THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — It didn’t take Colin Doyle long to show his Toronto Rock teammates how serious he is about winning.
Boston’s Daryl Veltman opened the scoring at 2:04, Blaine Manning had what would have been tying goal waved off when a referee ruled he’d stepped into the crease at 4:39, and Doyle accepted Paul Dawson’s dare to fight when Rock coach Troy Cordingley threw a challenge flag.
The Rock captain held his own against one of the toughest men in the National Lacrosse League, eight players were ejected in the ensuing brawl, and the Rock went on to edge the Blazers 8-7 on an overtime goal from rookie Garrett Billings in front of an announced Air Canada Centre crowd of 11,502.
"It was one of those games that, hopefully, you can look back on at the end of the year and say we did something to build off of," said Doyle. "It’s a good feeling."
Doyle helped Toronto win five championships before playing in California the last three years and he swore on being reacquired Dec. 15 and being named captain that he’d bust his butt to lead a team that missed the playoffs the last two years back into championship contention. Nobody expected the 2009 NLL scoring champion to drop his gloves in the process but he’s shown throughout his career that he shouldn’t be underestimated.
Doyle finished the home opener with two goals and four assists. He had a goal and nine assists in Toronto’s 17-7 win in the season opener for both teams in Boston last Saturday.
Mike Hominuck also scored two for the Rock.
Doyle’s fight inspired his teammates.
"I’m a big enough guy that I can take care of myself," he said. "I can’t be doing that all the time but they were taking some liberties early on with some of our offensive guys.
"We have to stick up for ourselves, and that was one of those situations. One of the things being preached in this dressing room is being team tough. We’re not man-for-man the biggest team in the league but we’re going to stick up for one another."
The early ruling on Manning’s disallowed goal was upheld after a video replay and, after Doyle and Paul Dawson went to the penalty box but before play could resume, Toronto’s Pat McCready dropped his gloves and engaged with Boston captain Dan Dawson.
Within seconds, there were four fights going on. Only the goalies weren’t throwing punches. The brawl led to the ejections of Boston’s two best forwards, 2009 league MVP Dan Dawson and 2009 rookie of the year Veltman, as well as forwards Brenden Thenhaus and Nick Cotter. Toronto had four defencemen tossed — McCready, Sandy Chapman, Jeff Gilbert and Creighton Reid.
"It’s a good feeling knowing that on this team we’ve got one another’s backs," said Doyle. "I think the message was sent that this team is sticking together through everything this year."
Boston led 2-1 after one quarter and 3-1 early in the second before Doyle, Kasey Beirnes and Leblanc struck for three in a row to give the Rock a 4-3 lead to take into the halftime break.
Goals by Doyle and Hominuck made it 6-3 early in the third quarter. Boston tied it 6-6 on goals from Gary Bining in the third and from Matt Lyons and Ryan Hotaling early in the fourth.
"We were too tired to be nervous," said Billings.
Hominuck dove across the front of the crease to break a 6-6 tie at 5:29 of the fourth quarter and Mitch Belisle tied it 7-7 with his second goal of the game at 10:50. Rock goalie Bob Watson got a piece of the ball but it bounced behind him and over the line as he tried to grab it.
Toronto had possession of the ball when Cordingley called a time out with 22 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Boston goalie Anthony Cosmo stuck out his left leg to stop a shot from Doyle with two seconds on the clock. It would be decided in overtime.
The Rock got a power play 2:56 into sudden death when Kyle Ross was assessed a major penalty for dropping Doyle with a high stick that ripped off Doyle’s helmet.
Cosmo was stopping everything thrown at him and he got help from the cross bar and posts on shots by Stephan Leblanc, Hominuck and Billings during the power play. Billings ended this thriller by planting the ball in a top corner of the Boston net at 6:37 with Ross still in the penalty box. Doyle assisted.
"We came really close on the three or four shots before that," said Billings. "One was going to go in eventually. Luckily, it was mine."
Rock defenceman Phil Sanderson hopes that next Saturday, when Toronto plays the visiting Rochester Knighthawks, he won’t have to put in so many minutes. With four D-men tossed, he had no choice. He was huffing and puffing at the end. Doyle and some of the other forwards took some shifts on the back end to help out.
"It was a long night, that’s for sure," said Sanderson. "It was a great team effort and a great character win. It’s a good place to build from for our young team."
McCready, a longtime member of the Buffalo Bandits, missed the season opener with a flu, and he lasted less than five minutes in his Rock debut at home.
"Everybody saw the shift before," he replied when asked why he fought Dan Dawson after Dawson’s brother battled Doyle. "Their (Paul) Dawson is a fighter and he went after Colin Doyle. He’s the leader on our team and one of our top offensive guys. Anybody goes after any of our offensive guys or Watson and they’re going to have to answer for it."
Hominuck, who was with Edmonton last winter, had a memorable home debut with his two goals.
"That 60-minute game felt like a 120-minute game," he said. "It felt like it was neverending, but we all pulled together and got a big win."
Toronto had a 55-43 advantage in shots on goal.
Watson versus Cosmo is usually an exciting game.
"We’re trying to build a good thing here and that win goes a long way," said Watson. "Cosmo was unbelievable. I didn’t think we were going to get one off him at the end. He’s proved to be the best in the league right now so hats off to our boys. We kept goin’ at him and we finally pulled it out. That should go a long way for us."
Players were ejected because they started fights long after a stoppage in play, and Dan Dawson figures everybody should have waited till play resumed to drop the gloves. That way, they probably wouldn’t have been ejected.
"That was kind of old-fashioned lacrosse," Dawson said. "Paul and Colin squared off and there’s kind of a code of conduct. I knew Patty (McCready) was going to answer the bell. I’m okay with that, but we probably dropped the gloves too early and that’s unfortunate."
The Blazers came close to winning just six days after laying an egg in their home opener.
"Hopefully this is a game that defines us as an organization," said Dan Dawson. "We embarrassed ourselves on our home turf. That was unacceptable so I think a lot of guys were fired up coming in here. Whether we were fighting or digging for loose balls, we learned a lot from this. We’re not a good enough team to just show up and win. If we work hard like this, we can compete with anyone in this league."
Cosmo said the refereeing hurt the Blazers. In his mind, the Doyle-Dawson fight occurred after a stoppage in play, so those two players should also have been ejected.
"Doyle should have been out, too," said Cosmo.
Cordingley disagreed. Doyle and Paul Dawson started pushing and shoving at the end of a play and before any whistle, he contended. He was angry about who the Blazers’ enforcer chose to fight.
"Fight a fighter, don’t go fighting our captain and our leader," said Cordingley. "(Paul Dawson) is probably one of the top one or two fighters in the league. I thought Colin Doyle handled himself well."
Regardless, his first home game as head coach of the Rock was a win he’ll relish.
"They came in and tried to push us around and we answered the bell," said Cordingley. "It’s a good character win early in the season.
"We’re okay, but we’ve got a long way to go."