New York Wins OT Thriller at the Garden
from press release
NEW YORK - The New York Titans escaped with an
11-10 overtime victory against the Rochester Knighthawks in the
opening round of the National Lacrosse League playoffs on Friday
night at Madison Square Garden. The Titans appeared doomed as they
trailed 10-8 with under five minutes left in the contest, but
forward Casey Powell responded by scoring the last two goals of
regulation and then the game-winner in overtime.
The Titans grabbed the first lead of the game when forward Brendan
Mundorf scored at the 3:40 mark of the first period, but the lead
did not last long. Back-to-back goals by Knighthawks forward Shawn
Evans made the score 2-1 in favor of Rochester, and another tally
by forward Gary Gait pushed Rochester's lead to 3-1 with 1:45 left
in the opening quarter. Mundorf managed to score with just 13
seconds left in the period, making the score 3-2 at the end of the
first.
Mundorf scored again at the 1:35 mark of the second quarter to
complete his natural hat-trick. New York would outscore the
Knighthawks 4-2 in the quarter and head into halftime with a 6-5
lead after Mundorf scored for a fourth time with 33 seconds left in
the first half. The lead could have been even greater for the
Titans, but Knighthawks goaltender Pat O'Toole turned away 16 shots
in the second quarter alone to keep his squad in the game. In all,
he made 23 first half saves on 29 shots.
Rochester wasted no time taking back the lead in the third quarter.
After Evans scored his third goal of the game with 1:41 off the
clock in the second half, teammate Jamie Rooney
– a former Titan who was traded for defenseman
Bill Greer at the trade deadline – scored 16
seconds later to put the Knighthawks ahead 7-6. The lead was
extended to 8-6 when forward Shawn Williams rounded out the
all-Rochester third quarter scoring with 4:35 left in the
quarter.
The fourth quarter began with a Ryan Boyle goal that pulled the
Titans within one, but Knighthawks forwards Jason Henhawk and Craig
Point scored the next two goals to give Rochester a three goal
lead, the largest of the game. Titans defenseman Patrick Merrill
scored a rare goal at the 7:21 to cut the lead to two.
Shortly thereafter, Powell was called for a goalie interference
penalty that was soon followed by a roughing penalty on Merrill.
This gave the Knighthawks a 5-on-3 powerplay with just over six
minutes left in the game and an opportunity to regain their three
goal lead. However, the Titans penalty kill showed up in the clutch
and killed off the two-man advantage. Powell then returned to the
field and quickly scored to make the score 10-9. Refusing to lose,
he scored again – on a powerplay, which was the
theme of the night – to tie the game at 10 with
just 17 seconds remaining.
Powell then completed his own natural hat-trick at the 2:16 mark of
overtime, fighting off a Knighthawks defender and finding space
past O'Toole while falling to the ground. He finished his evening
with four goals, four assists and the game MVP honors.
Titans goaltender Matt Vinc saved 31 of the 41 shots he faced.
Mundorf added two assists to go along with his four first-half
goals.
Evans led the Knighthawks with three goals. Williams added one goal
and five assists for Rochester. O'Toole totaled 43 saves on 54
shots faced.
Ten of the 21 goals scored in the game were of the powerplay
variety. There were also two shorthanded goals, one by each
team.
With the victory, the Titans advance to the East Division Finals to
take on the winner of Saturday night's contest between the Buffalo
Bandits and Boston Blazers.
