Toronto surges past Black Wolves in NLL playoffs

TORONTO, May 6, 2017 – The Toronto Rock scored nine goals in the second and third quarter to take command win Saturday night’s National Lacrosse League (NLL) Eastern Division semifinal at the Air Canada Centre with a 18-10 win over the New England Black Wolves.

Toronto (10-9) advances to play the Georgia Swam in a two-game Eastern Division championship series while the Black Wolves (8-11) end the season with three straight losses and four losses in their last five games.

“We felt that we would be able to create some offence against New England and we thought that our transition game would pay dividends,” Rock Head Coach Matt Sawyer told NLL.com.  “We had a lot of guys step up tonight and that’s what happens at this time of year and that’s what you need to be successful.”

Shawn Evans and Kevin Crowley had two goals each for the Black Wolves. The game was tied at 4-4 in the first quarter when Crowley scored his second goal to give New England a 5-4 lead. Toronto tied the game but Chad Culp’s goal put the Wolves back up by one, 6-5.

But Toronto scored nine of the next 10 goals to take a commanding 15-6 advantage.

New England was hopeful coming into the game. The Wolves had a dangerous offense led by Evans, a two-time league MVP. Evans had 103 points (38 goals, 65 assists) in the season to finish fourth in the league. Crowley was third in the league in goals (45) and was tenth in points (85).