THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — It was a lost season for the Toronto Rock but at least they finished it with a win.
Lewis Ratcliff scored four goals in a 15-11 win over the playoff-bound San Jose Stealth in front of an announced Air Canada Centre crowd of 15,252 Saturday night.
Luke Wiles, Rob Marshall, Craig Conn and Josh Wasson added two goals each and Bill McGlone, Blaine Manning and Jason Clark had one each for the Rock (6-10).
Jeff Zywicki scored four, Colin Doyle three, Cam Sedgwick two and Mike Grimes and Rhys Duch one each for San Jose (7-9).
The Rock had previously been eliminated from playoff contention in the East for the second year in a row and the Stealth already were settled in as the third playoff seed in the West so most of the interest on the last night of the NLL’s regular season centred around Doyle’s bid to win the scoring title.
The 31-year-old native of Kitchener, Ont., who helped Toronto win five championships, entered his first game in Toronto since being traded away in December 2006 with a league-leading 106 points. San Jose’s captain added five in this one to finish with 111. Buffalo’s Mark Steenhuis and Boston’s Dan Dawson each had 97 when those two teams began play in Buffalo.
Duch, who the previous weekend smashed the rookie points record of 82 by Colorado captain Gavin Prout in 2002, finished with three points to give him 89 on the year.
Doyle put San Jose up 4-1 at 10:08 of the first quarter when, with an overhand shot from the middle of Toronto’s zone, he planted the ball over goalie Bob Watson’s right shoulder for his 36th goal. It was a short-handed effort.
Doyle scored an identical goal to give the Stealth a 5-3 lead 1:43 into the second quarter. He was in full flight when Kyle Hartzell fed him the ball for his 37th goal.
Zywicki made it 6-3 but Toronto spurted ahead 9-6 on consecutive goals by Conn, Manning, Wasson, Ratcliff, Wasson again and McGlone all in just under nine minutes.
The Rock outshot the Stealth 18-7 in blitzing goalie Tyler Richards in the quarter, and Matt Roik replaced him to start the second half.
Marshall made it 10-6, Duch ended the seven-goal Rock spree, and Ratcliff’s third of the game and one by Wiles 17 seconds later put Toronto up 12-7 to start the fourth quarter.
Wiles made it 13-7 with his second of the night and 33rd of the year and Ratcliff made it 14-7 with his fourth of the night and team-best 34th as the Rock continued to pull away.
Doyle broke the single-season assists record with his 72nd on Zywicki’s fourth goal of the game and 31st of the season. Josh Sanderson, now with Calgary, got 71 when he and Doyle were Rock teammates in the championship 2005 season.
Doyle scored his third of the game and 38th of the year at 12:02 of the fourth quarter to make it 14-9.
Toronto outshot San Jose 53-48.
Notes: Doyle finished four points shy of the single-season points record of 115 by Buffalo’s John Tavares in 2001 . . . Doyle will be playing field lacrosse for the Toronto Nationals, who will be at BMO Field for their Major Lacrosse League season opener May 22 . . . Toronto traded its first pick in the 2009 entry draft and Aaron Wilson to Rochester last summer for Stephen Hoar and the No. 5 pick in 2008. Toronto won’t be high and dry in the first round though because it possesses San Jose and Portland picks via trades.