TONIGHT’S GAME OVERVIEW
The Rochester Knighthawks begin their quest for their first National Lacrosse League championship in expansion-era history tonight when they venture north of the border to battle the first-place Toronto Rock in the opening round of the 2024 NLL Playoffs at FirstOntario Centre. The winner-take-all showdown gets underway at 4:30 p.m. in Hamilton and will be carried live on TSN, ESPN+ and TSN+. The Quarterfinal matchup can also be heard locally on Big 107.3 FM. Should the Knighthawks prevail, they will move on to meet the winner of the Buffalo Bandits and Georgia Swarm in the Semifinal round.
CLOSING THE SEASON
Facing a must-win situation to clinch the final playoff spot in the National Lacrosse League, the Knighthawks did just that and more, jumping out to a 5-0 lead and never looking back on their way to a dominating 12-3 rout of the Philadelphia Wings in last Sunday’s regular season finale at Segar & Sciortino Field at The Blue Cross Arena. The win, Rochester’s second of the weekend following an 11-10 win over Georgia on Friday, secured the Knighthawks a playoff spot for the second straight season. The Knighthawks, who came into the weekend with a slim 3.13 percent chance of qualifying for the postseason, defied the odds while also earning their first win in franchise history against the Wings after going winless through the six prior meetings. Rochester’s postseason entry was also made possible by a trio of wins from San Diego, Toronto and Albany, all of whom defeated teams in the playoff race alongside the Knighthawks. Sunday’s season-ending win was arguably the most impressive in franchise history for Rochester, which saw a record-setting performance from MVP candidate Connor Fields as well as a return-to-form 30-save performance from goaltender Rylan Hartey, who was stellar from start to finish. Hartley, who missed 11 games this season due to injury, became just the ninth goaltender in league history to hold the opposition to just three goals in a game, a new franchise record for Rochester.
KNIGHTHAWKS DRAW ROCK TO OPEN POSTSEASON
The opening round matchup against the Rock marks the first-ever meeting in the NLL Playoffs between Toronto and the expansion-era Knighthawks. The original Knighthawks franchise, which operated through the 2018-19 campaign, met Toronto on nine different in the postseason, the most recent being in the East Division Finals in 2015 following Rochester’s unprecedented three-peat from 2012 to 2014. The Rock, who finished atop the NLL’s unified standings with a franchise-best 15-3 record, including a near-perfect 8-1 mark on the road, are certainly no stranger to postseason play having advanced to the NLL Conference in each of the last two years under head coach Matt Sawyer. The six-time NLL champions have now qualified for the postseason in 20 of their 25 seasons in team history, highlighted by a franchise-best nine straight appearances from the team’s inception in 1999 through 2007. Toronto, whose 15 wins were most in a single season in team history, wrapped up the regular season winning six of its final seven contests to clinch the top seed, including a 13-6 win over Rochester in the only meeting of the season between the two teams earlier this month. The Rock, who won four league titles in their first five seasons in the league, have reached the 13-win mark in each of their last three seasons.
FIELDS CAPS MEMORABLE SEASON WITH WEEKLY HONORS
The National Lacrosse League announced earlier this week that Rochester Knighthawks forward Connor Fields has been named the Gatorade Canada NLL Player of the Week for Week 21. Fields saved his best performance for the final weekend of the season, recording 16 points (11+5) while commanding a desperate Knighthawks team to a pair of must-wins, including a dominating 12-3 victory over the Philadelphia Wings in Sunday’s season finale which secured the team a playoff berth for the second straight year. With Sunday’s win, the Knighthawks locked up the eighth and final playoff spot in the NLL. After an eight-point (4+4) performance in Friday’s 11-10 win at Georgia, Fields single-handedly led Rochester to its most dominant win in franchise history on Sunday afternoon, scoring a franchise-record seven goals, including all four in the second quarter.
SHOOTING GALLERY
The Knighthawks closed out the regular season leading the NLL in shots per game with 81.44 and were the only team that averaged more than 80 per contest. Rochester outshot the opposition in 14 of its 18 games this season, including all but two on the road. The Knighthawks also topped the 60-shot mark on six different occasions, highlighted by a franchise-best 73 shots in the win at Panther City earlier this month. Rochester was 6-8 this season when outshooting the opponent. Individually, Knighthawks forward Connor Fields averaged nearly 15 shots per game, more than any other player, on his way to establishing a new league record (267). Fields finished with 34 more shots on goal than the next closest player and was one of only six players league wide to record more than 200 shots this season.
ROCHESTER NATIVES TAKE CENTER STAGE IN POSTSEASON
Aside from what should be an offensive showdown, the matchup will be yet another battle at the center dot featuring a pair of Rochester natives and two of the top face-off specialists in Toronto’s TD Ierlan and Rochester’s Joe Post. Ierlan played his high school lacrosse at Victor, where he was a two-time US Lacrosse All-American selection and led the Blue Devils to their first two of five straight Section V championships as well as back-to-back New York State titles in 2015 and 2016. Ierlan, who went to the Rock 20th overall in the 2020 NLL Entry Draft, led all NLL rookies and finished fourth in the league with 234 face-off wins during the 2021-22 campaign, the most ever by a Toronto rookie. Ierlan and Post, who went toe-to-toe two weeks prior, finished the season with virtually identical numbers with both players recording two points and gathering more than 150 loose ball recoveries. Ierlan, however, had a slight advantage over his former Section V adversary at the center dot, winning three more face-offs and owning a better overall winning percentage (72.2%) compared to Post, who’s been nearly unbeatable as well. The Canandaigua native, who appeared in all but one game this season for Rochester, won 275-of 470 face-off attempts for a 58.5% success rate that ranked fifth-best in the league behind Ierlan. His 275 wins, which are a new franchise record, were also fifth-most in the NLL while his 152 loose ball recoveries finished 11th. Post’s 26 face-off wins against Panther City on March 3 set the new single-game mark, besting the 24 he had earlier this season in Saskatchewan. Dating back to his rookie season, Post, who played his collegiate lacrosse at nearby St. John Fisher University, has won 338-of-601 career face-off attempts, good for a 56.2% efficiency rate.
FIELDS HITS CENTURY MARK AGAIN
A year after becoming just the third American-born player in league history to record 100 points in a season, Knighthawks forward Connor Fields duplicated the effort again this season while continuing to show no signs of slowing down. After closing out the season with back-to-back eight-point efforts, including 11 goals altogether, Fields finished the campaign leading the Knighthawks with career-highs in goals (56), assists (64) and points (120). He ranked second in the NLL in goals behind only New York’s Jeff Teat and fourth in overall scoring while pacing all forwards in shots (267) and loose ball recoveries (158), making him a strong candidate for NLL MVP. It marked the second straight season with at least 50 goals and 60 assists for Fields, who went on to set new franchise records in all offensive categories. He was the first player since John Tavares in 2001 to record more than 115 points and 150 loose ball recoveries in the same season. Fields, who’s scored two goals or more in 31 of his 35 career games as a Knighthawk, also became just the second American-born player in league history, joining Philadelphia’s Joe Resetarits, a former Knighthawk in the previous organization, to reach the 100-point mark in back-to-back seasons. In Sunday’s playoff-clinching win over Philadelphia, he tied a season-high with 21 shots en route to setting the NLL’s single-season record for shots with 267, surpassing the original mark of 255 set by Toronto’s Tom Schreiber. In 67 career NLL games with Rochester, Buffalo and San Diego, Fields has amassed 348 points (160+188) and 478 loose ball recoveries.