IL Indoor

The Edmonton Rush visited the usually not-so friendly confines of the Blue Cross Arena for the first time ever on Saturday night and the escaped with a hard-fought 12-11 National Lacrosse League win over the Rochester Knighthawks. Andy Secore took home game MVP honors with his hat trick, including the winner in overtime. Rochester is not an easy place to win if you don’t play for the home team, but the Rush maintained their composure and never panicked despite never holding a lead during the game, except when it mattered the most.

Rush forward Ryan Powell, who played a few seasons of outdoor ball for the Rattlers, knows just how tough it is to win in Rochester.

“Rochester is a really difficult place to play,” said Powell who had two helpers including the assist that set up the tying goal to send the game to overtime.

After a slow start to the game, Rochester’s John Grant got the scoring started with a laser that beat Matt Disher at 5:42. Cory Small got the Rush on the board after his shot bounced through Pat O’Toole’s wickets at 10:03. After Ian Hawksbee was hit in the grape with a shot, Craig Point found the back of the net to give the ‘Hawks the lead again. The first period ended with Rochester clinging to a slim 2-1 lead.

Shawn Williams scored on a nifty pass from Chris Driscoll to start the second period scoring at 3:19. Driscoll beat Disher on a one on none to give the home team a three-goal cushion at 6:58. Edmonton finally got back on the score sheet as Small connected on his second tally of the night to pull the Rush within two at 4-2. A crazy behind the back pass from Grant led to a wide open goal by Williams. Man-down, Grant gave Rochester a four-goal lead with a behind the back marker with less than a minute left in the half. The ‘Hawks entered the locker room with a four-goal lead, but in the fast paced NLL, no lead is safe until the final bell sounds.

“What we didn’t want to do was get down early, but we did that heading into the half when we were down 6-2,” said Powell. “Everyone in the locker room was completely positive. Four goals in the NLL is not that big of a lead to come back from. You can do that in one period. We still felt good. We just felt like we weren’t burying them and we knew we could.”

Former Rochester Rattler (and Knighthawk for a minute, earlier this season) Gavin Prout started the second half scoring on a shot that beat O’Toole. His tally was quickly followed by a marker from Point to bring the lead back to four. Jimmy Quinlan beat O’Toole moments later to make it 7-4. Kevin Fines went coast to coast and dunked one over Disher’s shoulder to make the score 8-4 at 3:11. After a lot of back and forth action, including six goals from the suddenly en fuego Rush, the teams went into the fourth with Rochester holding a slight 10-8 advantage.

Evans beat Disher through the wickets and got demolished by Brodie Merrill at 2:13 to return the lead to three. Dane Stevens pulled the Rush within two once more after his bouncer got past O’Toole with just over 10 minutes in regulation. On O’Toole’s doorstep, Merrill tickled the twine and made it a one goal affair just about half way through the fourth.

It was a brand new ball game when Ryan Ward’s cannon fooled O’Toole and tied the game at 11-11 with 4:03 left to play. Regulation ended with both teams knotted at 11.

It only took twenty seconds for Secore to find himself wide open in front of O’Toole. He wasted no time in dropping it over O’Toole’s left shoulder for a huge road win.

Rochester was led by O’Toole (33 saves on 45 shots), Grant (2g, 1a), Williams (2g, 1 a) and Point (3g). Edmonton was led by Disher (37 saves on 48 shots), Secore (3g), Prout (1g, 3a) and Ward (1g, 3a).

After the game, Powell pointed out that the main reason for the team’s successes recently is due to the blue collar mentality of the players.

“We fund our identity last week in the big win against Toronto. We are scrappy and hard working and did that for four quarters tonight and we were lucky to get the ‘W’.”

And how does Powell feel about the team sitting pretty at 5-3 at the halfway point:

“That’s huge. We have next weekend off. To have this win in overtime is really going to sit well with us and give us some extra incentive to work hard and be ready for the second half of the season.”

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