Revenge. Redemption. Retribution.

Whatever word they use, it translated to victory for the Edmonton Rush, who rode their defence to an 11-9 win over the league-leading Toronto Rock in front of 10,296 at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday.

It was the first home loss the Rock have had in their seven games there this season, while the Rush are now 3-0 in their most recent visits to Toronto.

With the win, Edmonton improved to 6-4 as they maintain their grasp on first place in the West Division, while Toronto fell to 10-3 and narrowly missed an opportunity to become the first NLL team to earn a post-season berth in 2015.

Just as it did in their only other meeting of the season three weeks ago – a 16-15 Rock overtime win – Saturday's battle between the division leaders pitted the Rock's league-leading offence versus the Rush's NLL-best defence.

But instead of Rock forward Rob Hellyer scoring five goals and 10 points like he did in that game, including the overtime winner, the league's leading scorer was held to just one assist before leaving the game in the first half with an apparent arm injury.

Instead, it ended up being decided by perhaps the unlikeliest of heroes, as Rush defender Nik Bilic turned victory into defeat almost single-handedly with back-to-back goals that turned a 9-8 Toronto lead with five minutes left, into a 10-9 Edmonton advantage before defensive compadre Ryan Dilks sealed the deal with an empty netter.

“You've got to feel good for a kid like that, who

,” Rush head coach Derek Keenan said of Bilic, who had just one goal on the year coming into this one. “He works so hard in the back end and then was rewarded with a couple of huge goals.

“He was pretty calm, cool and collected there on those last two goals. They were pretty big goals for us. A pretty gutty win.”

That's not to take anything away from Brandon Miller. The Rock goalie came into this one with a 10.28 goals-against average that was second only to Rush netminder Aaron Bold's 9.40.

“And they were good on the defensive end and I thought both goaltenders were outstanding,” Keenan said. “It was night and day from when we played them three weeks ago.

“On the defensive side of things, we kind of played our tempo and I thought we took away a lot of things that they got on us last time around.”

Mark Matthews led the way for the Rush with a game-high seven points off of two goals and five assists, while Toronto had three goals and three assists from Brett Hickey and five assists and six more points from Josh Sanderson. Robert Church followed up with a hat trick and five points for the Rush.

While the loss of Hellyer may have changed the game's landscape somewhat, Keenan said it didn't affect the end result.

"I thought we had done a pretty good job on him, we changed things up in how we played him," Keenan said. "He was nullified pretty much for the first half anyway, but I'm sure they would have loved to have had him in the lineup there when things were tight in the fourth quarter."

FUNDS FOR FINES: With Rush head coach and GM Derek Keenan losing his wife, Wendy, to pancreatic cancer on the eve of the 2015 season, the club received more bad news this week as Bold's girlfriend and life partner, Michelle Fines, has been diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer in the bones.

In order to help alleviate the financial burden on the family, a fundraiser is being hosted on YouCaring.com, under Funds for Fines, with a goal of reaching $50,000.

At the opening faceoff, the amount had just topped $15,000.

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Game grades

OFFENCE B

DEFENCE A

TRANSITION A

GOALTENDING A

POWER PLAY B

PENALTY KILL D

EFFORT A

TOUGHNESS A

THREE STARS:

1. Aaron Bold, EDM

Held the league's leadidng offence to single digits with a 43-save night.

2. Mark Matthews, EDM

Had a game-high seven points off of two goals and five assists.

3. Brett Hickey, TOR

Three goals and three assists.

WHY THEY WON

Because Toronto was virtually them from a season ago, tearing through the regular season with just a pair of losses to show for until now. Of course, Edmonton knows they needed to be both good and lucky last year to win the close ones, and finally rediscovered their finish after going 0-3 in one-goal games up to this point.

BIG CRUNCH

Rock D Rob Marshall planted Rush rookie Tyler Melnyk into the carpet as the forward had his head down chasing a ball to the edge of Toronto's crease. Marshall's elbow earned a double-decker five-minute major for his troubles, and watched helplessly as Edmonton score twice.

HELLUVA LOSS

The Rock lost league-leading scorer Rob Hellyer left in the first half with what was officially designated an upper-body injury. He was held to just one assist Saturday, after scoring five goals and 10 points, including the overtime winner, in their first meeting.

NEXT UP: The Rush head back on the road to face the three-time reigning champion Rochester Knighthawks next Saturday at 5:30 p.m.