(Rochester, NY)… The Rochester Knighthawks fell 17-13 to the Las Vegas Desert Dogs at home on Saturday night. With the loss, they fall to 5-8 on the year, with five more games left to play.
The Desert Dogs picked up right where they left off in the teams’ first matchup last week. They went up 6-0 on Rochester in the first nine minutes of play. Despite that, Rochester clawed back and took the lead in the fourth at 13-12, but the Desert Dogs found their stride on the back of Landon Kells in the closing minutes to pull away.
“I’m so proud of our guys, you know, you can just kind of mail it in, but just the grit and determination of like ‘no,’ we just kept chipping away and kept moving forward,” Knighthawks Interim Head Coach Randy Mearns said.
The Knighthawks were led by reigning NLL MVP Connor Fields (5+3) and Ryan Lanchbury (2+6), each with eight points. Thomas McConvey had six assists, while Ryan Smith scored four goals and added one assist. Blaze Riorden scored his first goal for the home team at The Blue Cross Arena. Nathan Kapp outdid his performance from last week, winning 25 of 33 faceoffs. Riley Hutchcraft came in for Rylan Hartley in the first quarter and made 32 saves.
Multiple Knighthawks reached milestones. Ian Llord reached 900 loose-ball recoveries while Dan Coates reached 800 in his career. Thomas McConvey notched his 100th career assist.
Las Vegas put a ball in the back of the net 41 seconds into the game. Cloutier scored before the Desert Dogs’ transition game got into rhythm. Adam Poitras was involved in three of the first six.
Smith put the Knighthawks on the board with a missile from the outside, but Las Vegas still had answers. After Mitch Jones scored the Desert Dogs’ seventh goal, Hartley came out for Hutchcraft.
The Knighthawks came out in the second quarter with a vengeance, led by Lanchbury. He ripped an outside shot over Alex Buque’s left shoulder and started a three-goal run. Smith followed it up 16 seconds later off a Kapp faceoff win, and Fields buried three minutes later.
The Knighthawks went into the half trailing 10-6. The first and second quarters were night and day from one another. The speech at halftime brought the Knighthawks’ juice to the forefront.
“At halftime, I’m typically a guy that, whether things are going really well or really poorly, I can sit quietly in the locker room,” Lanchbury said. “He (Mearns) challenged me to get up and start jumping around. It’s not typically what I do, but I did it and I just think that he calls a little bit more from us.”
Lanchbury started the third with a massive caused turnover and fed Smith on the crease to bring Rochester within three. Vegas got a couple more, but then it was the Great Danes, Fields, and Riorden who went back-to-back. Riorden’s goal was pretty, but the turn to his hometown was something truly special.
The Knighthawks closed out the third with the first of a four-goal run. Fields could not be denied as he buried three goals from everywhere on the floor and took the lead with his fifth goal of the night. After that, Las Vegas sent in Kells, and he didn’t allow another goal for the rest of the night. Las Vegas pulled out the 17-13 win.
The Knighthawks will next travel to Oshawa to take on the FireWolves. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. at the Tribute Communities Centre on March 28.