Photos and article: Tracey Happold-BrownThe Rochester Knighthawks soared in Philadelphia and clipped the Wings with a 16-13 win on Friday night.
The game had some remarkable occurrences that stood out. Mike Sowers, strong in his outdoor game, had a breakout indoor game when he scored 4 points and added 3 assists. Rochester also took a whopping 79 shots! Both teams pulled their starting goalies, with Rochester doing that early on.
The Wings continue to scratch their heads and go back to the drawing board as they look to get back into the win column, while Rochester (with a powerful lineup) looked poised for a playoff run.
The Wings started off strong with a Sowers goal in his first home floor appearance this season before Connor Fields answered back. Brennan O’Neill fired one in for Philadelphia had Sowers popping in 2 more. Mitch Armstrong threw another one into the net for Philadelphia before Thomas McConvey ended the first with his goal with just 13 seconds left. The Wings were up 5-2. They appeared ready to take flight.
And then it was Rochester who took flight in the second quarter. They flew into the quarter fully confident, outscoring Philadelphia 6-3. The Wings needed to regroup at halftime. Unfortunately, much of the same continued in the third quarter as Rochester continued to fire off goals. Philadelphia managed to put another 3 on the board; but the 3 goals were not enough to match Rochester’s 5.
The fourth quarter saw Rochester fire off 3 more goals in a row before Philadelphia scored their final 2. Coach Ian Rubel reflected on the strong offensive play by Mike Sowers. “He is unbelievable. He had a great game. We know what Mikey can bring to this team, he’s a tough check for anyone.” Joe Resetarits reinforced how strong of a player Sowers is. One positive of having Sowers on the floor is that he is willing to go in, taking the hard hits, and can still control the ball as evident in his stick work and goals that he scored. The same can be said for O’Neill. And on a roster that needs the U.S. players to step up, these guys have done just that.
Joe mentioned that as he talked about both players. The keys that he mentioned for both men were talent and spark. “Mikey set that spark for us tonight, right, just like Brennan did last week. Having that in our back pocket, it’s an advantage for us and it’s a problem for other teams.” He did mention that some of the veterans need to “pull our own weight” when talking about how they can best utilize everyone on the team.
The Wings will need to quickly regroup when they fly to Las Vegas for their next and roll the dice in their next game.
Rochester takes on Buffalo this Saturday.
