Rock Rebound After OT Loss to Georgia; Fight Their Way to Huge Win!
The Rochester Knighthawks (2-5) fell to the Toronto Rock (5-2) 10-6 Saturday night. Midweek the Knighthawks traded Stephen Keogh to the Colorado Mammoth for a first round pick in 2018 and a second round pick in 2019.
Toronto was coming off a heartbreaking overtime loss Friday night to the Georgia Swarm 13-12.
In the early going Rochester came out with a purpose, putting pressure on the Rock. The pressure paid off as Dan Dawson scored his second goal of the year to give the Hawks an early 1-0 lead. It wasn’t until the 8:34 mark that Toronto responded when Phil Caputo scored his second goal of the season as he took a pass from Turner Evans and streaked down the middle to beat Matt Vinc. Prior to that goal the Rochester defense was keeping Toronto to the outside and limiting their second chance opportunities. Rochester led 2-1 after the first quarter.
Tom Schreiber would register his first of the night at 2:01 of the second quarter. Five minutes later Dan Dawson would score his second of the evening to give Rochester back the lead at 3-2. That would be the last time they would be ahead. Toronto scored the final two goals of the half, and hit the locker rooms with a slim 4-3 lead.
Both goaltenders put on a clinic for the fans. Nick Rose stopped 20-23 in the first half while Matt Vinc stopped 19 of 23 shots faced. Some of these shots were from point blank range; others seemed impossible to save.
Rochester fought to keep themselves within a goal at 7-6 as Joe Resetarits would score at 11:14, but Caputo scored his second of the game just 1:03 later to make the score 8-6. Schreiber scored his second on a penalty shot as Rochester was called for an illegal substitution at 14:10. Rose then scored an empty net goal at 14:48. It was Rose’s second career goal, having also scored into an empty net against the Buffalo Bandits last season.
Dan Dawson led the scoring for Rochester with two goals and two assists. Brad Gillies, Cory Vitarelli and Josh Currier also scored.
For Toronto, Brett Hickey, Schreiber and Reid Reinholdt each had a pair of goals and assists. Kieran McArdle also scored, while Turner Evans tallied four assists.
Toronto ended their set of games this weekend at 1-1. Rochester will now travel to Georgia to face the Swarm who now stand at 5-1 after defeating Toronto Friday night in overtime.
Next week Toronto will face a Buffalo Bandit team that is in major turmoil.
Rochester will face Vancouver next Saturday night.
