Dan Dawson (left) and John Grant lead their clubs into and Eastern Division battle at TD Garden on Saturday.
BLAZERS TRY TO REACH .500 VS KNIGHTHAWKS
Boston hosts Rochester at TD Garden on Saturday
02/06/2010
Knighthawks hit the roadBoston hopes to take third straight at home
By Christopher Di Matteo for NLL.com
The Rochester Knighthawks (3-2) are back on the road this week, heading to TD Garden to take on
the Boston Blazers (2-3) at 7:30 pm ET Saturday night.
The Knighthawks are coming off of a 16-8 victory where they handed the Toronto Rock (3-1) their first loss of the season. Boston has won two straight after an 0-3 start to the season.
Rochester Head coach Paul Gait acknowledges that this road game is going to be difficult, but believes the key for them to get a victory will be early success.
"We need to score early, for us we need to get some momentum, especially when we play on the road.
It is difficult, everyone in this league plays better at home, so the best way to counteract that is to start off
on an early lead, and that will be our goal," said Gait.
Blazers Head coach Tom Ryan believes that Rochester is one of the most dangerous teams in the league and has shown that.
"If you look at their top five offensive guys, those are all-pro, all-star caliber players. You know they
have tremendous talent, and I think Rochester's biggest challenge is whether they can play together... We
will have our hands full to get ready for Rochester," said Ryan.
Knighthawks forward John Grant is a player that Ryan knows the team will have to watch not only
because he already has 30 points this season, but also because he is the league leader in shots on goal.
"[Grant] is a very dangerous offensive player. Obviously he can score, but he is very adept to passing the ball so you know we will try to get a good match up on him and limit his looks at the net... As far as team defense, you have to be careful with just sliding to him with so many other talented players complementing him," said Ryan.
Ryan says that Boston's team defense has been very successful in the past couple weeks, but they
plan on relying on one on one matchups for a victory Saturday.
Fans will see additions to both rosters this week as the Blazers acquired Jaimie Rooney from the
Knighthawks, and Matt Donowski formerly of the Orlando Titans has been added to Rochester's roster.
Coach Gait is looking forward to this week's game and believes it could decide the direction of the
team for the remainder of the season.
"We can go two directions, we can step up and play like we did Saturday night or we can fall back and
play like we did Friday... I am looking to the guys to step up and make the decision on how they want the
rest of the year to go, so it is a pretty decisive game for us. "
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