowing, meaning we were now a man down for the rest of the game, at this point Toronto knew all they needed to do was kill clock and they did just that for the most part, putting few shots on net, but really only to reset the shot clock, during this penalty though Jeremy Thompson would manage to sneak off the bench beating the Rock defence back to score another Saskatchewan shorthanded goal off a great read from Rush captain Chris Corbeil. With just over 2 minutes in the game there was still a chance of a comeback, but that chance was slim being that we were playing shorthanded, those chances went to none when Matthews took a 2 min penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct to put us at a 5-3 disadvantage to end the game. The Rock would close this game out winning with a 3 goal margin at 16-13.

Matthews would lead the way with 6 points on the night (2g/4a) with McIntosh right behind with 5 points (3g/2a)

Evan Kirk was 36-52 on the night allowing 16 goals.

 

With thanks to @LacrosseFlash :

– the Messenger hit on Schreiber – https://twitter.com/LacrosseFlash/status/1091508667118104577

– the Kyle Rubisch shorthanded goal – https://twitter.com/LacrosseFlash/status/1091527698663432194

 

Up next the Rush are back home at the Sasktel Center in front of the home crowd with hopes to rebound from this 2 game losing skid against division rival the Calgary Roughnecks. The Rush are 2nd place right now in the western division with expansion team the San Diego Seals in first. Needless to say a win at home this coming weekend is important for the Rush and as a fan who will be there, it’s just that much more fun when you get to walk out with a win. That game is this coming Saturday, February 9th at 7:30 pm. Hope to see you there!