Rochester Knighthawks 15 – Philadelphia Wings 11

It would’ve been hard to imagine a scenario where Zed Williams wasn’t the opening goal scorer in the team’s first home game under Seneca Nation ownership, as he found open space in the middle of the floor and buried a catch-and-shoot opportunity 4:07 into the game. After a picked off pass by Jacob Piseno, Rochester got the ball right back, and Thomas McConvey picked up where he left off in San Diego with a second goal. Minutes later, Connor Fields rebounded a McConvey miss behind the net and walked back out in front to beat Nick Damude 5-hole to make it 3-0 halfway through the opening quarter. A laser outside shot from Joe Resetarits put the Wings on the board, but the quarter concluded with two more tallies from the Knighthawks: A transition goal from Piseno and a dunk from Graydon Hogg after a successful penalty kill in the final minute and change.

Philadelphia was successful right away on their second powerplay of the game, with some tic-tac-toe ball movement from Brennan O’Neill to Eric Fannell to Sam LeClair finishing across the crease. A transition goal from Dustyn Birkhof, his first career goal, cut the deficit to 2, but Rylan Hartley sent an outlet pass to Jake Piseno, who picked it out of the air off the bounce and went in to finish on a breakaway for his second of the game on the next touch for the Knighthawks. Rochester’s first powerplay went as quickly as the last advantage for the Wings, with Ryan Smith joining the scoring to push the lead back up to 4 with 5:37 left in the half. The game’s other 43, Eric Fannell, scored on a back door cut to close the scoring in the first half, as Rochester took a 7-4 lead into halftime.

Following some tunnel high fives from President Seneca coming out for the third quarter, Connor Fields scored his second goal of the game on the powerplay, and then the reigning MVP found Zed Williams wide open in front of the net on the next possession for the largest lead of the night, which was extended with 8:34 left in the half with Ryan Lanchbury finding Kyle Waters, again, open in front of the net. The Wings stopped the run in transition with a goal from Liam Patten and then Fairport’s own Blaze Riorden added a powerplay goal. A third goal of the game from Fields made it 11-6 after 3.

The pedal hit the floor in the first two minutes of the final quarter, starting with Connor Fields once again finding the back of the net from outside, but after two more faceoff wins from Nick Rowlett, who had 23 total on the night, Eric Fannell picked the far corner from outside and then Birkhof was the recipient of space in front after the Knighthawks defense unsuccessfully doubled Brennan O’Neill midway through the shot clock, and then with the second minute of the quarter coming to its close, a violation in transition led to a broken play and Fields finishing on a two-on-one sprung by an outlet pass from Adam Thistlethwaite. Halfway through the quarters, the Wings took two quick penalties, with Ryan Smith once again adding to his powerplay goal total on the first shot of the two man advantage possession.

Another quick succession of goals took place after the final media timeout of the game. after Brennan O’Neill finally got one of his 10 shots on goal in the game past Rylan Hartley, it was Josh Medeiros’s turn to spring Jake Piseno for a transition breakaway, with the second year rising star finishing off his first career hat trick. And then after Joe Resetarits got his second goal of the game, for the second week in a row, Rylan Hartley went viral.

Frustrations boiled over off the ensuing faceoff, leading to most of both ball teams on the ground. As the sides were being separated, the goalies were casually walking towards the middle of the floor where the crowd had piled up. They kept on walking more and more closely until it became known throughout the War Memorial what was about to happen.

In the formalities of the final 3:15 of the game saw Sam LeClair add a powerplay goal 5-on-3, and other than a doorstop robbery from Riley Hutchcraft during the same man advantage and a shove to the ground of Dalton Young following him throwing one final shot on goal after time expired, it was indeed formalities. The Knighthawks were 15-11 victors in their home opener.

The theme through a month of NLL games has been scoring being noticeably down across the league, but with only two games under their belts, the Rochester Knighthawks have 30 goals, matched or beaten only by 3 teams, all of whom have played 3 games. The family style offense once again got production from everyone, led with 5 goals and 6 assists from Connor Fields and another 7 assists from Ryan Lanchbury. Multiple goals came off the sticks of Ryan Smith and Zed Williams, while Jake Piseno had 3 goals and an assist on the back end. Rylan Hartley only faced 46 shots on goal in 56:45 compared to almost 20 more the week prior, making 36 saves in the win. Hartley spoke passionately about the start to his 6th NLL season, including the appreciation he’s had for the Seneca Nation and especially Team President/GM Dan Carey.

For Philadelphia, who dropped to 1-1, Brennan O’Neill led with a goal and 5 assists, while Joe Resetarits and Eric Fannell each had 2 goals and 3 assists. Sam LeClair and Dustyn Birkhof had 2 goals as well. Nick Damude had 37 saves before his suspender-snapping removal from the game.

The Knighthawks will be off to finish 2025 before returning to action on a trip to Denver to face the Mammoth on January 3.

Week 4 Review

Vancouver Warriors 8 – Oshawa FireWolves 6

As mentioned, scoring is down to start the season, and the Oshawa FireWolves are the poster children of this. Their six goals for in Week 4 raised their average from 5 to…5.25. While they had 4 goals in the first quarter, the Warriors shut them down outside of a single goal in the third and another with 8 seconds to play. Vancouver got 46 saves from Christian Del Bianco in the win, with the offense being led by Keegan Bal with 2 goals and 3 assists. Marcus Klarich Curtis Dickson also had 2 goals. For Oshawa, Ethan Walker had 2 goals and Alex Simmons had a goal and 2 assists.

Saskatchewan Rush 8 – Georgia Swarm 4

Maybe the lack of offense was contagious, as the Swarm were unable to continue the momentum from their win over the FireWolves and were shut down on a frigid night in Saskatoon. Robert Church distributed 4 assists to lead the Rush, while Austin Shanks had 2 goals and an assist and Zach Manns had a goal and 2 assists. With 4 goals allowed, Frank Scigliano made 38 saves. Nolan Byrne had 2 of the goals for Georgia, with Jordan MacIntosh and Jacob Hickey also scoring. Seth Van Schepen had 2 assists.

Las Vegas Desert Dogs 10 – Ottawa Black Bears 9

For the second time in three games, the Black Bears found themselves down 6-0 to start a game, and once again, they were able to tie the game back up. Trailing 9-1, the Black Bears scored 8 straight to tie the game with less than 10 to play, but it was Mitch Jones finishing off a broken play and giving the Desert Dogs their first win of the season. Jones was Vegas’s point leader with 3 goals and 4 assists, while Jonathan Donville had 2 goals and 3 assists and Chris Cloutier had 5 assists. In his first game with the Desert Dogs, Chase Fraser had 2 goals and 2 assists. Landon Kells rebounded from a rough season opener with 47 saves in the win. Ottawa was led by 2 goals and 4 assists from Rob Hellyer, while Jeff Teat had a goal and 4 assists and Larson Sundown had a goal and 3 assists.

Off the floor, the Desert Dogs were in the headlines after the Colorado Mammoth came along and signed Jack Hannah to an offer sheet. Shawn Williams did match the offer, but with Hannah’s business commitments in Denver and the size of the salary and bonus structure that Mammoth GM Brad Self offered, this will likely lead to a trade that adds on to what the offer sheet compensation would’ve been, but the saga is far from over.

Week 5 Preview

Buffalo Bandits (1-1) @ Calgary Roughnecks (0-2) – Sunday December 28, 8:00 pm, ESPN 2

The Bandits return to the floor to put a bow on a memorable 2025 calendar year with a trip to Alberta to take on the Roughnecks in their home opener. A home-and-home back in March saw the road team win both matchups, with an 11-6 Bandit victory avenging a 17-11 loss the week before. And as mentioned, the game will air on ESPN 2 as a nice alternative to watching “more football” after the Bills game.

Saturday December 27

Two more NLL games on linear TV this weekend come on a doubleheader on ESPNU.

Saskatchewan Rush (2-1) @ Halifax Thunderbirds (2-0) – 6:00 pm, ESPNU

After an emotional overtime win in Buffalo, the Thunderbirds are back home and have their rivals from the prairies coming to town. While the Rush won both games of their semifinal playoff series, the Thunderbirds did get a win in the lone regular season matchup between the teams, which was a 17-9 victory on March 14.

Georgia Swarm (1-2) @ Colorado Mammoth (1-1) – 9:00 pm, ESPNU

The Mammoth snapped a three game losing streak to the Swarm last season with a 13-12 win in Duluth and will be welcoming the Swarm to town this weekend. Andrew Kew is listed as doubtful in what would be his first game against his former team.

Philadelphia Wings (1-1) @ Ottawa Black Bears (1-2) – 7:00 pm

With both teams coming off a loss, Canadian Tire Centre will be the home of a very important game to two teams with playoff drought breaking aspirations among other pressures that they will both be coming face-to-face with throughout this season. The Black Bears won last season’s matchup 13-5 on March 28. Going back to Old Franchise Lore, the original Wings won in their only trip to Ottawa to take on the Rebel by an 11-9 score on February 15, 2003.

Las Vegas Desert Dogs (1-1) @ Toronto Rock (1-1) – 7:00 pm

Both teams have improved rosters from those that were at the basement of the league last season and are aiming to enter 2026 with a winning record. Both prior matchups have taken place in Nevada, with last year’s being a 14-13 overtime win for the Desert Dogs on April 6, 2025. The overtime winner was scored by the aforementioned Jack Hannah, who is not expected in the lineup.

(Photo Credit: Jonathan Tenca)