Last night the Toronto Rock (4-6) hosted the Rochester Knighthawks (7-3). The Rock coming into this game had lost their last two games and were looking to end their losing streak. The Rock got off to a good start as Rob Hellyer and Colin Doyle beat Matt Vinc to give the Rock a 2-0 lead. Dan Dawson would get the Knighthawks on the board making the score 2-1. The teams would continue to trade goals back and forth until the end of the first quarter when Hellyer and Doyle would strike again to give the Rock a 6-3 lead.
The Rock would score 18 seconds into the second quarter as Garrett Billings scored on the powerplay to extend the Rock lead to 7-3. The Knighthawk would answer back as Corey Vitarelli scored to cut the lead to three. The Rock would quickly restore their four goal lead as Colin Doyle completed his hat trick and put the Rock in front 8-4. The Knighthawks had seen enough and decided to pull starting goalie Matt Vinc in favour of back up Angus Goodleaf. Goodleaf would stop the bleeding as he was able to hold off the Rock offense until Josh Sanderson beat him late in the period putting the Rock ahead 9-4. The Knighthawks would keep the game within reach as Brad Self scored to make the score 9-5 at the end of two quarters of play.
In the second half the Knighthawks took control of this game as Cody Jamieson erased the Rock lead as he scored four straight goals in order to tie the game at 9-9. The Knighthawks were not done there though as Stephen Keogh, Joe Walters and Johnny Powless scored to give the Knighthawks their first lead of the game as they were now in front 12-9. Garrett Billings would try to get the Rock’s momentum back as he scored to pull the game within two but Joel McCready would score to end the quarter giving the Knighthawks a 13-10 lead.
The fourth quarter was more of the same as the Knighthawks continued to roll as they scored another four straight goals to give themselves a 17-10 lead. The Rock would score two late goals in the period but it was too little to late as the Knighthawks domination of the second half secured them their eighth win of the season. This loss marked the fourth time in the Rocks last five games where they gave up a 7-0 run to their opponents. The Rock once again collapsed in the second half and had no answer for the Knighthawks offense.
The Knighthawks were able to win this game thanks to a tremendous performance from Cody Jamieson who had 4 goals and 7 assists for 11 points on the night. Angus Goodleaf was also phenomenal for the Knighthawks as he posted a 5.95 goals against average and .871 save percentage which enabled the Knighthawks to battle back into this game. The Knighthawks proved why they are one of the best teams in the NLL as they completely shut down the Rock in the second half of this game.
