Hard to believe, but this is something the city hasn’t seen since Toronto’s basketball team, the Raptors, were eliminated in five games by the Orlando Magic over two years ago on Apr. 28, 2008. The last time a Toronto team won a game was four days earlier on Apr. 24.

But enough about basketball. Tonight is all about Canada’s national sport of lacrosse with the Toronto Rock (9-7) battling the Buffalo Bandits (8-8). Winner of tonight’s game will face the victor from the Orlando – Boston game next weekend.

Toronto captain Colin Doyle will face-off for the Rock in his 12^th consecutive postseason. Rock super-rookies Garrett Billings and Stephan Leblanc will get their first tastes of life after the regular season tonight.

Standing in their way are the Buffalo Bandits, who are no strangers to the postseason, making their eighth consecutive trip. Both teams have met only once previously in the playoffs, a 19-10 Bandits thrashing back in 2004.

A couple interesting similarities between the two teams: both scored a combined 34 goals against each other during their three regular season matches (Buffalo won the season series 2-1) and both teams had to win their final regular season game to advance to the playoffs. Fortunately for the Rock, their victory also guaranteed them a home date in the first round at the Air Canada Centre where they went 6-2 in the regular season.

This will be the Rock’s first playoff game since 2007 when they lost 10-6 to the Rochester Knighthawks. The time the Rock won a playoff game? Back on May 14, 2010, when they defeated the now defunct Arizona Sting 19-13 to collect their fifth championship in seven years.

Clearly taking this to heart, the Rock displayed past championship form in a 15-7 demolition of the Rochester Knighthawks, in front of 9,959 raucous supporters at the Air Canada Centre Friday.

With the win, the Rock guaranteed themselves a post-season game but a home date was still in the offing after the final buzzer.

So the Rock played another type of game: waiting.

If the Orlando Titans beat the Buffalo Bandits, Toronto would host an Eastern Conference semi-final game on May 1.

Minutes later they got their wish as the Titans beat Buffalo 9-7.

Given what was on the line Friday night, it was easy to assume a close, tight-checking game between two rivals.

Early in the first quarter that’s exactly what fans were treated to as both teams game out gunning.

Rochester found the back of the net first, scoring two goals after six minutes of play.

The Rock took over the game from there.

Blaine Manning scored back-to-back goals, just over three minutes apart, to tie the game.

Mike Hominuck and rookie sensation Garrett Billings doubled the lead to 4-2 after the opening 15 minutes.

Both teams started slowly in the second quarter but Toronto got the jump off at 4:50 when Rock defender Mike Hobbins waltz in untouched and beat Knighthawks keeper Aaron Bold, .

Over 30 seconds later Stephan Leblanc made it 6-2, followed by Hobbins’ second of the game, just over two minutes later, to chase Bold.

Toronto owned a dominating 9-3 lead after 30 minutes.

In the second half, the Rock refused to relent.

Under a minute in to the third, Rock goalkeeper Bob Watson found captain Colin Doyle with a Hail Mary pass.

Doyle raced in and got his 22nd of the year on a pretty backhand.

Creighton Reid and Leblanc later scored on back to back breakaways to make it 11-3 before the ‘Hawks Craig Point fired his second of the game past Watson.

In a feisty final quarter, both teams traded goals and punches with the Rock standing tall at the final buzzer.

After the game, Doyle saluted the fans and promised a successful postseason.

The game could also be seen as a bit of a revenge match for Toronto because the Knighthawks are responsible for eliminating the Rock in their past two playoff appearances.

Vinc stole the spotlight and the game, turning aside 52 shots as the Orlando Titans defeated the Toronto Rock 16-12 in front of 10, 984 at Air Canada Centre.

Vinc (4-2), the 27-year-old St. Catharines native, has the pedigree of a top goaltender so this performance should come as no surprise. Vinc, a former Minto Cup winner and Ontario Lacrosse Association Jr. A MVP was also instrumental in backstopping the Titans to the National Lacrosse League (NLL) championship game last year. He has continued his stellar play this season, allowing 57 goals in six starts.

Toronto goalie Bob Watson (5-2) matched Vinc until a fourth-quarter hiccup. With Orlando leading 10-8, Watson allowed four goals on four shots and got the hook 10 minutes in. He stopped 26 in the loss. Steve Dietrich allowed one goal on two shots in back up duty.

Sandy Chapman (3), Colin Doyle (2), Garrett Billings (2), Stephan Leblanc (2), Mike Hominuck (2) and Kasey Beirnes scored for Toronto.

Casey Powell (4), Matt Alrich (3), Ryan Boyle (2), Pat Maddalena (2), Pat Merrill, Bill Greer, Mat MacLeod, Jordan Hall and Chad Thompson scored for Orlando.

The Rock (6-4) started the season with an impressive 6-1 record but have lost three straight.

Due to a superior win percentage, the Titans (4-2) now slip into first place in the NLL East Conference.

Toronto have played the most games in the league and now have a week off to ponder their recent slide.

Entering the net against the league’s best offence with your new team trailing by four isn’t the ideal redemption script but it’s certainly an opportunity.

Mike Poulin made the most of it as he turned aside 28 of 31 shots in relief as the Calgary Roughnecks corralled the Toronto Rock 10-8 at the Pengrowth Saddledome on Sunday night.

After Colin Doyle gave Toronto a 5-1 lead just 2:32 into the second quarter, Poulin, in his first legitimate minutes since a Feb. 2 trade from the Boston Blazers, replaced starter Matt King and proceeded to slow down the the high-octane Rock.

With Toronto nursing a 6-2 advantage late in the second quarter, Calgary responded scoring four of the next five goals to enter the fourth down 7-6.

The Roughnecks outscored Toronto 4-1 in the third period to walk away with the win.

Colin Doyle (3), Rob Marshall, Stephan Leblanc, Blaine Manning, Scott Campbell and Kasey Beirnes scored for Toronto (6-2) as they even their road record at 2-2.

Steven Dietrich (1-2) stopped 39 shots in the loss.

Tracey Kelusky (3), Dane Dobbie (3), Jeff Shattler (2), Scott Ranger and Nolan Heavenor scored for Calgary (3-3). The Roughnecks have won two consecutive and pull into a second place tie in the West Conference with the provincial rival Edmonton.

Poulin (1-2) turned aside 21 of 23 in the second half to win his first game with the Roughnecks.

The Rock forward has quietly gone about the business of scoring goals and this year business is good.

Manning scored five goals and added five assists as the Toronto Rock defeated the Edmonton Rush 16-7 in front of 10,052 at the Air Canada Centre on Friday night.

With his performance on Friday, Manning now leads the NLL in goals with 20, two ahead of Rock rookie Garrett Billings.

Manning is quick to praise his teammates as a key ingredient for his success this year.

“I’m just getting open and Colin and everyone in the offence is just finding me,” Manning told NLL.com. “I’ll take them when I can get them, that’s for sure.”

Toronto leads the NLL in scoring with 99 goals and that is represented with four players in the top five in points.

After a six-point performance on Friday, Doyle leads with 46, two ahead of Manning and three in front of Billings and Toronto’s other impact rookie, Stephan Leblanc.

Leblanc (4), Kasey Beirnes (2), Doyle (2), Rob Marshall, Brendon Doran and Billings scored the other goals for Toronto (6-1). The Rock are off to their best start in franchise history and have an unblemished 4-0 record at home. They are first in the East Conference, 1-½ games ahead of the Orlando Titans.

Bob Watson turned aside 27 shots for his fifth win of the year.

Scott Stewart (2), Gavin Prout (2), Andy Secore (2) and Brodie Merrill scored for the Rush (3-3). After a 3-1 start, Edmonton have now lost two consecutive but remain in second place in the West Conference, three games behind the 6-0 Washington Stealth.

Matt Disher lost his second of the year, allowing 10 goals on 30 shots in 35 minutes of action and Brandon Atherton stopped 15 of 21 in mop-up duty.

The Rock and the NLL honoured Doyle for becoming the third person in league history (after John Tavares and Gary Gait) to score 1,000 points.

Up next for the Rock is a Valentine Day match up in Calgary against the Roughnecks.

Doyle got his milestone point, assisting on Josh Wasson’s power-play goal 29 seconds into the second period. Doyle ended the night with one goal and four helpers while Wasson had two goals and one assist.

Garrett Billings continued his strong offensive play with one goal and eight assists. He is first in rookie scoring and is tied with Doyle for second in the NLL with 38 points.

Blaine Manning (5), Stephan Leblanc (2), Brendon Doran, Kim Squire and Pat McCready also scored for Toronto (5-1), as they increase their lead to two games over the Orlando Titans for first in the East Conference.

The Rock are second in the NLL in goals with 83 and second best in goals against with 54.

Mark Steenhuis (2), Kyle Clancy (2), Mike Accursi (2) Roger Vyse, Brett Bucktooth, Frank Resetarits and Billy Dee Smith scored for the Bandits (1-5). Ken Montour stopped 44 shots and takes his fourth loss of the year.

Buffalo led 3-1 after one quarter but the Rock rallied back to take an 8-6 lead at the half. The Bandits outscored Toronto 4-1 in the third to lead 10-9 but gave up five consecutive goals in a disastrous fourth quarter.

Manning tied the game at 10-10 just 1:33 in and then put the Rock ahead 31 seconds later, finishing a streak of four consecutive goals for the Toronto forward.

Under two minutes later, Squire pushed the lead to 12-10 while Leblanc and Doran finishing the scoring with goals at 13:10 and 13:53 respectively.

Dietrich turned aside 11 shots in the fourth for his first win of the year.

There was a historic sub-plot in the game as Rock captain Colin Doyle was nine points shy of reaching 1,000 National Lacrosse League (NLL) points.

By the end of the third quarter he had three goals and four assists but head coach Troy Cordingley glued him to the bench for most of the fourth quarter. He ended the night with 998 points.

“It’s pretty incredible,” Cordingley told NLL.com. “He’s one of the best who have ever played this game in the league and that’s why he’s at 998 points and two away from one thousand.”

Only the legendary Gary Gait (1,252) and John Tavares (1,591) have more points than Doyle.

Kasey Beirnes (4), Garrett Billings (3), Kim Squire (2) Scott Campbell (1) had the other goals for Toronto (4-1) as they move ½ game ahead of the Orlando Titans for first in the East Conference.

Bob Watson stopped 33 for his fourth win of the year.

Up next for the Rock is a Saturday night contest against the Bandits at HSBC Arena in Buffalo, N.Y.

Dan Teat (2), Kyle Sweeney (2), Geoff Snider, Mat Giles, Drew Westervelt, Bill McGlone, Kevin Huntley, Jason Crosbie and Kyle Wailes scored for Philadelphia (1-4) as they have now lost three straight and sit sixth in the East.

Brandon Miller stopped 35 shots, taking his fourth loss of the year.

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