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NLL Rochester Knighthawks

Knighthawks News and Notes

February 25, 2013 - National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Rochester Knighthawks News Release


The Philadelphia Wings snapped an 11-game losing streak against the Rochester Knighthawks with a 10-8 victory on February 23rd at The Blue Cross Arena.

At 3-5, the Knighthawks are now midway through their 16-game schedule. Last season, Rochester began with an identical record en route to the National Lacrosse League championship.

"Every single week we need to keep on getting better and stick with that mentality that we will get better," Cody Jamieson said. "We're at the halfway mark right now and there's a lot of hill still left to climb. That's a positive we can take out of it; we're only halfway through."

Prior to Saturday's contest against Philadelphia, the Knighthawks had earned 11 consecutive wins over the Wings dating back to the 2009 season. The eight goals scored were the fewest in a game against the Wings since Rochester scored seven in a loss on April 1, 2006.

The Knighthawks will look to rejuvenate the offense in next week's game against the Colorado Mammoth (2-5) on Saturday, March 2nd at 9:00 p.m. at the Pepsi Center.

The Mammoth have struggled on defense, averaging a league-worst 13.80 goals against. Their save percentage is also last among the nine teams at .717. After a painful start to the season, Colorado released goaltender Chris Levis, handing the job to Matt Roik. Among starting netminders, Roik ranks last with a .720 save percentage.

Rochester goaltender Matt Vinc currently leads the league in saves (344), save percentage (.813) and goals-against average (9.97). The Knighthawks have not surrendered more than 10 goals in the last five games. With 44 saves against the Wings, "Vno" surpassed his 1,500th as a Knighthawk.

The defense is also tops in penalty kills. Rochester's opponents have only scored 12 power-play goals. The Knighthawks have held their opponents scoreless on 68.4 percent of their man-down situations. Philadelphia finished Saturday's game with only one power-play goal in five chances.

"[Vinc] is giving us games to win and we just haven't had a chance to have his back," Dan Dawson said. "I think our execution offensively, we let our team down."

"It's burying our chances," the 12-year pro added. "If we go back and look at the game film, we had a lot of great looks again tonight... We have opportunities to score on the power play to run away with the game, and we just don't bury. The other problem, we care so much that when the game's on the line and we're down by a goal, we start getting into some one-on-one situations and we are better when we do five-on-five stuff."

Casey Powell led Rochester with three goals and one assist against the Wings, his first hat trick of the year. Johnny Powless (2+0) kept his streak alive with a pair of goals and has now scored in 13 consecutive regular season games.

Jamieson (1+3) earned his 100th career assist, and now has 178 points (78+100) in 39 games. In two losses to Colorado last year, "Jammer" scored 12 points (7+5), including a five-goal game on March 31, 2012.

Rochester at Colorado can be seen live on the NLL on YouTube via The Lacrosse Network on Saturday, March 2nd at 9:00 p.m. and in Colorado on ALT2. It can also be heard live on Sportsradio 950 ESPN or on www.sportsradio950espn.com.

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National Lacrosse League Stories from February 25, 2013


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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