The Toronto Rock found the perfect way to deal with hot young superstar Gavin Prout: put him ten goals in the hole before he even knows he's off the airplane. Ken Millin fired five goals, Colin Doyle bagged four, and Blaine Manning added a hat trick and six assists as the Rock demolished the New York Saints, 21-7, clinching first place in the Northern Division before a loud crowd of 16,796 at the Big Barn in Toronto.

Not much mystery to this one. The gulf between the two teams was enormous.

Blaine Manning opened the scoring with a nice second effort. A checker stopped him cold, but he took a step back, tried again, and this time blew right by to score on Gee Nash, Prout's Junior A teammate in Whitby, who would also have a rough homecoming night.

Steve Toll of the Rock then had a great time killing off a too-many-men bench penalty. He came up with two steals, burned 30 seconds off the clock single-handedly, and even hit a goal post just for yuks.

Manning bagged his second seven minutes in, reaching back to corral a nifty low scoop pass and score from the top of the crease. Jim Veltman then claimed his first of three goals on the night with a step-around rip from the line. Millin then cashed in an uncontested diagonal run, and defender Pat Coyle chased Nash from the game with an unassisted one-bouncer at 11:18. Phil Wetherup took over in the Saints goal and calmed things down, but only briefly.

5-0 Rock after one.

Manning completed his hat trick with a short rip to the top corner at 2:26 of the second stanza. Chris Driscoll appeared to get one back for the Saints with a brilliant whip in of a blazing crossing pass, but it was waved off because Driscoll was adjudged to be behind the net. Would someone explain why this rule is here? Driscoll might have been behind the line, but his stick sure wasn't. This was a brilliant goal, and New York really needed it. I loathe artificial rules that don't actually need to be there. This is one of those.

Millin soon made it 7-0 on a bang-bang pass play with Manning. Number eight was a delicious Dan Stroup knock-in of a cheeky Colin Doyle pass from the high slot. Doyle then got his first on a short, running pop job, and his second on a step-around gallop through the slot.

10-0 Toronto. I may have seen, somewhere in my travels, a 10-0 score. I just can't happen to remember one.

When Gavin Prout finally ended the drought, bulling through a Pat Coyle wraparound hold to beat Bob Watson and score New York's first goal, the public address announcer said, "Oh well, I guess it had to happen sometime tonight." Glenn Clark quickly restored the ten-goal lead, before Jason Clark set off a slot bomb for the Saints' second.

11-2 Toronto at the half.

Like the first, the third quarter was a 5-0 Rock whitewash. Kim Squire went bag from way outside, then Steve Toll hit paydirt with a top corner line rip. Doyle soon concocted a nifty running catch-and-stuff set up by Manning. Then he scored the goal of the night.

At 12 minutes on the schnoz, Doyle came out of the corner, spun all the way around, couldn't shoot because of an oncoming check, ducked, spun around again and ripped the ball past a startled, disoriented Wetherup. Incredible second effort and presence of mind, not necessarily in that order! The fans were amazed. Hell, even Doyle was amazed!

Toll closed out the quarter, intercepting yet another clumsy Saints pass, racing in and going top shelf at 12:46. Wetherup was given a reprieve as Gee Nash returned to the firing range.

16-2 Rock after three.

Anthony Cosmo took over for Bob Watson as the fourth quarter began. New York finally came to life, but the shellshocked visitors could only trade goals with Toronto the rest of the night.

Chris Driscoll finally scored a goal that counted on a long, unassisted breakaway, but Millin answered from in close. Driscoll rolled neatly off a check for his second, but Veltman scored cutting across the middle. Scott Self scored for the Saints, delighting a personal cheering section of five wild gals in undershirts and blue jeans, but Millin erased it off a good pass from Kim Squire. Ramar Clash and Rob Kirkby actually managed to score two in a row for the visitors, but Millin and Veltman answered to close the books for good.

Notes: I lost track of how many lazy passes Steve Toll intercepted for Toronto tonight. You cannot relax around this guy, whose stick is every bit as fast as his famous feet.

The Rock were particularly deadly in delayed penalty situations. I lost count of how many goals they scored with the sixth attacker on the floor. It is very dangerous to take penalties against this team. Potential playoff opponents better plan on playing a clean game.

Gavin Prout was invisible, and Gee Nash spent most of the night on the bench. Without those two contributing mightily -- well, the scoreboard says it all.

Frankly, I'm a little amazed at how top-to-bottom awful the Saints were tonight. They were looking like a pretty useful outfit this time last year, and that was before they got Prout. Tonight was terrible for them. Frankly, the final score does not accuarately reflect how dominant Toronto really was.

BOX SUMMARY
                                      1  2  3  4     TOT
New York Saints (5-10)                0  2  0  5  --   7
Toronto Rock (10-4)                   5  6  5  5  --  21

NEW YORK SAINTS               TORONTO ROCK
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS
Driscoll       2 - 2     4    Manning        3 - 6     9
J Clark        1 - 1     2    Doyle          4 - 3     7
Kirkby         1 - 1     2    Veltman        3 - 3     6
Clash          1 - 0     1    Toll           2 - 4     6
Prout          1 - 0     1    Millin         5 - 0     5
Self           1 - 0     1    K Squire       1 - 4     5
Frye           0 - 1     1    Stroup         1 - 3     4
McCabe         0 - 1     1    G Clark        1 - 1     2
T O'Brien      0 - 1     1    Chapman        0 - 2     2
                              Coyle          1 - 0     1
                              Cosmo          0 - 1     1
                              D Ladouceur    0 - 1     1
                              M Murray       0 - 1     1

Shots on goal           44    Shots on goal           50
Saves made by (GA)      29    Saves made by (GA)      37
   Wetherup (16)     17          Watson (2)        25
   Nash (5)          12          Cosmo (5)         12
Penalties                4    Penalties                6
Penalty Minutes          8    Penalty Minutes         12
Power Play Chances       4    Power Play Chances       0
Power Play Goals         1    Power Play Goals         0
   Driscoll           1          (None)
Shorthanded Goals        0    Shorthanded Goals        0
Loose Balls             79    Loose Balls             95
   McCabe            12          Toll              13
   Ghedina           10          Coyle             11
   Frye               9          G Clark            9
Faceoffs Won            12    Faceoffs Won            20
   Kirkby       ( 8-10)          Millin       (11- 7)
   Ghedina      ( 4-10)          Toll         ( 8- 5)
                                 Manning      ( 1- 0)

   *** STATS OFFICIAL BY VERIFY WITH TORONTO ROCK ***