Knighthawks defeat Boston despite struggling offense
All John Grant could do Saturday afternoon was shake his head and breathe a sigh of relief.
Although the stat sheet indicated that he had a decent game, scoring three goals and three assists to lead the Knighthawks to an 11-9 victory over the Boston Blazers, Grant knew better.
“I stink,” Grant said. “I can’t shoot, I can’t score, I can’t hit the net. I think the harder I try to score the more frustrating it gets. I’m just happy we’re getting wins on nights when I play this bad. If we lose there’s a lot of sleepless nights.”
OK, Grant is without question his toughest critic, and the bottom line is that he wasn’t as bad as he let on. He never is. He’s the greatest player in franchise history, and he has games where he scores six or seven goals and laments the three or four scoring opportunities that he missed on.
But his concern is well-founded because while he is struggling a bit with his shooting this year, so is just about everyone else on the team. And the lack of offensive cohesion is the primary reason why the Knighthawks are only 4-3 and trailing first-place Toronto by two games in the National Lacrosse League’s East Division as the season nears its halfway point.
“Everyone is kind of going through the same thing,” said Grant. “We keep talking about how we’re not scoring or shooting well and I think it’s getting into everyone’s heads, so everyone is trying too hard instead of letting it happen. We need one of those games where we just break out and get a bunch of goals.”
It didn’t happen Saturday, but it didn’t matter because Rochester’s defense was active and goalie Pat O’Toole, who admittedly has not been in top form lately, played a terrific game in stopping 41 of 50 Boston shots.
The Blazers lit up O’Toole and backup goalie Aaron Bold for 14 goals last week, and superstar Dan Dawson had four goals and four assists. On Saturday, he was held to three assists.
“I think it was just playing our system, not getting spread out, staying in tight and communicating,” said defenseman Steve Toll. “The last couple of games we haven’t been talking through picks and tonight we did, and Patty played great. We had certain guys who played Dawson and they did a good job.”
O’Toole held Boston scoreless the first 23:24 before Sean Morris finally beat him to cut the Blazers’ deficit to 2-1. Craig Point (four goals) and Grant had scored in the first quarter.
The Blazers went on to outscore Rochester 4-1 in the quarter to take a 4-3 lead into the break, and Morris’ goal on a drive to the cage early in the third made it 5-3.
The Knighthawks then reeled off three in a row and Gary Gait’s pretty backhander 52 seconds into the fourth period made it 7-5 Rochester.
Nick Cotter and Matt Lyons scored for Boston to tie it, and after Point and Boston’s Kyle Ross traded goals, Shawn Williams gave the Knighthawks the lead for good on a bounce shot with 5:50 left to play.
Point scored 47 seconds later to make it 10-8, and after ex-Knighthawk Jamie Rooney scored on a power play with 57 seconds to go, Grant found the empty net with 15.2 ticks remaining to seal it.
Knighthawks coach Paul Gait recognizes his team is having a tough time scoring, but said, “They got the job done tonight, I have to give them props for that.
“Are they playing at their peak right now? Absolutely not. Are they playing like a team the way we want them, too? No. But a win is moving in the right direction and it gives us another opportunity to get better.”
