The Rochester Knighthawks (0-2) lost their home opener on Saturday night against the Buffalo Bandits (2-1) in a close game that went down to the last few seconds. The final score was 14-13.
Former Knighthawk Shawn Williams opened the scoring with the first goal of the game to give the Bandits an early lead. Mike Hominuck and Luke Wiles then extended Buffalo's lead to 3-0. It looked like it was going to be another one of those games when Casey Powell finally beat Cosmo a little over five minutes in. Rochester buttoned down on defense and scored the next two goals to tie the game back up at 3-3 after the first quarter.
Buffalo scored first in the second with another goal from Shawn Williams. Rochester tied it up with a goal form Stephen Keogh and then should have taken the lead off a diving goal from Casey Powell. The referee initially signaled goal then immediately changed his mind to claim that Powell was in the crease. The replay showed the ball was behind Cosmo before Powell came down but Hasen couldn't challenge the ruling (as he had already used a challenge earlier in the half to have one of Buffalo's goals taken back). The result was no goal, and Buffalo scored on the ensuing possession. Unfortunately, this two-goal swing would ultimately prove to be the difference in the outcome of the game.
The rest of the second quarter was filled with back-and-forth action with Buffalo scoring and the Knighthawks answering. The score remained tied at 7-7 going into halftime.
Cory Vitarelli scored the first goal of the second half to give the Knighthawks their first lead of the game. It was short-lived, however, as rookie Dhane Smith found the back of hte net for the first time of the night just seconds later. Dangerous Dan Dawson fired back for the Hawks scoring off a pin-point pass from Casey Powell. But Dhane Smith once again tied it back up moments later!
The Knighthawks held a slim 11-10 lead entering the fourth quarter. The game continued its back-and-forth pace with Buffalo scoring and Rochester scoring back. It came down the last minute of the game, tied 13-13. The Knighthawks had the ball, but Casey Powell took quickly an outside shot and Buffalo took possession with lots of time left on the clock.
The arena roared with competing chants of "defense" from Knighthawk fans and "offense" from Bandit fans. The shot clock ticked down to its final seconds and the Rochester defense seemed to knock the ball loose from Shawn Williams' possession. But Tracey Kelusky was there to scoop it up. He blindly fired a behind-the-back shot that somehow found its way past Matt Vinc with just 11 seconds left on the clock. The Bandits won 14-13.
In terms of stats, Casey Powell led the Knighthawks with six points (2G + 4A). A fitting return to action for the former NLL MVP. Stephen Keogh (3G + 2A) and Cody Jamieson (1G + 4A) each had five points. Dan Dawson also had a pretty good game with four points (1G + 3A). Matt Vinc made 37 saves.
Shawn Williams earned game MVP for his eight point night (2G + 6A). Another former Knighthawk player, Aaron Wilson, was second for Buffalo in scoring with four points (2G + 2A). Cosmo had 34 saves.
The attendance for the game was 7,834.
Rochester next plays the Toronto Rock at the Blue Cross Arena this upcoming weekend.
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