Christopher Crane, Rochester Knighthawks Correspondent
Lacrosse is Awesome©
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In Week 20 of NLL Action, the Rochester Knighthawks (3-13) traveled to Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum to take on the New York Riptide (6-10) in front of a crowd of 4,689. With both teams out of playoff contention this would be a battle for the year end placing. Rochester was also looking to snap a seven-game losing streak in the final regular season meeting against the Riptide. Unfortunately for the Knighthawks, the Riptide would take advantage of their power play opportunities and would convert five out of six as well as jump out to a 6-0 lead before Rochester would finally get on the board early in the second period. New York remained in control and would take the win sending Rochester on an eight-game losing streak. Rochester is on pace to tie the second most losses in the NLL history with the Charlotte Cobras in 1996 and the Syracuse Smash in 2000 at 10 if they don’t find a way to win one of their last two. Final Score: Riptide 15—Knighthawks 7.
The first got off to a slow start and would have both teams battling late into the period before the Riptide would get on the board first at the 9:25 mark on a power play goal from Dan Lomas (2g) to put New York ahead 1-0. Tallying the other scores in under 2:30 for the Riptide were Jake Fox (4g) netting two of his four on the night and teammate Ron John (1g, 1a) giving New York the lead at the end of the first period. Score at the end of one: Riptide 4—Knighthawks 0.
New York would pick up right where they left off in the first and would net two more in 55 seconds. Andrew Borgatti (1g) would find the back of the net at the :31 mark and teammate Jeff Teat (3g, 7a) the NLL’s leading rookie point-getter would notch his first of three on the night at the :55 mark to give New York a 6-0 lead. Rochester would finally get on the board at the 2:49 mark on a score from Curtis Knight (2g, 2a) halting the six-goal run making a 6-1 game. It took a few but the Riptide would notch another with a power-play tally from Kieran McArdle (1g, 3a) at 5:49 restoring the six-goal lead 7-1. Both net-minders held strong for a little under six more minutes before Rochester broke the drought and got one back on the board at 11:21 with Knight tallying his second in the frame and Mike Burke (2g, 1a) notching his first of two on the night 34 seconds later. They’d keep the ‘Tide out of the net for the rest of the half. Score at the end of two: Riptide 7—Knighthawks 3.
New York would keep up the pressure on Rochester outscoring the Knighthawks 4-2 in the third while extending their lead. Teat would start it off with a man-up marker early on at 1:02. The Knighthawks would put up their scores early on at 3:30 from Ryland Rees (1g) and Thomas Hoggarth (1g, 2a) notching his only tally at 6:19 getting them to within three 8-5. The rest of the frame was all ‘Tide. Connor Kearnan (1g, 3a) would tally one at 6:51; after close to five minutes of scoreless lacrosse, Scott Dominey (1g) would net his score on a power play opportunity with the assist going to Steven Orleman; and Fox netting his third of the night with 49 seconds in the frame giving him the hat trick on the night and giving the ‘Tide a six goal lead heading into the final frame. Score at the end of three: Riptide 11—Knighthawks 5.
Fourth period action seemed to be Deja vu as New York would once again outscore Rochester 4-2. Dan MacRae (1g) would get the scoring going for the Riptide at the 3:15 mark. At this point, Rochester’s Bench Boss Mike Hasen made the switch to put in net-minder Lukas Coote for his third appearance of the season. Teat would score for the Riptide at 5:09 for the hat-trick to put New York up 13-5. Rochester’s Ryan Smith (1g, 1a) would halt the five-goal run at 6:03 to make it a 13-6 game. But New York would go man-up and capitalize on another power play opportunity and Lomas would find the back of the net at the 8:19 mark for his second man-up tally on the night and once again they had an eight-goal lead at 14-6. Each team would add one more score on the night. Burke would net the final tally for Rochester at 10:27 and 30 seconds later Fox would notch his fourth on the night for New York at the 10:57 mark. Neither team could find the back of the net for the remainder of the period. Final Score: Riptide 15—Knighthawks 7.
STATS:
Rochester Knighthawks—SOG 43; Saves 29; FO 15-26; Assists 12; LB 78; PP 0-4
New York Riptide—SOG 44; Saves 36; FO 11-26; Assists 20; LB 80; PP 506
NEXT UP:
The Rochester Knighthawks (3-13) will play host to the Calgary Roughnecks (9-7) at Blue Cross Arena, on Friday April 22, game time 7:00 p.m. EST. Fans in the USA can catch the action on ESPN+. Fans in Canada can see the game on TSN.ca or the TSN app.
The New York Riptide (6-10) will play host to the Halifax Thunderbirds (9-7) at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Saturday April 23, game time 7:30 p.m. EST. Fans in the USA can catch the action on ESPN+. Fans in Canada can see the game on TSN.ca or the TSN app.
Christopher Crane, Rochester Knighthawks Correspondent
Lacrosse is Awesome©