Toronto, ON – The New England Black Wolves (9-5) defeated the Toronto Rock (4-10) by a score of 14-10 on Saturday night at Air Canada Centre.  The Rock playoff hopes are fading, however they are still alive in the hunt for the third and final playoff spot in the East Division.

The depleted Rock defence held things together for stretches, but it was a lot to ask of team with as many injuries as the Rock have.

“I’m not sure how much chemistry there is or settling in you can do when you have 10 guys hurt,” said Rock Head Coach John Lovell.  “It wasn’t an excuse, we played hard, and we thought we had enough guys to get the job done. But when you’re playing shorthanded, you have the type of team we have right now, you can’t do things that will hurt yourself.  I don’t think we looked after the ball particularly well and you can’t take bad penalties against a team that has a hot power play.”

Things started well enough for the Rock when Stephan Leblanc gave Toronto a 3-2 lead just over five minutes into the opening quarter.  However, New England’s Brett Bucktooth scored shorthanded, followed 88 seconds later by an outside rocket from Kevin Buchanan to give the Black Wolves a 4-3 lead after one quarter.

The Black Wolves got the first goal of the second quarter and didn’t look back.  Their power play piled it on with goals from Kevin Crowley and Pat Saunders to push New England to a four-goal lead at the half, 8-4.  The visitors also held the edge in shots on goal by a healthy margin, 33-22 through 30 minutes.

The Rock scored a pair of power play goals in the third frame, but the Black Wolves sandwiched two goals of their own, one of them with the man advantage, between those Rock tallies.  Toronto found themselves still down by four goals, trailing 10-6 with 15 minutes to play.

Toronto gave up the first two goals, but showed they still had some fight in them scoring three straight to close to within three goals, 12-9.  New England quickly snuffed out the Rock comeback, connecting for a pair of goals just six seconds apart.  Rob Hellyer added one late for the Rock.

“Some deflating plays early in the game that we just weren’t on the right side of,” said Rock defender Brodie Merrill.  “It didn’t feel like we that emotion coming into the game that we needed I think that we were just fighting it a bit tonight and we rallied a bit at the end but it was too late.”

Next weekend it is a massive home and home with the Bandits, starting with Friday night’s game in Toronto at Air Canada Centre at 8 p.m.  It will also be Fan Appreciation Night presented by the Toronto Area Mitsubishi Dealers.