Christopher Crane, Rochester Knighthawks Correspondent
Lacrosse is Awesome©
Featured Image Photo Credit: Micheline Veluvolu
The Rochester Knighthawks (7-2) played host to the Halifax Thunderbirds (4-5) at the Blue Cross Arena on Saturday February 11, 2023. This was the second matchup for the two teams this season with Halifax taking the first. However, Rochester had other plans for this second matchup only allowing Halifax to have the lead once during the game which happened very early in the first quarter, after that it would be all Rochester for the rest of the contest giving them a 16-14 win.
In addition, late in the second quarter Rochester would get an even bigger boost in helping secure the victory when Halifax’s Jake Withers would intentionally body check Rochester’s goaltender Ryan Hartley while in the crease and would receive 15 penalty minutes and eventual ejection from the game. The Knighthawks would get a big night from none other than Connor Fields who currently ranks fourth overall in the NLL for point who would come away with an eight-point night (4g, 4a); and teammate Thomas Vela only appearing in his second game of the season who would notch his first two career NLL goals.
Halifax would get on the board first on a score from Eric Fannell (3g, 2a) at the 3:03 mark and this would be the only time the Thunderbirds would lead during the game. It would be five and half minutes of play later before either team would be able to find the back of the net, but it would be the Knighthawks notching the game 1-1 at 6:27 on a power play goal from Ryan Smith (2g, 1a). Rochester would then tally two more scores in the quarter with Connor Fields (4g, 4a) netting his first of four on the night and teammate Thomas Vela (2g) netting his first NLL career goal at 2:39 putting Rochester ahead 3-1. Halifax would get one more score from Chris Boushy (1g, 1a) to make it 3-2 at the end of the first quarter.
The Knighthawks would get on the board early in the second at 1:59 from Curtis Knight (1g, 3a) to give Rochester a 4-2 lead. Halifax would bite back three minutes later with one from Randy Staats (2g, 2a) to make it 4-3. Rochester didn’t take long to erase the marker and would see Holden Cattoni (3g, 4a) net his first of three putting them up by two to make it 5-3. The Thunderbirds would tally off two in a row to tie it 5-5 with Staats putting up the first and Ryan Benesch (1g, 3a) the second with 6:14 in the half, but that was it for the T’Birds in the frame. Rochester would answer back with a four-goal run. Scoring first was Ryland Rees (1g, 1a) to make it a 6-4 game at the 5:55 mark. This is when Halifax’s Jake Withers would receive his ejection at the 5:49 mark and Rochester would take advantage of the opportunity and notch three more. Tallying scores for the Knighthawks would be Vela, Fields on the power-play and Cattoni to give Rochester a 9-5 lead heading into halftime.
Halifax would start cutting into Rochester’s lead tallying off the first two scores to start the third and the score board showed 9-7 at the 3:34 mark. The Thunderbirds would get scores from Austin Shanks (2g, 5a) and Johnny Pearson (2g). Twenty-one seconds later Rochester answered back by tallying off two of their own extending the gap back to four and it was 11-7 game at the 8:39 mark. Fields notched his hat-trick and Thomas Hoggarth (1g, 2a) also got in on the action. Halifax would get one back 30 seconds later with another one from Fannell to make it 11-8. However, the Knighthawks would add two more in the last seven minutes of the third from Smith and Brad Gillies (1g) extending the lead by five. Scoring would stall for the last 6:43 as neither team could find the back of the net. The third would end with the Knighthawks leading 13-8.
The fourth quarter would start off with Halifax scoring first and making a late surge but would end up coming up short although they would outscore Rochester 6-3. Halifax’s Fannell would net the first of the quarter for his hat-trick to make it a 13-9 game at 1:44. Rochester would then go on a three-goal run with Cattoni notching his hat-trick, Matt Gilray (1g, 1a) finding twine and Fields getting his fourth to make it 16-9 game with 5:38 left in the game. At this point, the Thunderbirds shut down the Knighthawks offense and would go on a five-goal run in the closing minutes. Cody Jamieson (2g, 1a) who would account for his only two goals on the night started the run with 3:20 left; Pearson; Clarke Petterson (1g, 3a); and Shanks all netted one score apiece. The final Halifax goal from Jamieson came with 32 seconds on the ticker but their comeback was not enough.
The final at Blue Cross Arena was 16-14 giving the Knighthawks their first win ever against Halifax. With the win Rochester improves to 7-2 on the season and Halifax falls to 4-5.
STATS:
Halifax Thunderbirds—SOG 54; FO 24-36; Saves 37; Sv% .699%; PP 0-3
Rochester Knighthawks—SOG 53; FO 12-36; Saves 40; Sv% .741%; PP 2-4
NEXT UP:
The Halifax Thunderbirds (4-5) will play host to the New York Riptide (2-6) at the Scotiabank Centre in Nova Scotia on Sunday February 19, 2023, game time 1:00 p.m. EST. Fans in the USA can see the game on ESPN+. Fans in Canada can see the action on TSN.ca or the TSN app.
The Rochester Knighthawks (7-2) have a bye week and will return to action on Saturday February 25, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. EST when they will play host to the New York Riptide (2-6) at Blue Cross Arena. Fans in the USA can see the game on ESPN+. Fans in Canada can see the action on TSN.ca or the TSN app.
Christopher Crane, Rochester Knighthawks Correspondent
Lacrosse is Awesome©