Between Garrett Billings and Stephan LeBlanc, the Toronto Rock should easily take home the National Lacrosse League's rookie of the year honors. Based on his play against the Wings in 2010, LeBlanc would seem to the hand down choice. After putting up nine points in the Rock's 19-11 win over Philly earlier this season, LeBlanc was even better Saturday night scoring five goals and dishing out five assists to lead Toronto to a convincing 13-6 win over the Wings, silencing the Wings modest two game win streak and any playoff momentum that might have followed.
The game was very low scoring in the first half, Toronto scoring the game first four goals before the Wings Pat Heim stopped the shutout with 5:23 left before halftime. Toronto continued to pour it on in the second half making the score 6-1 just over two minutes into the third quarter before the Wings tried to show some life on scores from Kevin Huntley and Geoff Snider. By the time the Wings got goal number four for the evening, the Rock took complete command of the game, going up 11-3 and chasing Wings keeper Brandon Miller after the tenth goal while sending many of the 10, 246 in attendance to the exits. The Wings would score three of the games final five goals but the result was never in doubt for Toronto.
Geoff Snider and Miller may have been the Wings lone bright spots, Snider with two goals and Miller making 32 saves before yielding to Rob Blasdell. For the Wings, it's off to Rochester next week to face a squad struggling just as badly as the Wings are.
