Rock lay a 24-7 beating on Vancouver Stealth

The Toronto Rock got back to .500 with their second straight victory, this time, in a 24-7 rout of the Vancouver Stealth at Langley Events Centre.

After two straight losses to open the 2017-18 campaign, the Toronto Rock got into the win column last Saturday, beating the rival Buffalo Bandits on home floor.

This past weekend, the Rock were in Vancouver to take on the Stealth in the teams only meeting of the season.

The offence started the game on fire, scoring six goals on their first 11 shots. They would finish the opening frame with a 10-0 lead.

Toronto scored their 11th straight goal before the Stealth would finally get on the board. That was all Vancouver could muster in the first half though.

The same could not be said for the Rock, who scored another six goals to take a 17-1 lead into the locker room. With that, Toronto set an NLL record for goals scored by a single team in a half.

The Toronto Rock pushed their lead to 19 before the Stealth went on a five-goal run, led by Cory Small and Logan Schuss.

Vancouver could not climb back out from the hole they dug, as they fell to the Rock by a 24-7 score.

In the win, Tom Schreiber, Rob Hellyer and Adam Jones all finished with double-digit point totals.

Kieran McArdle finished with nine points, while rookie Dan Craig continued the hot start to his career with a hat trick and two assists. He now has five goals and nine points in two contests.

The Rock had a 79-44 advantage in shots in the game.

Nick Rose stopped 33 of those shots. He was replaced by rookie backup Riley Hutchcraft, who did not surrender a goal and made four stops of his own.

The Stealth goaltenders had a rough night. Backup Brodie MacDonald played the most minutes, allowing nine goals on 36 shots. Starter Tye Belanger saw multiple stints throughout the game. He gave up 15 goals on 43 shots.

Following the game, Toronto Rock Head Coach Matt Sawyer spoke to reporters about his team’s performance.

"“It was nice to have one of those where you aren’t sweating it until the end. We talked a lot about the game this week in our preparation. It’s a difficult team for any Eastern team to make. It was good to see the boys come out and play like they did.”"

The Rock now has the top three scorers in the NLL. With his 12-point performance, Schreiber sits tied for second in league scoring with Rob Hellyer with 24 points each, while Adam Jones is atop the league scoring race with 28 points.

Schreiber said post game the team did well at limiting turnovers on offence, as well as shutting down the Stealth on defence. He also noted the team has had a different mentality over their last two games:

"“We’ve played desperate the last few games. We’ve played hungry with our backs up against the wall a bit. Hopefully we can continue to do that.”"

Next: Leafs claw back two-goal deficit to beat Canucks

Schreiber and his teammates will have a chance to push their record over .500 when they return home Friday for a matchup with the rival Rochester Knighthawks.