Knighthawks Try for Two with Win Saturday in Buffalo

The Rochester Knighthawks (1-0) will complete the tail end of a home-and-home series with the Buffalo Bandits (0-1) on Saturday, January 16th. The 7:30 p.m. contest at HSBC Arena will be broadcast live on The Zone 94.1 FM and thezone941.com. Fans can also watch the game live on the NLL Network. Rochester is attempting to open a season 2-0 for the first time since 2000. The Knighthawks opened their 16th season on January 9th with a 10-5 victory over the Bandits as John Grant Jr. and Gary Gait combined for 13 points (5+8) in their first pro game together.

Grant, who missed the entire 2009 season, led the way with two goals and six assists. He now stands just four goals away from reaching the 400-goal plateau. Gait chipped in three goals and two assists. Goalie Pat O’Toole was also stellar in goal making 42 saves and holding Buffalo to one second-half goal. Rochester was also deadly on the power play, going 5-for-9

Buffalo was led by a three-point (1+2) effort from Mark Steenhuis. Buffalo was limited to just five goals without the presence of the league’s all-time leading scorer, John Tavares, who was scratched Saturday night. Goalie Ken Montour stopped 46 Rochester shots in the loss. Rochester now leads the all-time series with a mark of 23-14.The game is the second of three this season between the two teams.

New Knighthawks debut: First-overall pick Sid Smith, Kevin Fines, Aaron Bold all suited up for the first time for the Knighthawks.
Closing in on history: Pat O’Toole (6,135) is just 222 saves away from breaking Dallas Eliuk’s league record of 6,356.

Buffalo Notes: Buffalo opens the season with three of their first four games on the road. The lone home game is on Saturday, January 16th against Rochester. Forward Roger Vyse had one goal and one assist against the K-Hawks to give him 16 goals and six assists against Rochester in the last six games. Steenhuis also recorded three points on one goal and two assists, which marked the third straight game Rochester has limited him to one goal and two assists. Second-round draft picks Chris Corbeil and Steve Priolo made their NLL debuts last Saturday. Head Coach Darris Kilgour is still four wins shy of passing legendary Head Coach Les Bartley for the all-time record for wins (93).
 
Next Game: Rochester remains on the road for the second of three straight road games as they travel to meet Colin Doyle and the Toronto Rock at 7:00 p.m. at the Air Canada Centre. The contest will be broadcast live on The Zone 94.1 FM and thezone941.com. Fans can also watch the game live on NLL Network.

The following was provided by the Rochester Knighthawks Media Relations Office 

Knighthawks Defeat Rival Bandits 10-5 on Opening Night

The Rochester Knighthawks were led by two figures that are mainstays in the game of indoor lacrosse, John Grant Jr (pictured left) and Gary Gait (pictured lower right)  as they led the Knighthawks to a 10-5 victory over their long time rival Buffalo Bandits tonight at the Blue Cross Arena. In their first pro game together as teammates, Grant and Gait combined for five goals and five assists to lead the Knighthawks offensive attack against a strong Bandits team in which their Hall of Famer John Tavares was not in the lineup due to a lower body injury.

Rochester got the game going with the first three goals in the contest coming off of the sticks of Gait, Shawn Evans and Grant. Then Buffalo would sneak their way back into the contest with goals from Roger Vyse and Mark Steenhuis. Then in the second quarter, Buffalo would tie the game at 3-3 with the shot from former Knighthawk Mike Accursi that beat Pat O'Toole. Then the Bandits would get their first and only lead of the game with AJ Shannon beating O'Toole. Then the Hawks would tie the game with Gait scoring his second of the contest. Then the Rochester offense got going with Grant netting his second and then Gait getting his hat trick goal to make the score 6-4 and then former Bandit Cory Bomberry would make the score 7-4 in favor of the home squad at halftime.

Then in the second half, Buffalo would cut the lead to 7-5 on a Tom Montour goal. But that would be as close as the Bandits would get on this evening as Craig Point, Shawn Williams and Bomberry would score to make it a 10-5 Rochester final infront of the announced crowd of 8191. The Knighthawks would out shoot their Thruway rival 56-47 in the game.

The same two teams will go at it two more times this season including next Saturday night as the Bandits will try to revenge their opening night loss with a win for their home opener. HSBC Arena was not kind to Rochester last season as the Bandits would beat the Hawks 23-6 and 13-9 in their two meetings in Downtown Buffalo. The next time these two hook up on the shores of the Genesee River will be on Saturday March 27th with the faceoff being at 7:35 pm.