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KNIGHTHAWKS DEFEAT WINGS, 15-12

Rochester caps two win weekend with win over Philly

04/09/2010

The Rochester Knighthawks flew past the Philadelphia Wings 15-12 on Hall of Fame Night at The Blue Cross Arena. With the win, Rochester (7-7) moves into a three-way tie for third place in the East, while Philadelphia drops to 4-10 and is eliminated from playoff contention.

Leading the Knighthawks to victory were Craig Point, John Grant Jr. and Shawn Williams who each had hat tricks for Rochester. Coming into the game for Pat O'Toole, Aaron Bold had an excellent night keeping the Knighthawks in the game with 38 saves. Philadelphia was led by Drew Westervelt who had a hat-trick with his three-straight goals in the first period.

The Wings started the game with goals at 3:10 and 6:10 in the first. Jeff Reynolds had the first goal for the Wings, while Kevin Huntley scored the second to give Philadelphia a 2-0 lead. Point scored Rochester's first goal at 8:08 in the first with assists from Williams and Grant.

Philadelphia went on tear with four more goals in the first period. The first goal was a breakaway goal by Josh Sims. Westervelt earned himself a hat-trick with the last three goals of the first period to give the Wings a 6-1 lead.

The Knighthawks came out firing 53 seconds into the second period with a behind the back goal from Grant with passes from Williams and Steve Toll. Continuing that fire power was Williams with a goal at 2:45 to halve the Wings lead 6-3. Point added another goal at 8:21 in the second with passes from Williams and Gait. Max Seibald added to the Wings lead 7-4 with a goal at 11:54 in the second. Rochester was able to get another goal in the second period from Shawn Evans who received passes from both Gait and Williams. Philadelphia finished out the half with a breakaway goal from Kyle Sweeney to make the score 8-5.

The Wings got the first two goals in the third period to increase their lead to 10-5. Scoring for Philadelphia was Bill McGlone with an assist from Huntley. Geoff Snider scored an unassisted second goal.

Rochester went on a feverous run scoring five goals to even the game up 10-10. Evans was the first to score for the Knighthawks with assists from Gait and Williams. Williams scored the next goal and then his third of the game less than two minutes after for a hat trick. Evans then put Rochester one goal away when he winged a shot into the back of the net. Possibly the most impressive goal was the game tying diving, behind-the-back and through-the-legs shot from Gait. Chris Schiller gave Rochester the lead 11-10 with a shorthanded goal at the end of the third.

It looked like the Wings were going to make a comeback in the fourth. Scoring the first two goals for Philadelphia were Kyle Wailes and Seibald to put their team up 12-11, but the Knighthawks got the last say and finished the game on a 4-0 streak to give them the win 15-12. Grant tied the game at 12 with a goal at 9:00 in the fourth period. Gait put the Knighthawks up one at 11:35 in the fourth and Point sealed the deal with his third goal of the game with less than two minutes left.

The Rochester Knighthawks hit the road for the first of two straight road games to end the 2010 regular season. The K-Hawks face the Toronto Rock on Friday, April 16th at 7:30 p.m. at the Air Canada Centre. The Wings return to action on Saturday when they play at Minnesota.