By CRAIG POTTER
Rochester falls to Calgary as the Knighthawks have 4 games left in the regular season.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Knighthawks drive for the National Lacrosse League playoffs was thrown off track with an 11-9 loss to the Calgary Roughnecks on Saturday night before 6,824 fans at the Connors & Ferris Field at the Blue Cross Arena.
The Knighthawks (5-9) dropped 1.5 games behind third place New England Black Wolves (6-7), who play the second place Toronto Rock (8-6) on Sunday.
“We are going to keep things in perspective,” said Knighthawks coach Mike Hasen. “We still control a little bit of our own fate here. We need a little bit of help but if we can get wins in our last four games, we’ll be okay.”
Rochester is in last place in the Eastern Conference as the Buffalo Bandits (5-8) hold fourth place. The top 3 teams make the playoffs.
“We knew what was at stake and we knew this game was going to be tough for us,” said Knighthawks forward Joe Resetarits. “We’ve got a bye-week coming up and we know we just have to be better; we have to win every game. We just have to worry about ourselves and we know what we’ve got to do to win.”
Resetarits paced the Knighthawks with 5 points on 2 goals and 3 assists against the Roughnecks.
Graeme Hossack, Brad Gillies, Cory Vitarelli, Scott Campbell, Jarrett Davis, Kyle Jackson, and Dan Lomas each put up single goals.
Rookie Luke Laszkiewicz, who played in his first NLL game tonight, also collected his first professional point on an assist to fellow rookie Kyle Jackson.
“He played well once he got settled in,” said Hasen. “He was moving his feet well. To come in this far into the season, he did pretty well.”
Rochester goalie Matt Vinc recorded 31 saves. He also picked up an assist in the game.
The Hawks were without their offensive general, Dan Dawson, who along with Andrew Suitor, were each sitting out their one-game suspension for a fight they had against New England two weeks ago.
After a bye-week, the Knighthawks travel to Colorado to take on the Mammoth on Saturday, April 15. The team will return home on Saturday, April 22 to take on New England at the BCA at 7:30 pm.
*NOTES – The Knighthawks scored two short-handed goals by Graeme Hossack in the third quarter and Jarrett Davis in the fourth…Matt Vinc moved ahead coach Mike Hasen (114) for eighth place in the Knighthawks all-time games played list at 115. Vinc trails teammate Sid Smith (116) by 1 game for seventh place..The Knighthawks have 198 franchise wins.
Links
Rochester Knighthawks – www.knighthawks.com
Videos
Matt Vinc 2 saves – https://youtu.be/pa35-ExtImI
Joe Resetarits goal – https://youtu.be/ySzf8juDeSo
Joe Resetarits interview – https://youtu.be/AOCd5tlHReY
Mike Hasen interview – https://youtu.be/NTtapqHr8m8