The Rochester Knighthawks were on a mission. The whistle blew and a minute and seven seconds later the K-Hawks were in the lead. The visitors never looked back and when the dust settled on “Roughneck Rodeo Night,” Rochester rode out of Cowtown with a 15-10 victory.
Rochester was coming off a 17-9 shellacking at the hands of Saskatchewan and definitely looked like the hungrier team on Saturday night. Ten first-half goals were the most goals in a half for Rochester this season and Thomas McConvey was responsible for three of those goals. McConvey would finish with five goals and two assists for a seven-point night. Connor Fields and Ryan Lanchbury added nine and seven points respectively as they continue to sit in the top 5 in league scoring. Fields also provided the goal of the night as he sniped a 30 foot behind the back shot just as the shot clock expired midway through the second quarter.
It was the opposite story for the hometown Roughnecks. They were coming off a 21-8 victory against Las Vegas and were sitting in 3rd place. Right from the start, the Roughnecks looked a step behind and ended up playing catch-up for the entire game.
“They got the jump on us tonight and we looked a little lethargic. By the time we got our game going it wasn’t good enough. Again, just got to make sure we’re ready to go a bit earlier, so that starts with me,” coach Josh Sanderson told Roughnecks TV.
Sanderson was a bit more pointed in the assessment of his teams’ physical play.
“Bennett (Smith) was probably one of our better defenders too – just playing physical. We want to play a bit of a physical brand of lacrosse and he’s getting the message and a few guys aren’t. We’re going to work to get better this week and if that means moving on from some guys that’s just what we’re going to do because we’ve got to get better – we can’t keep doing this at home.”
Bennett Smith had nine loose balls, one CTO and 19 PIM’s including a fight with Rochester’s Tyler Biles late in the fourth. Curtis Dickson led all Calgary scorers with four goals and five assists. Thirty-six-year-old Dickson currently leads the NLL with 31 goals.
Rochester (5-7) currently sits in 11th place in the unified standings and will return home to play Albany (3-8). Calgary (6-5) is in 6th place and heads to Denver to take on the 5th place Mammoth (6-5).
