Quite literally, it was the best of games, it was the worst of games. To put in another way, how many ways can the Toronto Rock lose a game, without actually losing?

For their third straight home game against the Philadelphia Wings, the Rock roared back from a gaping deficit to score a dramatic and hugely unlikely win, 15-14 in overtime. But there was never so much on the line as there was tonight.

The Wings, absent from the playoffs since 2002, were looking to clinch -- and likely to claim a home game in the opening round. The Rock were facing the very real danger that a loss to Philly, coupled with a tough trip to Rochester next weekend, could slide them out of the postseason completely.

I have no coherent theory to explain what ended up happening tonight. So here are the facts, and you can decide for yourself:

Right off the opening draw, the visitors tore the home side to shreds.

• Sean Greenhalgh, beating Rock goalie Bob Watson on a heads-up grab of his own rebound at 1:16.
• Brad Self, on a turn-around wicket screen from 25 feet at 2:03.
• Greenhalgh, a slot pop to the top corner at 2:31.
• Jake Bergey, powering in, nudging one home off the underside of the crossbar at 3:25.

Blaine Manning finally got one back for the reeling Rock, a cheeky running one-hander to beat Matt Roik from in close. But here came the Wings again:

• Bergey, using his speed (??) to make a looping run from the corner to the slot to score
• Mike Regan, capping some patient cross-floor passing on the power play
• Greenhalgh, humming home a sidearmer from the mid slot.

That chased Watson. Phil Weatherup took over at the 10:31 mark. Who knew what was about to happen (part one)?

Matt Shearer fired back for Toronto, a gorgeous top-corner hum job at 13:49. Just ten seconds later, Philly defender Glenn Clark raced way out of his way to jump Brad MacDonald into a fight while another scuffle was just ending. Both players were tossed, meaning Clark wasn’t around to play his role on the Wings defense the rest of the way.

7-2 Philadelphia after one. Stunned silence in the press box. The Wings played great, but the Rock made some unbelievable howlers on defense. No sign, whatsoever, of even a competent defensive team.

So now it’s Toronto’s turn:

• Josh Sanderson, finishing off some nice, flowing passing on the power play at 0:15.
• Shearer, short diagonal rip at 0:40.
• Aaron Wilson, camped (where else?) just off the left post, cashing in a stunning behind-the-back cross-crease zip pass from Sanderson at 2:51.
• Colin Doyle, a thirty-foot diagonal screen job at 3:55.
• Doyle again, a doorstep bomb to tie the game at 7:03.

Philly bounced right back. Greenhalgh got his fourth of the night from the slot just 24 seconds later, and Ratcliffe followed with a singeing porch pop at 8:01. That brought Bob Watson back into the net for Toronto, but Weatherup did a fine job of backstopping unlikely comeback number one.

Blaine Manning served up another nice running scoring play for Toronto (the Rock were consistently scoring beautiful goals tonight), but Regan quickly counterstruck with a long, low hummer that got under Watson’s pads and into the net at 14:28.

10-8 Wings after two.

Not surprisingly, both teams played cautiously to open the second half. You wouldn’t want to risk having that first half mess happen all over again, right?

Sigh.

No scoring for almost ten minutes, and then Philly ran the table for the rest of the quarter. Rob Van Beek got the first, snagging a mid-floor scoop and outrunning Shearer to glory. The next goal came from Ratcliffe, who powered it home from the porch. Greenhalgh closed it out at 12:25, zinging one over Watson’s shoulder, off the underside of the crossbar, and in.

13-8 Philly after three.

Ratcliffe needed less than minute to bury what should have been the final nail, flying Watson’s crease off a running flip pass from Bergey, easily the visitors’ most creative score of the night.

A few thoughts, before we begin:

The Rock needed a little longer to make the incredible, historic swipe job this time around. A year ago, it took nine minutes. This time, closer to fourteen.

Colin Doyle scored or assisted on every one of the seven goals Toronto was about to score. If you want to talk about an MVP performance, there, I submit, you are.

The Rock looked strong when the rally started, hugely confident in the middle, and outright unstoppable at the end. As happened a year ago, the Philadelphia Wings were essentially frozen out of the game, and not even asked their opinion of what was going on -- or whether they would to contribute anything to the eventual outcome.

All that said, here we go:

• Doyle, on a dipsy-doodling run on the power play, 3:07.
• Manning, from 30 feet, 3:50.
• Manning, head-on, 4:34.
• Doyle, from just off the crease, 13:06.
• Wilson, at the left post, nabbing a rebound off the backboards (just try to do that on the goal line!), 14:04.
• Wilson, again just off the left post, 14:18.

14-14 deadlock, and for the fourth time in eight home games, the Rock were heading to overtime.

There were three scoring chances in the extra frame. First, Rock captain Jim Veltman scooped one off the floor, wobbled in and shot, but Roik turned him away. Jeff Ratcliffe came right back for Philly, right down the middle, but the ball was stripped before he had a chance to shoot.

Then:

Doyle, off to the right side, nudges his defender. Again. Again. Keeps right on nudging, bulls to the middle of the slot, winds up on a fearsome sidearmer, and detonates the twine bag behind an overmatched, defeated Roik.

Building goes bananas. Rock survives.

NOTES:

I wonder if Lindsay Sanderson will ever want to set foot in the Air Canada Centre again? Toronto has become a nightmare destination for the Wings head coach/GM, and it’s his own brother that’s keeping him up at night.

At halftime, the pressbox was debating whether the Rock could really be as bad as they were in the first quarter, and as good as they were in the second. That was before their bad third quarter, and astonishing fourth and overtime. The answer to both questions, I believe, is yes.

It was the Rock, you see, that was most responsible for the many steep and lurching mood changes this contest produced. The Wings were great in the first and third quarters, but they were up against a stuttering, dreadful defense that all but stood back and let them do anything they wanted to, and from anywhere. In the second quarter and down the stretch, Toronto played offense about as well as I’ve ever seen it done.

Put it another way: Most of Philadelphia’s goals were wide open and uncontested. Most of the Rock’s were brilliant.

This is the true price of parity in NLL 2006. No one knows who the better team is, so you never know if the score on the scoreboard favors the better team, or if you’re watching an upset. We can never say whether something should have happened or not, because there is no background perspective to compare it to. It’s like driving 100 miles down a highway in the fog. Where are you? How did you get there?

Clearly, with a finish like that, you might conclude that the Toronto Rock were the better team tonight. But they were also, for big malignant hunks of the opening quarter, one of the worst NLL teams I’ve ever seen.

All I can tell you, for certain, is that Toronto got 15 goals, and Philadelphia didn’t, and that’s the way one of the most two-sided lacrosse games I ever expect to see goes in the books.

But it all felt very odd and strange at the end. At some point, I would love this NLL season to tell us all, clearly, who the best team really is. I fear it’s never going to happen: that all the upcoming playoff contests will, essentially, be coin tosses.

Don’t get me wrong, this was as thrilling and dramatic a lacrosse game as any of us is ever likely to see. But it’s all starting to feel really random now.

Honestly, I’d have preferred if the better team (whoever that may be) had won outright, preferably by about 13-7.

Does that make any sense at all?

Onward!