Rochester Knighthawks
The Knighthawks seems like they were on the right path after holding Georgia to just four goals a week ago. By losing two straight to New England, Rochester not only took a step backwards in the standings, but also fell below .500 on the season, sitting at 6-7. Their remaining schedule features Buffalo twice, New England again, Georgia, and Saskatchewan. That actually sets up a very interesting playoff race with Georgia whose schedule is no easier and is just as desperate to string some wins together.
This weekend’s games saw Matt Vinc come crashing back to Earth, not savings more than 80% in either game. His Saturday performance at home was noticeably better, but neither effort compared at all to his outing against Georgia the week before. The defense for the Knighthawks really struggled with the high ball movement offense that the Black Wolves were playing on Friday night. They improved significantly here the next night as the assist numbers were way down in comparison.
The offensive side of the ball was much more puzzling for Rochester. Friday saw some superb performances from unexpected places. Joe Walters recorded five points, Stephen Keogh had seven, and Joe Resetarits had four. Dan Dawson and Cody Jamieson piled on the assists, but only had a single goal between the two of them. On Saturday, the offense was very balanced, almost to a fault. Nearly everyone score a point or two, but Dan Dawson led the way with four points and Brad Self was second with three. In a game decided by a mere two points, this drop in production was the logical place to point the finger for blame.
The Knighthawks are still a team that will improve through the season, and they have a handful of games left to lock up a playoff spot. Assuming they get into the postseason, never count them out. They proved a few years ago that a strong regular season has no bearing on postseason hopes, so this will have to be a repeat performance of that scenario in 2016.
