Christopher Crane, Rochester Knighthawks Correspondent
Lacrosse is Awesome©
Featured Image Photo Credit: M. Veluvolu
With one week left in the regular season, the Rochester Knighthawks (10-7) played host to the Georgia Swarm (8-9) at the Blue Cross Arena, and this was a crucial matchup between both teams. Rochester was in a must win to clinch a playoff spot and Georgia really needed the win to keep their playoff chances alive. The matchup would be a close one throughout, with Rochester receiving the only two-minute penalty early in the first and the two teams being close to 50/50 at the faceoff dot with the Swarm winning 12 of 26 and the Knighthawks winning 14 of 26. The teams would be tied up 6-6 after one half of play, however with outstanding play from Rochester ‘s defense and goalie Ryan Hartley (46 of 56) having an 82% save average on the night it would give the Knighthawks a 12-10 win.
The Swarm got on the scoreboard first from Bryan Cole (1g, 3a) 5:12 in on the only power play opportunity for either side to go up 1-0. Rochester would go on a three-goal run to go ahead 3-1. Getting things started for the Knighthawks were Thomas Hoggarth (2g) finding the back of the net with 6:33 remaining to make it a 1-1 game. Teammate Turner Evans (2g) would make it 2-1 with 2:01 left in the first. Rochester would get one more tally in the quarter as they would create an odd man transition opportunity where defenseman Paul Dawson (1g) would execute a bounce shot beating Georgia’s goalie with 41 seconds left to give the Knighthawks a 3-1 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Georgia would find the back of the net 39 seconds into the quarter at the hands of Ryan Lanchbury (2g) to make it a 3-2 game. Rochester’s Holden Cattoni (1g, 1a) would make it a 4-2 game at 1:37 setting a new career high in goals for a season. The Swarm got that one back two minutes later off a shot by Shayne Jackson (2g, 3a) to make it 4-3 at 3:39. Rochester tallied off the next two with Hoggarth netting his second of the night at 4:35 and teammate Connor Fields (2g, 3a) tallying his first of two on the night with 7:15 to go and the lead was doubled 6-3. But Georgia wouldn’t let Rochester get off that easy and would go on a three-goal run to end the quarter. It would be the Swarm’s Jackson getting his second tally of the night with 5:53 to go and teammates Lyle Thompson (2g, 1a) and Brendan Bomberry (2g, 1a) netting the other two scores for Georgia in the closing minutes of the quarter to make it a 6-6 game heading into halftime.
Once again, the Swarm started the scoring and they’d grab only their second lead of the night as the Thompson Brothers Lyle and Jeremy (1g, 1a) would tally scores just six seconds apart with Lyle finding the back of the net at 1:09 and Jeremy following up with his score at 1:15 to give Georgia an 8-6 lead. Rochester would pull ahead 10-8 on a four-goal run starting at the 4:31 mark of the frame. Curtis Knight (1g, 1a) made it an 8-7 game. Five minutes ticked off the clock and the Knighthawks would get their second score from Fields followed by teammates Ryan Smith (1g, 3a) and Matt Gilray (2g, 2a) netting the other tallies of the run to put them up 10-8 with 2:10 left in the frame. The Swarm would get one more score before the buzzer with 1:37 left from Lanchbury for his second of the night to make it 10-9 at the end of the third.
The fourth quarter would have both teams going back to a defensive battle combining for a total of three scores with Rochester winning that battle 2-1. Rochester would net the first two scores of the quarter with Evans netting his second of the night at 6:08 making it 11-9. There’d be no scoring for the almost eight minutes. The Knighthawks second and last score didn’t come until the closing seconds of play when Gilray put them up by three to make it 12-9 with 27 seconds to go. Georgia was able to put up one more tally in the quarter right before the buzzer. Bomberry netted his second of the night with .09 on the clock. Unfortunately for the Swarm, it wouldn’t be enough as the Knighthawks would hold on to a 12-10 win.
Some milestones that were reached in the contest included Connor Fields becoming the second American-born player in league history to score 50 goals in a season to join Roy Colsey who reached the mark in 2002. He also notched 15 loose balls in the contest and becomes the first player since Athan Iannucci in 2008 to record more than 100 points and 130 LB recoveries in the same season. John Tavares is the only other player in NLL history to reach both marks in a single season. So he’s in great company.
STATS:
Georgia Swarm—SOG 56; Saves 32; Sv% .727%; FO 12-26; PP 1-1
Rochester Knighthawks—SOG 44; Saves 46; Sv% .821%; FO 14-26; PP 0-0
NEXT UP:
The Rochester Knighthawks (10-7) will finish their regular season when they host the Philadelphia Wings (7-9) at Blue Cross Arena on Saturday April 29, 2023, game time 7:00 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 Georgia Swarm (8-9) close out their season and will play host to the Halifax Thunderbirds (9-8) at Gas South Arena on Saturday April 29, 2023, game time 7:00 p.m. EST. The Swarm still have slim playoff hopes but they will have to defeat Halifax and get a little help from around the league to get potentially the last playoff spot. 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©