Game one of the finals was close, back-and-forth, and exciting with some great goaltending, exceptional defense, and a big comeback. But unlike the quarterfinals, it wasn’t the Halifax Thunderbirds staging the big comeback.

Game one started off just as everyone expected, with strong defence and goaltending, for a few minutes anyway. The Rock got a couple about four minutes in but Bo Bowhunter opened the scoring for the Thunderbirds shortly afterwards. But once Halifax got on the board, their offense took over as they scored the next four. The Halifax defence was stifling and the Rock just couldn’t get any momentum. By halftime, the Firewolves were leading 9–5, and five of their nine goals were scored within 32 seconds of the previous goal. None of those quick goals were scored or even assisted on by Jake Withers, but you know he and his faceoff skills were involved. That said, Withers was held to only 62.1% at the dot, a pretty low number for him.

Nick Rose was hot and cold – making some of the amazing saves that we’ve come to expect over the last few years, but there were a few shots from distance that managed to get by him. But in the second half, it was much more hot than cold. After Jason Knox’s goal late in the second quarter, the Thunderbirds went over 24 minutes without scoring, and ended up only scoring twice the rest of the game, both by Cody Jamieson midway through the fourth.

Nick Rose

Warren Hill was similarly hot and cold, allowing two goals in the first five minutes, and then only two more over the next 22 minutes. But just as Rose was much stronger in the second half, Hill struggled a bit more. The Rock scored the only four goals of the third quarter to tie the game, leading to an exciting fourth quarter. The Rock took the lead early in the quarter and held it for five minutes before Jamieson gave the Thunderbirds the lead back with two goals in a minute. That lead only lasted 14 seconds as Owen Hiltz scored off a faceoff win by Nick Rowlett, and less than a minute after that, Sam English scored to give the Rock the final lead of the game. English scored an empty-netter with 15 seconds left to seal the win.

Just like the regular season, the rookies were the story for the Rock. Kirst (4+2), English (2+3), and Hiltz (2+2) led the scoring, and no non-rookie had more than one goal. With all the (well-deserved) hype around Kirst, English, and Hiltz and the amazing seasons they had, the other Rock rookies kind of get lost. Hugh Kelleher quietly had a great rookie season as well, and has fit in on the defence and transition very well. He makes a lot of good plays and has a strong lacrosse IQ. Isiah Moran-Weekes only got into seven games, none in the playoffs, but scored some nice goals and hustles his butt off on every play. And Lucas Hucal also got into only seven regular season games but has played every game in the playoffs, and I thought he had a strong game on Friday.

Game two is in Halifax on Sunday, and I will be in attendance (I’m writing this on the flight to Halifax). I’ve been looking forward to getting to a game in the Nest for a while, so I’m very excited, and not just because I’m a Rock fan.

Other game notes

• Nick Rowlett also had a strong game, and not just with faceoffs. I think he’s another face-off guy who has evolved into a solid defender, a la Trevor Baptiste or TD Ierlan, and made some good defensive plays on Friday.
• Man, I love watching Mark Matthews running the offense. Obviously he can score some nice goals but his passing is just chef’s kiss. With barely a movement, he can pass in any direction to anyone who’s open, and sometimes to someone who didn’t even look open. It looks so effortless, which of course means that he’s put a ton of effort into it.
• The Rock do a “game ball delivery” thing before every game. They have a RC car with a lacrosse head attached to it, and they drive it up to centre floor, where the refs grabs the ball from it. Then someone physically picks up the car and turns it around before they drive it off the floor. This was not a temporary glitch – this has happened at every home game for a few years. Not a great look for the RC car company if their car is unable to turn around 180° using the remote.
• There were a lot of Thunderbirds fans in attendance. They didn’t outnumber Bandits fans when they visit the Rock, but they were pretty loud. The attendance was 7,812, which is in the top 3 of games this season, but seems a bit disappointing considering
  1. the last time they were in the finals in 2015 (in Toronto), they had over 9,000 at each of their playoff home games
  2. game two in Halifax was sold out (10,000+) within about four days of tickets going on sale, and
  3. IT’S THE FREAKING FINALS