3.13 percent.
Those were the odds given to the Rochester Knighthawks’ chances of making the 2024 NLL Playoffs as of Friday, April 19 at 6 p.m.
Fast forward 48 hours later, those odds increased to 100% and Rochester was postseason bound for the second straight year.
Blink again… You're seeing it right 🤨 pic.twitter.com/ktgI8GaOXh
— NLL (@NLL) April 22, 2024
With back-to-back wins over Georgia and Philadelphia, the Knighthawks finished the season 8-10, and, thanks to New York, Saskatchewan, and Vancouver all losing their final games of the year, the ‘Hawks found an “x” next to their name in the standings.
“If you were a betting man, that would’ve been one heck of a parlay,” said Knighthawks head coach Mike Hasen. “We just focused on controlling what we could control. We had a great weekend of lacrosse and that’s kind of changed our perspective a little bit here. We’re one of eight with a chance.”
Indeed, they are. Rochester owns the number eight seed and will face-off with a first-place Toronto Rock team that finished a franchise-best 15-3 and seeking its seventh NLL title.
It’s something Hasen has seen before. The longtime bench boss of both new and old iterations of Knighthawks teams guided the 2012 and 2013 squads into the postseason with 7-9 and 8-8 records, respectively. At the end of the playoffs, Rochester stood tall both years as NLL Champions.
“In that vein, it goes to show that once you’re in, you’re in and anything can happen,” said Hasen. “They’re really tough to stop and they know how to turn it on at the right times and get the job done. We’re going to play our best, but to a certain degree we’ve got to play perfect,” said Hasen, alluding to the challenge that lies ahead for Rochester.
The ‘Hawks dominated a ‘win-and-in’ matchup against Philadelphia Sunday afternoon at Segar and Sciortino Field at The Blue Cross Arena, but before then, they were forced into spectator mode Saturday night, sitting idle while waiting to see if the teams they needed to lose would. Had they not, Sunday would have just become a play out the string type of game.
“I didn’t watch any games Saturday,” said team captain Dan Coates. “I first found out we had a chance when I looked at my phone after waking up a little past 6 a.m. and seeing Ethan O’Connor texted me. I knew then that it was go time.”
“I was tuned in watching the game with a couple of other guys,” said Ryan Smith. There were some nerves in that room. Definitely feel fortunate we came out on the other side.”
Some didn’t watch, but most did on Saturday, and that served as motivation going into a game the ‘Hawks went on to win, 12-3.
HAMILTON, ON – April 13th, 2024 – NLL regular season game action between the Rochester Nighthawks and the Toronto Rock on Saturday, April 13th, 2024 at the FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton, Ontario.
(Christian Bender/NLL)
“There was a lot of excitement in the room,” said Connor Fields following Sunday’s win. “We feel lucky for that. You’d rather have it in your own hands for everything, but we got some help this weekend. I think it was just a lot of excitement. You’re around this team so much. To see how much we all care about each other, and love being around each other is awesome. At the end of each season, obviously in a perfect world you keep everyone, but I feel like there’s never really the same team the next year. There’s always a couple of minor additions or a couple additions or a couple of people leave. It’s just part of the sport. We really love our group and I think we just wanted to extend this time as long as possible and hopefully get a championship together.”
Fields did his part, scoring seven goals Sunday and finishing his season with 56, a new career-high. His 120-point season led Rochester and finished fourth-best across the 15-team league.
But it wasn’t just Fields that got the ‘Hawks here.
Smith’s breakout year saw the former Knighthawks draft pick amass 99 points (46+53). Thomas McConvey showed why general manager Dan Carey selected him with the first overall pick in the 2022 NLL Draft, posting 52 points (28+24) in his rookie season that ranked fourth-most amongst all first-year players.
Rochester’s offense was a juggernaut, but the reinforcements in goal helped, too. After missing most of the season due to injury, Rylan Hartley emerged in the final weeks of the 2023-24 campaign and delivered superb performances, highlighted by a stellar 30-save effort on Sunday that saw the netminder surrender just three goals.
“It’s going to be key,” said Hasen when asked about Hartley’s presence in net. Every team, you look at the guy in-between the red posts and really at the end of the day, if he’s going to make the saves for us and he gives us that opportunity, then we’ll take it and run with it. It’s a good shot in the arm here for us, I think, at this particular time, because he’s been battling all year long and then his emotion and his excitement and his joy about being back on the floor is contagious.”
When these teams meet on Saturday at FirstOntario Centre, only 14 days will have passed since their last meeting in that same venue. That night, Toronto took it to Rochester in the opening half, leading 10-1 through 30 minutes on its way to a 13-6 win over the Knighthawks. With that experience in mind, the ‘Hawks know what they’re up against and what they need to do. All it takes is one game.
“I think there’s pressure on both sides,” said Fields. The season is on the line, but I always do think that, especially when it’s a one seed right there, they’re expected to win. That’s just how it always goes, whether it’s that way or not, the truth is there’s always more pressure on a higher seed, especially when it’s a one seed.”
“These games we just played over the weekend were playoff games for us. Those were do-or-die games. One thing that we can take away from that is confidence. I think we’re used to playing under pressure now. We’ll be ready.”
That postseason-bound feeling… 🤩@RocKnighthawks | #TheMarchtoMay pic.twitter.com/b4Acihaznh
— NLL (@NLL) April 21, 2024
It took a Cinderella story to get here for the Rochester Knighthawks. Now, they need to ride that magic into Toronto.
