The 0-3 Rochester Knighthawks look for that elusive first win on Saturday night at the Blue Cross Arena as they face off against the 3-2 Western Division-leading Washington Stealth at 8:00. This is undeniably a must-win game for Rochester, the only team without a win in the National Lacrosse League.
One of the players off to a hot start for the Knighthawks is #23 Cory Vitarelli. Vitarelli leads Rochester in goals with six, adding two assists as well. His play can be attributed to an increased role in the offense and his hard-working attitude. Leading the K-Hawks in points is forward Cody Jamieson, who has tallied 15 points in the first three games (5 goals, 10 assists). After last Saturday’s game, Jamieson told NLL.com’s Travis Larner, “We’re 0-3, but in a couple of weeks, we could be 3-3,” Jamieson said. “In our dressing room, no one is hitting the panic button. It’s a long season, we’re three games in. There’s no need to write the season off. In our dressing room, we like our team. Why would we push the panic button when we know what we want and we like what we got?” One thing Rochester will be trying to do is scoring some more even-strength goals. Of the Knighthawks’ seven goals, only two were scored on even-strength. They were 2-for-5 on the power play and scored three goals shorthanded.
Rhys Duch is the main man to look out for on the Stealth. Leading the team with 27 points, Duch is a dual-threat passer and scorer who was displayed on Opening Night in the win over Rochester in the first meeting. Others to look out for on Washington are Lewis Ratcliff, Cliff Smith and Athan Iannucci. The star forwards can put it in the net with the best of them and will try to use their speed to get past Rochester’s suspect defense. Netminder Tyler Richards has limited teams to just 37 goals on 109 shots, and will try to outplay his counterpart, Knighthawks star goalie Matt Vinc.
Looking through the stats on NLL.com, you can’t help but look at the quarter-by-quarter summary. And the Stealth have been good in the third quarter, outscoring opponents 18-11 on the year. Rochester’s pitfall has been the fourth, where they’ve been outscored 13-6. Fixing things in the fourth in a close game is one of the keys for the Knighthawks to be successful.
Catch the Knighthawks-Stealth game at the Blue Cross Arena at 8 pm Saturday night on The Lacrosse Network Youtube channel! Former NASCAR Champion Tony Stewart will be making an appearance and connecting with fans while enjoying his first NLL game!
