Week 9 action came to us from Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, New York. This clash featured two of the league’s more high-powered offenses. The hometown Knighthawks were on a tear, and the visiting Vancouver Warriors were right at the top of the standings as well.
While this game had the potential to be an instant classic and a shootout, the final score was definitely not indicative of the capability of Rochester. Vancouver walked into the 585 and put a beatdown on Rochester, handily beating them, 16-6. Ever seen a goaltender get a match penalty from a hit? Stay tuned.
Ryan Smith buried the first goal of the game for Rochester, but that’d be it for their scoring for quite a while. That goal came at the 13:16 mark, and their next one wasn’t until there were 34 seconds left in the frame, courtesy of Ryan Lanchbury. In between, Vancouver put their foot down, limiting all Rochester scoring chances and burying three goals of their own. Those goals were all power play markers and were scored by Curtis Dickson, Keegan Bal, and Jesse King. 3-2 Vancouver after one.
Now to the goalie ejection. I’m sure you all have seen the viral video of this going around, but the off chance you didn’t, here’s my best crack at a description. A little over midway through the first quarter, Christian Del Bianco fired an outlet pass to Steph Charbonneau, who was met above the restraining line by Ryan Hartley who laid a massive hit on him. I mean, trucked him. Every player had a dance partner after that, and it resulted in 16 minutes worth of penalty minutes and an ejection for Hartley. There are a lot of different opinions on whether an ejection was warranted or not, as well as a suspension. Here’s your homework: look at the video and make the judgement for yourself. Mine seems to be the minority, so I’ll keep it to myself.
It’s unknown but presumed that Vancouver used that incident as fuel to put it on Rochester the rest of the way, and boy, did they ever. Vancouver’s pace was fast and furious, and Del Bianco was as stout as ever. Adam Charalambides got the scoring started for the Warriors in the second and was followed up by three more. Those were scored by Dickson twice and Marcus Klarich. Rochester rattled off two-straight in response, one from Thomas McConvey and the other from Zed Williams, both of which were power play goals. King scored with under two minutes to play to close out a crazy first half. 8-4 Warriors at the break.
The third quarter was pure dominance by the Warriors. They pitched a shutout, making the Rochester scoreless streak 21:06 in length from the end of the second all the way into the fourth. It needs to be highlighted that Vancouver’s defense was suffocating, and Del Bianco was silly for the entire 15 minutes. The seven Vancouver goals were scored by King twice, Klarich, Owen Grant, Charalambides, Bal, and Dickson. Blink your eyes and it was 15-4 Vancouver after three. Yikes.
After an insane three quarters of action, the fourth quarter finally allowed the game to settle down from a scoring standpoint. Believe me, the physicality was still alive and well, as there were three misconducts in the final minute of play, presumably because of tempers finally boiling over. Rochester scored two goals, obviously not being anywhere near enough to mount a comeback. Those were scored by Smith and Connor Fields. King notched his fifth and Vancouver ran out of the Flower City in convincing fashion, just with a couple bumps and bruises along the way.
Players of the game for Vancouver were King (5+2), Dickson (4+4), and Bal (2+10). Del Bianco was a stud all game, stopping 44 of 50. Connor O’Toole saw some action and stopped the only shot he faced the rest of the way. For Rochester, Smith (2+1), Fields (1+3), and Lanchbury (1+3) led the way. Hartley had the early exit, stopping three of four in 9:03. Riley Hutchcraft had a rough go of it for the remainder, stopping 28 of 43.
That was fun, eh? Imagine if these two teams met again this year. Well, we are all in luck because they do, just a week after this clash. Rochester heads to Vancouver for round two of this heavyweight collision. That game is this Saturday, February 7th at 10pm. Sneaky suspicions tell us to expect a lot of the same, and we’re here for it.
