Part 1

The 2011 offseason ahead of the 2012 Rochester Knighthawks season certainly wouldn’t be matched in terms of shock value, but there were still moves to be made to ensure the team could be prepared on its quest to repeat as champions in 2013.

It was a relatively quiet summer for the Knighthawks, and the same goes for the majority of the fall. Pat McCready retired on top, with Sid Smith taking over as the captain. In late November, they announced that after sitting out in the 2012 season, Casey Powell was going to be returning to the Knighthawks with the intention of finishing his career where it started. Powell was 2 seasons removed from the 2010 NLL MVP in Orlando.

I say relatively because there was one head turning move they did make in August, involving a name that has definitely only gotten even more household since.

Paul Rabil was four seasons into his NLL career with the Stealth organization, where we won a championship in 2010, when he was traded to Edmonton in the middle of the 2012 season and then did not report, with the desire to play closer to his east coach home. Curt Styres tested the waters, and in August, Rochester acquired the 2011 Major League Lacrosse MVP in exchange for Jarrett Davis. However with Rochester being a midweek practice team in Ontario, that wasn’t close enough to home for Rabil to report. But there was one organization closer, and while it took until the middle of training camp to complete, Styres put together a blockbuster.

Rabil, Jordan Hall, Joel White, Robbie Campbell (who Rochester selected in the third round of the 2012 draft), and 2014 second round pick were sent to Philadelphia. The big fish on the other end of the deal? Dan and Paul Dawson, alongside a 2016 first round pick. (ILIndoor broke down the geographical impacts of the trade)

In his only season with the Wings, Dan Dawson had registered 25 goals and 78 assists and now was reuniting with Powell and teaming up with the young Knighthawks offense that had come to their own last season, while brother Paul came over as one of the best defenders in the league to this point in his career as well. A defending champion team had gotten better very quickly, but with the season very rapidly approaching, as this trade was finalized in mid-December, and the league continuing to be very tight in its 9 team format, the return to the finals would be challenging.

2013

And, well, the chemistry road blocks showed themselves early on. Athan Iannucci spoiled the Knighthawks season opener in Everett, Washington, as the Stealth defeated the Knighthawks 13-12 in the season opener, and then upon coming back for their homecoming to raise the championship banner and take on their rivals from Buffalo and Toronto for the first time, old friend Shawn Williams’s 2 goals and 6 assists led the Bandits to a 14-13 victory, and then Nick Rose got his revenge after last season’s playoff loss with 40 saves on 47 shots faced in an 11-7 victory. Just like that, the defending champs had dropped to 0-3, and in front of them, Toronto had gotten out to a 4-1 start in January and Buffalo was 3-1.

February got off to a grinding albeit rewarding start, as the Knighthawks avenged their opening weekend loss to Washington with a 7-6 win back home, with an appearance from Tony Stewart? Matt Vinc’s 42 saves on 48 shots outdueled Tyler Richards’s 48 saves on 55 shots, with Johnny Powless scoring the game winner 5:12 into the fourth quarter. Up next was a tough travel back-to-back, starting with a Friday night game in Philadelphia before a Saturday night game in Buffalo. Maybe it’s what the offense needed though, as just as they did last season, Rochester put up a 20 spot in Philadelphia for the second straight season, only this time Dan Dawson got to be on the winning side, leading his new team with 4 goals and 7 assists. The next in Buffalo, the Knighthawks played convincing road spoilers once again with a 3-0 first quarter and a 7-2 first half on their way to a 15-7 win. In that one, the younger Knighthawks took control with a combined 15 points from Cody Jamieson and Stephen Keogh while Dan Dawson and Casey Powell each had a goal and 4 assists. The team was back to 3-3, tied with Buffalo and a half a game ahead of Philadelphia while Toronto sat at 5-2.

Their two opponents from that road weekend got their revenge back in Rochester in the next two weekends, however. The revenge was served between the pipes for the Bandits, as Anthony Cosmo faced 60 shots in a high shot output game but stopped 54 in a 10-6 victory. Things looked to bounce back the following week, with a 4-0 first quarter lead for the Knighthawks, but the Wings scored 8 of the next 10 goals, including a 4-0 third quarter of their own. After Rochester scored twice to open the fourth quarter, Drew Westervelt scored the eventual game winner on the powerplay with about 9 minutes left, and Brodie MerriSell added a last second empty netter for a 10-8 victory. Rochester had finished the month of February at 3-5, but things were about to swing back in their favor very quickly in the month of March to help ease any lingering growing pains.

The team headed on the road to Denver to open March in another back and forth affair. Tied 6-6 at the half, Rochester finished the third quarter with 4 straight goals to go up 11-8, but the Mammoth tied the game up in the fourth, with John Grant Jr. tying the game with 9:32 to play. But Cody Jamieson beat Mammoth goalie Dan Lewis for his fourth goal of the game halfway through the quarter and the defense did their job to ensure the 12-11 victory. Back home after a bye week in a championship rematch with the Rush, Ryan Ward, Zack Greer, and the number 1 overall pick in the 2012 draft, Mark Matthews, each had multi-goal games in a game they never trailed to drop Rochester back to 4-6. In the lead up to the game, the Knighthawks had traded Casey Powell, who had 8 goals and 14 assists in 7 games in his return to Rochester, to the Mammoth for a transition player in Jon Sullivan and a 2014 third round pick, which some alluded would give more playing time back to Stephen Keogh who was still playing well despite being lower in the depth chart to start his sophomore campaign. He would however hit a wall after a 6 point outing on February 9 with only two points, both assists, in his next 4 appearances across 6 games.

After a second bye week of the month, the 9-4 Toronto Rock came to town, and on the second night of a back-to-back for them, the crucial quarters did not go their way. The Knighthawks had another 4-0 first quarter and then had a game-sealing 4 goal run in the fourth quarter to go up 11-5 before winning 12-8. The next weekend marked their final home game of the season, as they would finish out on a four game road trip, and while they didn’t score 20 on the Wings again, they did end the game on another 4-0 run to win 14-7. The team had fought their way back to 6-6 as of April 6 before this road trip, but did the standings cooperate? Well…

5-3 was apparently a curse for both the Buffalo Bandits and Philadelphia Wings. The Bandits started the month of March with that record before losing in overtime at home against the Wings, and then the bottom fell out alongside injury and struggles in their own end with five more losses in a row to drop to 5-9 on that same April 6th night. The closest of those five games was a 16-13 loss in Denver, and the worst was that very night, with dominant games from Callum Crawford, Jordan MacIntosh, and rookie Shayne Jackson (combining for 26 points) leading the Minnesota Swarm to a 21-7 win. Meanwhile for the Wings, after winning that overtime game against the Bandits, a game in which they forced overtime with 4 seconds to play on a goal from Jordan Hall, they too went on a skid, losing 5 in a row to drop to 5-8 through April 6. Their worst loss of that stretch also came in Minnesota, losing 20-11 on March 29. Despite the Knighthawks losing the next night 10-9 in Toronto and the Wings avenging the Swarm 15-13, they found themselves a half game up on third place and a game and a half up on the 5-9 Bandits with two weekends to go.

The theme of grinding it out continued with a back-to-back the next weekend in Alberta. Despite a 10 point effort from old friend Shawn Evans, Dan Dawson and Cody Jamieson combined for 20 points of their own to overcome a 2 goal deficit in the early fourth with a 15-14 win. Unfortunately playing 4 games in 2 weekends caught up to them in Edmonton, as the Rush handed out a 14-10 beating of the Knighthawks to send them to 7-8 with one game left.

After Jordan Hall’s overtime winner to propel the Wings to an upset win over the Rock, both teams were 7-8 heading into the final weekend. The Wings would take on the Stealth in Everett to finish their season, while the Knighthawks were a little closer to home, taking on the 6-9 Bandits, who needed a win to make the playoffs at 7-9, or else the pesky Swarm who were also 7-8 would be able to cross over into the East bracket regardless of the outcome of their season finale against the Mammoth. Rochester would lose out to the Bandits on tiebreakers if they lost, and the Bandits would potentially propel to the 2 seed to host the Wings if the cards didn’t play out.

April 20, 2013 – Week 16 – Rochester Knighthawks 10 – Buffalo Bandits 9

With Anthony Cosmo going down with injury in Minnesota, Kurtis Wagar would get the start in front of a sold out First Niagara Center. The first 9 minutes went as well as you could’ve asked for if you were the Bandits. 39 seconds in, a rookie Dhane Smith opened the scoring. After Aaron Wilson scored on the powerplay to make it 2-0, Craig Point put Rochester on the board with a powerplay goal of their own before Shawn Williams wiped that goal out just under 6 minutes in. A checking from behind call on Jimmy Purves sent Buffalo back to the man advantage, where Smith scored his second of the game, making it 4-1 Buffalo. However, the Knighthawks controlled the final five minutes, and goals from Cody Jamieson, Mike Accursi, and a second from Point tied the game back up at 4 to end the opening quarter.

The Bandits had appeared to have halted the Knighthawks rhythm to open up the second quarter, but after 10:35 of scoreless lacrosse, Dan Dawson gave Rochester their first lead of the game and then scored again 1:36 later to make it 6-4. Craig Point scored his third of the opening half to make it 7-4, but a Brad Self holding penalty quickly put Buffalo on the powerplay, where Aaron Wilson ended the 6-0 run and 20 minute goalless drought for the home squad, making the score 7-5 at the half.

With 21 seconds left in the half, Rochester had taken an unsportsmanlike conduct bench minor penalty that bled into the third quarter, and Dhane Smith capitalized for his third of the game to make it 7-6. Both defenses took over from there, but a delay of game penalty to Mike Hominuck put Rochester on a powerplay of their own, where Craig Point picked up his fourth goal. While Billy Dee Smith scored in transition to cut the deficit back to 1 with 1:34 to play in the quarter, Rochester neutralized that goal with Joel McCready’s first of the game a minute later.

Stephen Keogh brought the lead back up to 3 early in the fourth, only for Mark Steenhuis to score his first goal of the game 25 seconds later. Buffalo was unsuccessful on a late powerplay after a too many men call against Rochester, but the penalty killers came up with the stop, and the stalemate continued into the final seconds. Steenhuis scored his second of the quarter to give the Bandits one final breath of life, and after winning the ensuing faceoff, the game would be in their sticks, but the Knighthawks defense prevented a shot attempt, preserving a 10-9 victory, and along the way had prevented the Bandits from making the playoffs for the first time since 2002.

With the Wings losing 17-13 to the Stealth, Rochester would be hosting another round 1 playoff game as the 2 seed in the east, once again against Philadelphia. Toronto, who finished 10-6, would take on the Swarm. Despite the hills and valleys, the defending champs were right back where they were a calendar year prior, only this time with the experience to know that they can do it again.

Cody Jamieson once again led the team in points with 28 goals and 61 assists, while Dan Dawson had 23 goals and 52 assists in his first season in teal, but it was the defense of this group that was the catalyst for getting back to this position, starting between the pipes with an .803 season from Matt Vinc on his way to his third goaltender of the year award in four years.

Round 1 – Philadelphia

It wasn’t 4-0 this time, but Rochester opened up the playoffs with another shutout first quarter, getting two goals from Dan Dawson and a goal from Joe Walters to get out to the early lead, while the second quarter went to the Wings. Brendan Mundorf and Kevin Buchanan each scored in the first 90 seconds to cut it to 3-2. After Cody Jamieson scored his first goal of the game, Drew Westervelt scored two straight to tie the game, the second of those coming short handed. Fortunately for Rochester, Dawson scored his third of the game 26 seconds later during the same man advantage to retake the lead, and then he added a fourth goal with 4:50 left in the half to extend the lead back to 6-4, where the game would hold after 30 minutes.

Dylan Evans was called for a major high sticking penalty in the opening minute of the third quarter, putting the Wings on a long powerplay to start their efforts to keep their season alive. Kevin Crowley scored the lone powerplay goal of the man advantage, but he and Paul Dawson headed to the box after some extra curriculars following the goal. Defense became the theme of the quarter from there, with only one more goal aside, first from Stephen Keogh and then a late tally from Crowley, who was the team’s leading scorer on the season with 34 goals and 38 assists.

Into the fourth, Mundorf scored his second of the game to tie it at 7, but the Knighthawks would make their run. A cross-checking penalty on Ned Crotty led to Craig Point scoring the go-ahead goal with 5:40 to play, and then with the game at four on four, Paul Dawson added a transition marker to make it 9-7. Mike Accursi added the dagger with 22 seconds left, leaving a little bit more room to breathe even after Jeff Reynolds scored with 7 seconds left, and the Knighthawks were back in the final four with a 10-8 victory.

While it would be the theme of the trade over the life of the next 5 years, this game served as a sign that it was indeed the Knighthawks coming out on top of the offseason blockbuster. Dan Dawson led the team with 4 goals and 2 assists, and even got themselves the game winner from brother Paul. The 2016 first rounder they got in the deal, too, turned into Josh Currier down the road. While on the side of the Wings, who were playing in what would be their final playoff game before relocating to New England in 2015, had each of Paul Rabil, Jordan Hall, and Joel White limited to an assist each on the night. White would play another season and a half with the Wings then BlackWolves before being traded to the Swarm, where he would win a championship in 2017. Joining him on that team was Hall, who was traded back to Rochester during the 2014 draft, where he would play in 2015 and half of 2016 before being traded back to the BlackWolves, and spend four of the next five seasons with the Swarm with a pit stop on the expansion 2019 Wings in between, and he’s now an assistant coach on the San Diego Seals bench. As for Rabil, he would not play another game in the NLL and retire from the MLL in 2017, although we soon learned that was to create the PLL with brother Mike in 2019, where he played three seasons before retiring for good at the conclusion of the 2021 season. White also played in the PLL through 2021 with the Chrome, but did stay in Rochester with the Rattlers from 2011-2017 as one of their mainstays before the team headed to Dallas in 2018.

But the Dawsons still had plenty of years in the tank left, both in Rochester and beyond, and that would continue on as the calendar flipped to May for the semifinals. After the road upset last season in Toronto, the Knighthawks would be heading back th–wait…who won the other Eastern playoff game?!

Round 2 – Minnesota

Rock coach Troy Cordingley said it best to the Toronto Star, they were embarrassed at home. Ryan Benesch (9 points), Shayne Jackson (7), Callum Crawford (7), Jordan MacIntosh (6), and Kiel Matisz (6) all brought their A games for the Minnesota offense, who survived a chaotic first quarter and then went on a pair of runs along the way to stun the 10-6 Rock with a 20-11 win.

From March 8th on, the Swarm never scored less than 12 games and had now scored 20 three times in their last six games, but the Knighthawks defense hadn’t given up more than 14 in a game. It would be the first and only meeting between the two teams this year, and only one had a spot at the table in the finals.

Johnny Powless stormed out with the first two goals in the opening quarter, with Joe Walters adding his own goal 20 seconds after the second of those goals for a 3-0 first for the Knighthawks. But the Swarm’s offense did their thing in the second quarter. After Kiel Matisz got the first goal from Minnesota, Callum Crawford and Craig Point exchanged two goals each, extending the score to 5-3 Knighthawks. But to end the first half, Ryan Benesch and Jordan MacIntosh scored in the final minute to ensure a tie game at the half.

Into the third, Rochester struck first again, first from Dan Dawson early and then from Mike Accursi late, but Benesch had a second goal 1:07 after the latter to make it 7-6 after 3. And then the Swarm took their biggest run of the game into the fourth, starting with another goal from Benesch and then another goal from Matisz 53 seconds later and Shayne Jackson’s first on the powerplay 47 seconds after that, making the score 9-7 Swarm. While Rochester was down, they weren’t out, Powless and Point finished off their hat tricks to tie the game back up at 9, and then Cody Jamieson buried the go ahead goal with 4:48 to play. With less than two minutes to play, Point and Jimmy Purves added the insurance to go up 3. A 5 goal run, only halted by a goal with 13 seconds left from Benesch, sent the Rochester Knighthawks back to the Champion’s Cup in the form of a 12-10 win. Craig Point’s 4 goals and Johnny Powless’s 3 made the difference, while the defense limited the red hot Swarm’s offense to 35 total shots on goal.

Point’s tenure in Rochester spanned 8 and a half seasons starting in 2009 and finishing in 2016, and he only played 24 regular season games during the three peat, but across those three playoff runs, he played in all of them and chipped in 15 goals and 12 assists as a critical piece towards ensuring that all cylinders were clicking offensively three years in a row.

Champion’s Cup – Washington

The West was even tighter than the East in 2013, with the Calgary Roughnecks, Washington Stealth, and Edmonton Rush all finishing 9-7, while the Colorado Mammoth and the aforementioned Minnesota Swarm each finished 7-9. Calgary, as was commonplace throughout the 2010s, handled the Mammoth in the first round, while the Rush and Stealth played a wild first round game, with the Rush starting out up 7-1 before a 7-3 third quarter for the Stealth and 5 of the final 6 goals of the game led them to a 12-11 win. Onto the Saddledome for the West final, the back and forth was 60 minutes long. 2 goals for the Stealth — 2 goals for Calgary. 3 goals for the Stealth — 3 goals for Calgary. After Washington scored 5 straight between the end of the second and start of the third to go up 10-5, Curtis Dickson scored 3 straight goals to get back to 10-8. After Brett Bucktooth scored to make it 11-8. Dickson had another, and Scott Ranger put the Roughnecks back within 1. Dickson had 3 more goals in the third period to put his total at 7 for the game, but the Stealth had an answer for each goal, two from Rhys Duch and one from Justin Salt. After no scoring in the final 7:54, the Stealth advanced to their third finals appearance in four years, winning in 2010 and losing in 2011, both games against the Toronto Rock.

Duch was their leading scorer with 45 goals and 51 assists, with veterans Lewis Ratcliff and Athan Iannucci chipping in with 67 and 47 points. In net, Tyler Richards had a .795 save percentage. While not primary contributors, this rendition of the Stealth had some notable rookies in Kyle Buchanan, Mitch Jones, and Billy Hostrowser.

While the Stealth would be the home team, they would not be playing at their home arena in Everett, as the Comcast Arena was already booked for May 11 with a Christian youth conference in town for that day and the day before and Cirque Zuma Zuma in the arena the day after. Seattle and Kent’s arenas were unavailable as well, and the Stealth looked over the border to Langley (where the team would actually end up moving next season, not totally related to this).

Washington found themselves in another game of chaos to start, having quick responses to each of Rochester’s first two goals. Rochester would score 5 of the next 6 goals, including back-to-back from Cody Jamieson, but the Stealth added four in a row to get the game back to even at 7. But the Knighthawks had another run in them to finish the period, with goals from Cory Vitarelli, Johnny Powless, and Craig Point.

Washington scored twice in the early third quarter to get back to 10-9, including Rhys Duch’s third goal of the game, but from there, the offense came to a screeching halt. Each team killed a penalty in the quarter, and Tyler Richards and Matt Vinc continued to push shots aside.

After 11:29 of scoreless lacrosse, 19:33 for the Knighthawks, Joe Walters buried his first goal of the game after setting up his teammates five times in the first half. After all that time, naturally, Tyler Garrison had an answer 55 seconds later to make the score 11-10. Then once again, the goalies took over from there. Both teams finished the game with 49 shots on goal, so it wasn’t for a lack of effort, but still as the fourth quarter continued, Washington couldn’t tie the game and Rochester couldn’t pad their lead down the stretch. In the closing seconds, Rochester got a stop and called a timeout. With the Stealth net empty, Joe Walters booked it towards the center of the floor before succumbing to a hit along the boards from Jeff Moleski, who forced the turnover. Tyler Garrison picked up the loose ball and ran forward back into the offensive zone with a 4-on-3. Brad Self chased Garrison down to force him to loose the ball with 4 seconds left but he was able to scoop pass the ball to Rhys Duch for one final shot attempt. Vinc stopped the low to low shot, Self picked up the rebound and ran behind the net while the horn sounded, and the Rochester Knighthawks had officially gone back-to-back.

Joining the scorer of the game winning goal, Joe Walters, with 6 points was Cody Jamieson (3 goals and 3 assists), who had picked up his second straight championship game MVP award, only John Tavares had done it previously back in 1992 and 1993. In addition to Walters and Jamieson, 6 other Knighthawks added goals (Vitarelli with 2, Dan Dawson, Point, Powless, Accursi, Self). 39 saves from Matt Vinc was enough to get the job done. While Rhys Duch did score 3 times, Ratcliff and Iannucci were held to a goal apiece.

The National Lacrosse League had gone 10 years since a back-to-back champion, when the 2002 and 2003 Toronto Rock accomplished the feat, with the second of those years finishing in Rochester. Something about those 2 and 3 years seemed to signal the accomplishment with the Bandits of course completing the feat in 1992 and 1993 (albeit doing it again in 2023 and 2024, so just a little bit off). We’ll look into what kept those teams from three-peats down the road, but for now, and this moment of time in Rochester, the only thing to do next was make history in Rochester.

(Photo Credit: Knighthawks Flickr)