Rochester Drops Their Fifth Straight on the Road in Saskatchewan 3/19/22

Christopher Crane, Rochester Knighthawks Correspondent
Lacrosse is Awesome©

Featured Image Photo Credit: S. Hiscock

The Rochester Knighthawks (3-9) headed on the road to take on the Saskatchewan Rush (4-9) at the SaskTel Centre in front of a crowd of 9,012. This would be the first match up between the two teams as the original Knighthawks are now Halifax Thunderbirds. Both teams were looking for a much needed win to help boost any chances for a playoff berth as the season starts to wind down. Joel Watson would once again get the start in the net for Rochester. Final Score: Rush 9—Knighthawks 6.

Rochester would allow themselves to get in the hole early in the first period as Saskatchewan would tally five scores with their defense not allowing a Knighthawks goal in the frame. Netting scores for the Rush would be Jeff Cornwall (1g), Josh Currier (1g, 1a), Matt Beers (1g), Ryan Keenan (5g, 1a) and Marshall Powless (1g, 1a). Eric Penney was stellar in between the pipes for the Rush as he stopped all 13 shots by the Knighthawks. Score at the end of one: Rush 5—Knighthawks 0.

The Knighthawks would show signs of life in the second as they would tally the first three scores of the period to cut the Rush’s lead to two. It would be Rochester’s Turner Evans (1g, 2a) netting his score just 35 seconds into the period. Netting the other two scores for Rochester were Ryan Smith (3g) who would notch his goal on a power play opportunity with teammate Charlie Bertrand (1g, 1a) netting Rochester’s third tally of the period. However, the Rush were able to sneak two scores of their own in the frame coming from Keenan who would tally both scores giving him a hat trick on the night and the Rush a 7-3 lead heading into halftime.

Third period action got off to a slow start with both teams not able to put up anything until middle of the frame. The Knighthawks Smith would net his second of the night at the 7:45 mark while Keenan from the Rush would tally his fourth at the 9:19 mark of the period. Saskatchewan would hold an 8-4 lead at the end of the third period.

Fans would see a low scoring fourth with Rochester outscoring the Rush 2-1 in the period. Scoring early in the frame at 2:01 was Holden Cattoni (1g, 2a) notching his only goal on the night and a team leading 24^th on the season for the Knighthawks. It would take almost nine minutes before another point would go up on the board and it would be a power play marker by none other than Keenan giving him five scores on the night. Rochester would put the final point on the board with 2:37 to go and it would come from Smith to give him a hat trick on the night. Unfortunately Rochester could not muster up any more scores and their efforts would come up short as the Rush would hold to win. Final Score: Rush 9—Knighthawks 6.

STATS:

Rochester Knighthawks—SOG 44; Saves 44; Assists 9; LB 77; Face-offs 6-19; PP 1-4
Saskatchewan Rush—SOG 53; Saves 38; Assists 15; LB 67; Face-offs 13-19; PP 1-3

NEXT UP:

The Rochester Knighthawks (3-9) will play host to their Eastern Division rivals Philadelphia Wings (5-7) at Blue Cross Arena on Saturday March 26, 2022, game time 7:00 p.m. EST. Fans in the USA can catch the game on ESPN+. Fans in Canada can see the game on TSN.ca or the TSN app.

The Saskatchewan Rush (4-9) will play host to the Calgary Roughnecks (4-7) at the SaskTel Centre on Saturday March 26, 2022, game time 9:30 p.m. EST. Fans in the USA can catch the game on ESPN+. Fans in Canada can see the game on TSN.ca or the TSN app. This is also an Alterna Cup game as well. The Alterna Cup Standings have the Roughnecks sitting at 2-1 and the Rush sitting at 1-4.