Christopher Crane, Correspondent Rochester Knighthawks
Lacrosse is Awesome©
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The Rochester Knighthawks (1-7) played host to the Vancouver Warriors (4-5) at the Blue Cross Arena on Kids Day in front of a crowd of 4,063. Rochester would battle hard all game long holding a lead late until the fourth period, unfortunately Vancouver would sneak out the victory in overtime as the Warriors Mitch Jones would net the game winner at 2:47 mark in overtime to take a 11-10 victory.
Rochester would get things started in the first period as they would tally off the first three scores of the period coming from Shawn Evans (2g, 4a); Holden Cattoni (2g, 6a); and Cory Highfield (1g, 1a) giving the Knighthawks a 3-0 lead. Vancouver answered back with two scores of their own from Joel McCready (4g, 1a); and Keegan Bal (2g, 2a) making it a 3-2 game at the 10:14 mark of the first period. Rochester would net one more score before the end of the period from Cattoni for his second of the night giving Rochester a 4-2 lead at the end of the first period.
Second period action saw both teams exchange scores as each would net four goals apiece. Getting things started was Rochester’s Phil Caputo (4g) at 2:14 in the period. Vancouver’s McCready would net his second of the night for the Warriors to make it a 5-3 game at the 3:06 mark of the period. Caputo would net his second on the night as well in the frame; but it would be followed up by Vancouver’s Riley Loewen (1g, 2a) to make it a 6-4 game. Rochester knotted off two scores from (S) Evans and another from Caputo for a hat trick, his first hat trick on the season giving Rochester an 8-4 lead at 12:04 mark of the period. The Warriors would answer back with two more scores of their own to close out the frame coming from the likes of Mitch Jones and Bal making it a 8-6 game heading into halftime.
Third period action was a defensive standstill with only one goal being tallied and it came from the Warriors McCready making an 8-7 game after the third period.
Once again it would be Caputo getting things started in the fourth to put the Knighthawks up 9-7 at the 4:01 mark of the period. Vancouver would then rally off two scores of their own coming from McCready and Jones to tie it at nine apiece at 12:54. Rochester got the go ahead goal from Turner Evans as the ball rolled out of Vancouver’s net minders stick and Evans was right there to scoop it up and put it in the back of the net to put the Knighthawks up 10-9 in the closing minute of the fourth period. The Warriors wouldn’t go away that easily as Jones would net the tying goal in the closing seconds of the fourth period bringing the score 10-10 at the end of the fourth period.
The OT period would be a back and forth battle for the first two minutes of the frame until Mitch Jones would beat the Rylan Hartley with a rocket of a shot giving the Warriors a 11-10 win over the Knighthawks.
TEAM STATS:
Vancouver: 57 SOG; 19 SOFF; 83 LB; 17-25 FO; 3-3 PP; 10 PIM
Rochester: 46 SOG; 32 SOFF; 93 LB; 8-25 FO; 3-5 PP; 6 PIM
NET-MINDER STATS:
Vancouver Eric Penney: 46 SOG; 36 Saves; 10 GA; .783 Sv%
Rochester Rylan Hartley: 57 SOG; 46 Saves; 11 GA; .807 Sv%
NEXT UP:
The Rochester Knighthawks (1-7) have a bye-week and will be back in action on Saturday February 22 when they head to New England to face the Black Wolves (4-2), game time 7:00 p.m. EST.
The Vancouver Warriors (4-5) will head back out on the road to face the Toronto Rock (5-2) at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday February 15, game time 7:00 p.m. EST. This will be another game in the Alterna Cup Series. Right now Toronto leads the series 1-0 with Vancouver sitting at 0-1.
Christopher Crane, Correspondent Rochester Knighthawks
Lacrosse is Awesome©