Black Wolves can’t keep up with Toronto

Toronto’s Kevin Ross and New England’s Andrew Suitor battle for a loose ball in Friday night’s indoor lacrosse match in Toronto. The Black Wolves lost, 15-12. (Photo courtesy NLL)

TORONTO – There will be no playoff games this spring for the New England Black Wolves. Toronto moved a step closer to winning the Eastern Division championship in the National Lacrosse League (NLL) with a 15-12 win over the Black Wolves before 9,271 at the Air Canada Centre. 

The Rock (13-4) moved a step closer to the division title. The Black Wolves (4-10) lost for the for the tenth time in the last 12 outings despite three goals and two assists from Patrick Saunders and a goal and four assists from Garrett Billings. 

Brett Bucktooth added two goals and three assists for the Black Wolves in the loss, while Kyle Buchanan had two goals and two assists. Brett Hickey led Toronto with eight points on three goals and five assists while Stephan Leblanc had one goal and six assists for seven points. 

The hat trick for Saunders was his fifth of the season. He has scored in every game for New England this season, the only player on the Black Wolves roster to do so, and leads the team with 30 goals. Bucktooth scored two goals for the second consecutive game. 

After  missing the first four games due to injury, the veteran forward has scored at least two goals in six of his 10 games played. Billings, acquired from Toronto via trade on March 31, now has 14 assists in for games for the Black Wolves. 

Evan Kirk took the loss in goal for New England, giving up 15 goals on 42 shots while making 27 saves. Brandon Miller had the win for Toronto, allowing 12 goals on 70 shots while making 58 saves. The 70 shots taken by the Black Wolves is a franchise record. 

New England is at Rochester next Saturday but returns home to the Mohegan Sun Arena on Sunday, April 26 for a 6 p.m. game with Buffalo. The final home game of the Black Wolves first season in Connecticut is Friday, May 1 when New England hosts Toronto at 7 p.m. 

Last night in Toronto, Hickey got the scoring started, putting the Rock up 1-0 on the power play 3:30 into play. New England pulled ahead 2-1 at the seven minute mark after goals by Jamie Lincoln and Bucktooth, but Toronto rattled off two more to take a 3-2 advantage at the end of the first quarter. Josh Sanderson put the Rock up by two, 4-2, just over two minutes into the second frame before goals by Saunders and Kyle Buchanan, separated by only 43 seconds, tied the game at 4-4. However, a shorthanded goal by Brodie Merrill would put Toronto back on top by one heading into halftime. 

Saunders picked up his second goal of the game 2:41 into the second half on an assist from Billings, but the Rock rattled off four consecutive goals to  take a 9-5 lead with just over five minutes remaining in the third. Kyle and Kevin Buchanan each picked up goals in the closing minutes of the frame, but Toronto added one more to lead 10-7 heading into the fourth. 

The fourth quarter saw a flurry of scoring, as each team picked up five goals. New England was able to cut the Toronto advantage to two at 13-11 on a Sheldon Burn’s goal, but the Rock answered back just nine seconds later to go back up by three.