Scream, shout, let it all out. Lacrosse is back and Saturday night featured a doozy between the Las Vegas Desert Dogs and the hometown Rochester Knighthawks. Blue Cross Arena was packed to the brim with fans oozing with excitement. Excitement because their beloved K-Hawks were back in action, and there are some high expectations surrounding the club this season. What better way to kick the campaign off, then with a back-and-forth contest, ultimately resulting in the Knighthawks sneaking away with a 14-12 win.
The first quarter was split right down the middle between both clubs. Las Vegas went out and scored the first two, specifically, Jacob Ruest and Brandon Goodwin. Rochester rattled off their two in a span of 38 seconds. Ryan Smith tallied the first, and was followed up by Curtis Knight. Deadlocked after one.
Buckle up for the second quarter. After a fairly tame first, the second saw a combined ten goals between both sides, and guess what? The game was tied at the half. Ryan Lanchbury gave Rochester the lead with a power play marker to open things up. Las Vegas wasted little time tying and regaining the lead. Jack Hannah tied it, Casey Jackson put them ahead. I’ll give you one guess what happens next. Yep, Rochester copied. Kyle Water tied it with his first on the power play and Connor Fields gave Rochester the lead back. The goals came marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah. Las Vegas answered with two more, in reverse of their previous two. Jackson with the first, Hannah with the second. Thomas McConvey and Shane Simpson traded goals, and Turner Evans gave Rochester the last laugh of the first half. Keep up, 7-7 at the break.
“We’re in a fine spot, it’s a 0-0 game at half”, said Jackson at the break. “I always knew in this league that the first quarter is going to be absolute chaos, it’ll be nice to settle down, get back to our stuff, and play two more quarters.”
Let’s give some love to the men between the pipes, who both faced an obscene amount of shots. First, Landon Kells stopped a ridiculous 41 of 48. On the other side, Riley Hutchcraft made 31 saves on 38 shots. 86 combined shots in the first half and only 14 goals equals some pretty good play from those two.
The game slowed down in the third compared to the ferocity that was the second. The game stayed almost deadlocked, but Rochester used a four-goal run in the middle of the frame to swing the momentum in their direction. Las Vegas rattled off the first two again, both power play goals. The first was courtesy of Kyle Killen and the other from Hannah. Cue the Rochester run. Goal scorers in that span were McConvey, Fields, and Smith twice. Simpson got the final tally of the quarter to cut the deficit to just one. 11-10 Knighthawks after three.
Smith continued his hot shooting as he opened the scoring in the fourth to give Rochester a two-goal lead that seemed like it could have been enough. Sike. Las Vegas came right back to tie it in under two minutes. The first was from Hannah and the second was from Killen. The expression goes “mama, there goes that MAN again”. Allow me to change part of it to “
MEN”. Fields and Smith scored consecutively to put the game on ice. Smith’s goal was his fifth and was at the 6:28 mark of the fourth. Kudos to the Knighthawks’ defense and Hutchcraft for shutting down a very “game” Desert Dogs offense. Your final from the 585, 14-12 Rochester.
Players of the game for Las Vegas were Hannah (4+2), Jackson (2+2), and Killen (2+1). Kells has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of as he faced 72 shots, stopping 58 of them. Insane numbers. For Rochester, Fields (3+7), Smith (5+3), and McConvey (2+3) led the way. Hutchcraft was as stingy as they come down the stretch, stopping 50 of 62 in total.
“We had a bunch of key additions this year, I think we had a really good training camp, so this is a good start”, said Fields after the game. “Credit to Hutchy, he’s as good as it gets too. He’s always ready when his number is called, it’s what we expect out of him.”
Rochester (1-0) continues their stretch of wins in season openers. They stay on their home turf and welcome in the reigning champs, the Buffalo Bandits, for the first installment of the I-90 rivalry. That game is Saturday at 7pm. Las Vegas (0-1) looks to have a short memory. They travel back home and welcome the Colorado Mammoth (1-0), Friday night at 1030pm.
