The conventional wisdom that it takes three championships to complete a dynasty has developed with the additional caveat this century that doing it in consecutive seasons has merely become a feat of mythical past.

With league expansions across sports and the ever evolving roster turnover alongside increased player bargaining power, maintaining a good team itself has become harder, let alone winning three consecutive championships. Even the most recent three peat in North American professional sports featured the first of the three legs featured co-champions, with the Boston Pride and Minnesota Whitecaps sharing the 2020 title with their Isobel Cup matchup, scheduled for March 13, 2020, being cancelled as part of the first wave of sports shutdowns during the COVID pandemic.

The other most recent example already takes us back 10 years, but also to the topic of today’s conversation: the Rochester Knighthawks of the early-2010s.

League (All North American Professional)	Last Three Peat
Premier Hockey Federation	2020-2022 Boston Pride
National Lacrosse League	2012-2014 Rochester Knighthawks
National Basketball Association	2000-2002 Los Angeles Lakers
Major League Baseball	1998-2000 New York Yankees
Women’s National Basketball Association	1997-2000 Houston Comets (4-Peat)
National Hockey League	1980-1983 New York Islanders
National Football League	1965-1967 Green Bay Packers (1965 NFL Championship + Super Bowls I and II)

The Lead Up To 2012

The Knighthawks started the 2010s with a lot of changing of the guard, as the majority of the holdovers from their 2007 championship team had over time had dwindled with retirements or other transactions along the way. 7-9 seasons in both 2009 and 2010 led to Paul Gait being relieved of his head coaching duties in favor of Mike Hasen, the former Knighthawks captain who retired in 2007 and immediately went behind the bench in an assistant coaching role. The likes of Regy Thorpe and Steve Toll, mainstays on the Knighthawks defense since the 1990s, had retired during this time as well (Thorpe even having a stint as the Player-GM along the way). Gary Gait had joined the team in the twilight of his career but was on his way to a second and final retirement after two games in the 2011 season after coming back to the playing floor ahead of the 2009 season.

The building of those dynastic rosters began alongside this turnover, with back-to-back number one overall picks for the Knighthawks in 2009 and 2010 as the result of other deals along the way. All the way back in July of 2007, they traded Mike Accursi to Edmonton for this 2009 first round pick that ended up being first overall after a 5-11 season for the Rush, with the Knighthawks selecting future captain Sid Smith #1 overall and then drafting Ilija Gajic second overall via a 2008 draft trade with the Rock. However, Gajic was traded in October of 2009 to Colorado that sent Gavin Prout, and 2 first round picks in the 2010 draft back to Rochester (Prout was then traded to Edmonton for an 2011 first rounder a couple weeks later). With that pick, the Knighthawks got first overall from a disappointing 4-12 season for the Mammoth and selected Cody Jamieson. By the 2011 season, Accursi had returned to the Knighthawks after two and a half seasons in Buffalo after only 9 games in Edmonton.

Alongside the Dispersal of the Orlando Titans, Rochester was fortunate to not have to wait for long to replace the HOFer in Pat O’Toole, who had retired after the 2010 season, as they were able to acquire Matt Vinc and Brad Self from Colorado for John Grant Jr, a 2011 first round pick swap, and a 2013 first among other trade pieces. With all of that set in place, the 2011 team won 5 of their final 6 games to tie for first in the East at 10-6, but they were the three seed after losing tiebreakers to both Buffalo and Toronto in that order. That sent them on the road to the Air Canada Centre where a 3-0 second quarter proved to be the difference in a first round matchup.

There were more moves to be made heading into 2012 itself. The Prout trade and another disappointing Edmonton season allowed the Knighthawks to draft Stephen Keogh second overall in the 2011 draft, where the big moves to change the guard continued.

Calgary owned the fifth overall pick in the 2011 draft but traded it to Rochester to draft Johnny Powless with that pick not only for their 2012 first round pick, but for Shawn Evans too. The fan favorite and league’s favorite player to hate joined the team as a 20 year old in 2006 and played with his brother Scott on the 2007 championship team. Evans was the team’s second leading scorer in 2011 with 73 points in 16 games. And the one guy to outscore him in 2011 was on his way out as well.

Shawn Williams had been with the Knighthawks since 2002 and had worn the C for the team in the past, but now entering into his age 37 season, the organization chose to move on, sending him to Edmonton in a blockbuster where he, Aaron Bold, and a 2012 second round pick went to the Rush for Ryan Cousins, Alex-Kedoh Hill, and Andy Secore in a move Curt Styres referenced directly as an attempt to get younger.

Rochester was ready to move to a new leaf with a new very young core on offense with the veteran presence of Mike Accursi to guide them along. On defense they had Pat McCready taking over the captaincy with young pieces such as Sid Smith, Dylan Evans, Tyler Burton, Scott Campbell, and 10th overall pick Joel White, who had just played his first season with the Rochester Rattlers in the MLL, to build a new core on the back end with Matt Vinc in net for his second season as the guy in Rochester. A step back may have been expected, but in a 9 team league after the Boston Blazers were gone, nobody would be out of the race.

2012

Rochester would head to Philadelphia to open the 2012 season, taking on a team with heightened expectations after not only picking up Dan Dawson in the dispersal draft to join brother Paul, but they also made a blockbuster that sent Athan Iannucci to Edmonton for Brodie Merrill. With them and the first overall pick in the 2011 NLL draft in Kevin Crowley joining the fold, expectations for a step forward were very high for the Wings.

But it didn’t start off that way, as the Knighthawks came in and put both a literal and figurative pounding on the Wings with runs of 6-1, 7-0, and a second 7-0 run which featured 5 straight powerplay goals for the Knighthawks, and that was before the game ended with two brawls in the final minute totaling 29 of the game’s 45 penalties. A 22-12 victory set the Knighthawks on the right path to open the season.

Unfortunately for them, the next step hit them hard back, as they dropped their season opener in front of 9,776 at the Blue Cross Arena to the rival Bandits who were led by a 7 point night for John Tavares. The next week, the Knighthawks had a really tough draw of the schedule with a back-to-back weekend with a Friday night in Toronto and a Saturday night in Denver. Josh Sanderson and Garrett Billings led the Rock to a 13-11 victory in which they erased a 3 goal deficit with a 6-0 run in the fourth quarter. And then the Mammoth took advantage of a slow start for the Knighthawks at the then Pepsi Center and led comfortably most of the way for a 14-11 win.

Rochester split a home-and-home with the Minnesota Swarm the next two weekends and then returned home and erased a 12-10 deficit to the Washington Stealth in the fourth quarter with a 5-0 run to win 15-12. Despite being on the losing side of another game of runs in Toronto the following week, the team opened up March with another win in Philadelphia (although only five total penalties in this game) and then returned home to get even on the season with the Bandits thanks to a 7-0 second quarter. They had erased the 1-3 record to get even at 5-5, with that still being good enough for second in the East to that point, and while every team in the East would make the playoffs this season with only 4 teams compared to the West’s five, a guaranteed home playoff game is always something to play for.

But despite two more games on the homestand that opened up with the win over Buffalo, the winning ways would come to a halt, as the Rock completed a regular season series sweep with 8 straight goals after the Knighthawks scored first to take an 8-1 lead in the middle of the third quarter and stay afloat the rest of the way with a 13-7 win. And things didn’t get much better the weekend after, as John Grant Jr. made his return for his first game in Rochester since being traded after the 2010 season with 3 goals and 8 assists in a 16-12 win. Trailing 12-9 after 3, Rochester managed to tie the game at 12, but the Mammoth prevailed. Junior would go on to win the 2012 MVP with 116 points in only 14 games.

Up next was a home-and-home with the Roughnecks, starting in Calgary on April 6, and it was once again an old friend playing spoiler as Shawn Evans had 3 goals and 6 assists on the way to a 15-14 win, dropping Rochester to 5-8. Along the way, Toronto had picked up 3 wins in a row of their own and now led the East at 7-6 as the Wings dropped to 7-7 after losing both games on the weekend of week 14, and Buffalo finding themselves with the same record as Rochester up to that point. But still, the 4-team standings were yet to be near a decision. The second game of the home-and-home back in Rochester would be critical.

And the Knighthawks did prevail, although not without a bit of drama late, as Calgary scored the final four goals to get back within 2 in the final minute, but 14-12 was enough of a lead late to hold on and put Rochester back in the win column. Consistent in both games was Johnny Powless, whose selection 5th overall in the 2011 draft was only possible because of the Evans trade, with 3 goals and 4 assists in each game to lead the team. Evans shared the lead in points in the second game with Jeff Shattler (2 goals and 4 assists each).

After a week 15 bye during which the Bandits dropped an 11-8 score in Edmonton, Rochester would be heading to Buffalo on April 21 to prevent the season series going to the orange and black. But a 46 save night from Anthony Cosmo and 4 goals and 4 assists from Mark Steenhuis, 3 goals of which came in (sound familiar?) a 7-0 in the late third to early fourth quarter to go up 14-5 on the way to a 14-9 win.

With one week left, Toronto was the only team above .500 at 8-7. Rochester and Buffalo were now each 6-9 and the Wings were 7-8. Toronto would head to Edmonton and win to clinch the division at 9-7. Buffalo would also head west to take on the Stealth in Everett, and Rochester would host the Wings. Who would be playing who would remain a mystery until the final whistles blew on the 2012 NLL regular season.

It was close the majority of the way in front of 8,912 at Blue Cross Arena. Early goals from Craig Point and Stephen Keogh were erased by tallies from Dan Dawson and Drew Westervelt to keep the score even after 1. After Brendan Mundorf scored on the powerplay to give the Wings their first lead of the game, Johnny Powless re-tied the game 33 seconds later and a powerplay goal on the other side 1:30 after that from Keogh gave Rochester the lead back, which they took into halftime. Dawson had his second of the game 38 seconds into the third quarter to tie things back up at 4, but once again, a Keogh powerplay goal broke the tie. Jarrett Smith pushed the lead up to 2

The night ended with theatrics on the west coast, as the Bandits had a 16-11 lead with less than 10 minutes to go, but the Stealth took advantage of a 5 minute high sticking call on Billy Dee Smith and scored three times with the man advantage, added a fourth goal 22 seconds after the third of those goals, and then Lewis Ratcliff tied the game with 1:39 to go to force overtime. But a cross checking call on Athan Iannucci in the extra frame led John Tavares to scoring the overtime winner to escape with the win and join in that 7-9 cluster.

After the tiebreakers were calculated, it was Rochester taking the 2 seed, facing the Wings in the first round in the second consecutive week, while Buffalo took the tough draw of having to go to Toronto. It was an advantageous draw for Rochester, who to that point had a 6-2 all time record in playoff games at home.

After all the turnover, Cody Jamieson took his place as the leader of the team and backed it up on the stat sheet, leading the team with 36 goals and 49 assists in 15 games. Both offensive rookies, Stephen Keogh and Johnny Powless, played every game, scored 26 goals each, and each eclipsed 50 points. Mike Accursi also added 22 goals and 44 assists in a full season of work. The team finished around the middle of the pack in goals for and against (191-197), and despite the negative goal differential, played the cards in front of them and overcame the bumps along the way to position themselves for whatever happens next, starting, as mentioned, the playoffs at home.

Round 1 – Philadelphia

The game began with the same back-and-forth nature as the week prior, as Philadelphia scored first this time courtesy of Kevin Crowley, and then each time Rochester tied the game up, first from Craig Point and second from Cody Jamieson, MLL legend Ned Crotty and all lacrosse legend Brodie Merrill were there to re-take the lead 30 and 13 seconds later. After Mike Hominuck made it 4-2 1:49 into the second quarter, Rochester flipped the game back into their control with transition goals from Pat McCready and Tyler Burton to tie the game and then Stephen Keogh gave Rochester their first lead of the game halfway through the second frame. In the final minute, Drew Westervelt tied the game back up, but Point added his second of the game with 4 seconds left in the half to give the Knighthawks a 6-5 lead after 30.

And from there, Rochester took over with a dominant third quarter. Johnny Powless started the scoring off 2:38 into the quarter before goals in quick succession from Mike Accursi, Jamieson, and two goals from Irondquoit’s own Joe Walters to extend the lead to 11-5. Kevin Crowley scored a minute after the second of Walters’s goals, but Keogh had his second of the night to keep the lead at 6 heading into the final frame.

But Philadelphia was not done yet. After a holding penalty by Kyle Laverty in the first possession of the half, Westervelt registered the game’s only powerplay goal. Point picked up the hat trick with 11:22 to play, but Crotty erased that 48 seconds later. A holding penalty on Sid Smith put the Wings back on the powerplay, but the Knighthawks penalty kill did their job and the game continued on across 7+ scoreless minutes before Crowley completed his own hat trick. Ryan Cousins pushed the lead back up to 5 19 seconds later, but the flood gates we not closing the rest of the way. The additions in Philadelphia we started off the season talking about were proving their worth, as Merrill had two more goals 32 and 41 seconds apart to make it a game again in the final 2 minutes. Sixteen seconds after that, Crowley picked up his fourth and all of a sudden it was a two goal game. After a long minute came off the clock with the score staying as is, with 27 seconds left, it was Dan Dawson making it a one goal game, stunning the crowd at The War Memorial.

A long clamp battle at the dot between Tyler Burton and Jeff Reynolds, who had won 24 of the 29 draws he took in the game, killed about 10 seconds off the clock, but the Wings controlled the final possession. Merrill controlled the loose ball through a crowd and flipped to Crotty who flipped to Hominuck, who had to retreat with traffic in the middle of the Knighthawks zone. The Wings looked for Dawson in front of the net but the defense of Mike Kirk and Tyler Burton interfered. Crowley had the loose ball and the final chance amidst the flurry, but Matt Vinc made the save and Ryan Cousins prevented any chance for an offensive rebound before time expired. Rochester had a 14-13 win and would be moving on to the final four. (Full sequence)

Cody Jamieson and Joe Walters had 2 goals and 4 assists each, with Craig Point adding 3 goals and 2 assists, while Matt Vinc stopped 37 of the 50 shots that came his way in the victory, outdueling 33 saves on 47 shots from Brandon Miller. 7 points from the rookie Kevin Crowley led the Wings, with Dan Dawson distributing 5 assists and adding a goal. It would not be the last time we hear from the Wings in this story, but for now, the Knighthawks had to prepare for either Buffalo or Toronto.

Round 2 – Toronto

(Here is the recap from the Waterloo Region Record)

Nick Rose’s first career playoff start did not get off to a good start, as the road Bandits got out to a 4-0 first quarter, but outside of two goals from John Tavares in the second quarter, the Bandits would be done on the scoreboard the rest of the way. Trailing 6-2 at halftime, Toronto slowly crawled back, and a natural hat trick from Kasey Beirnes tied the game with 9:43 to play. Former Bandits Brenden Thenhaus scored the unassisted game winner with 1:35 left, and Rose’s Rock had won the goalie battle and moved on to host the Knighthawks, stopping 36 of 42 to Anthony Cosmo’s outstanding 48 saves on 55 shots faced in his first playoff appearance since joining the Bandits. Buffalo nearly tied the game at the buzzer but Tavares’s final shot was waved off with Tracey Kelusky being in the crease as the ball crossed the line.

As Richard Mauntah expressed in the Toronto Sun in the lead up to this semifinal matchup, the Rock had won 18 of 22 meetings at Air Canada Centre between the teams to this point, including a 4-0 playoff record. Between their play this season, their status as the defending champions, and the history between the two teams, with this being the 8th time they’ve faced each other in the playoffs, which of course includes Rock finals wins over the Knighthawks in 1999, 2000, and 2003, Toronto was the clear favorite.

Rochester, however, settled in nicely, with Cody Jamieson opening scoring 1:04 in. Things held on relatively even from there, as Mike Accursi got on the board to make it 2-0 before Josh Sanderson and Brenden Thenhaus got in on the scoring to tie the game. The Knighthawks got the final possession of the quarter and took the lead back in the final second thanks to Craig Point. While things stayed close over the second quarter, the Hawks were able to come out of it with a 2 goal lead with two goals from Joe Walters, a transition marker from Dylan Evans, and another final minute goal from Cory Vitarelli outdueled Rock goals from Kasey Beirnes, Colin Doyle, and Jesse Gamble.

The first three goal run of the game came to open up the second half, and it came from the Teal and Purple. Stephen Keogh scored his first goal of the game 1:34 into the half, followed by second goals of the game from Accursi and Jamieson. Sanderson’s second goal was countered by a goal from Jarrett Davis, but Garrett Billings ensured that the Rock could stay within 4 to end the third quarter.

But Rochester had not one but two more three goal runs in them. First with Vitarelli picking up his second of the game in the first minute and Johnny Powless adding his first two goals of the game 35 and 53 seconds apart. Doyle and Sanderson scored to get it back within 5, but Rochester took advantage of a boarding penalty from Billings with a powerplay goal from Vitarelli, got a mid quarter empty net goal from Mike Kirk, and then after Scott Johnston got the instigator in a fight with Pat McCready, Vitarelli found the back of the net again to make it 17-9. Once again, the Knighthawks opponent had a late surge, but this week’s was too big of an initial lead to overcome, only erasing 4 of the 8 goals Toronto trailed by. When the dust settled, a 17-13 win for the Knighthawks had them a berth in the Champion’s Cup Finals.

2 goals and 4 assists was once again the magic number to lead the Knighthawks in points, this time from Johnny Powless. Cory Vitarelli had 4 goals and an assist, while Joe Walters had 2 goals and 2 assists. Despite 13 goals allowed, with the Rock outshooting the Knighthawks 88-52, including 64-40 on goal, Matt Vinc was a major reason for the win with 51 assists to ensure that their handful of runs were not interrupted. Garrett Billings had 6 assists and added a goal to lead Toronto, while their vets Josh Sanderson and Colin Doyle combined for 7 goals.

Five years after their last appearance, the Knighthawks were heading back to the finals, and with their 2007 run taking a circus-causing detour, you may say the stars aligned to allow them the opportunity to host this one…against some familiar faces.

Champion’s Cup – Edmonton

The playoff format was very helpful for the 2012 Rochester Knighthawks, but it may have been even more beneficial to the 2012 Edmonton Rush. Only scoring a hair over 10 goals per game, the Rush started the season 2-7. In late-March and early-April they did manage to win 4 of 5, but then dropped the final two games to finish 6-10.

But the Washington Stealth finished 4-12, so there was Edmonton in the playoffs. But their opponent would be their neighbors in Calgary, and the Roughnecks had won 8 in a row, and in 25 meetings to that point, Edmonton had only won 5, but one of those did include a win in the 2010 first round. In the spirit of not playing the games on paper, the Rush came out and stunned the Roughnecks to a 6-2 first quarter and kept the gas pedal down on offense the whole way to a 19-11 stunner in which Ryan Ward went off for 5 goals and 6 assists. Not to say that a 16 game is too small of a sample size, but the offensive regression of sorts continued into the semifinals in Minnesota as they scored 6 more first quarter goals, shut the Swarm out in the second, and cruised to a 15-3 win. Now all that was left for them to do was put it together for one more game, which was in very familiar territory for multiple members of the Rush.

While Ryan Cousins and Alex-Kedoh Hill combined to only play 15 games in 2012, and Andy Secore had called it a career before the season and actually joined the Knighthawks coaching staff, the additions of Shawn Williams and Aaron Bold paid dividends for Derek Keenan’s club. Williams managed to distribute 52 assists on his way to leading the Rush in points with 68, and Bold put up a .775 save percentage in his first full season as a started, with the Rush giving up the second fewest goals against. The Rush also included the likes of former longtime Knighthawks Steve Toll, who played for the team from 2005-2010, and Scott Evans (2004-2010). It would be the final game of Toll’s career before retiring after 15 seasons, while Evans stuck around for one more season, heading to Toronto, before retiring as well.

The goalie battle had the attention going in, as last year’s Knighthawks tandem, both of whom were 2005 draft picks, were now in the spotlight and looking to add NLL Champion to resumes that would eventually find themselves as some of the top of all time. And that’s exactly how the first quarter played out. Despite Zack Greer opening the scoring 1:32 into the game, the teams spent the first frame feeling each other out to what otherwise was a stalemate.

But the Rush would find their mojo in the second quarter. Greer scored his second goal once again early in the frame, and then Chris Corbeil took advantage of an errant transition pass to go the distance and make it 3-0 on a breakaway. Cody Jamieson put Rochester on the board for the first time in the middle of the second quarter, but a powerplay goal from Aaron Wilson and another breakaway, this time from Jarrett Toll, put the Rush up 5-1, a lead they would take into the half.

Edmonton was 30 minutes from putting a bow on what might be the best underdog playoff run in league history. After a full season of struggling offensively, they had controlled both sides of the ball for the last 150 minutes of lacrosse. It wouldn’t have mattered in history how they got to the finals, just that they won it.

Only it was the team on the other side who would have the final say.

The third quarter began what became an entirely different half, starting with Mike Accursi getting open net front to snap a 12:39 stretch of scoreless lacrosse for the home team. While not immediate like in past runs, the Knighthawks paced their way back, starting with a goal from Johnny Powless halfway through the quarter, and then Cody Jamieson put in back to back goals to tie the game back up. After Shawn Williams was penalized for a delay of game, Rochester capitalized on the powerplay with a second goal from Accursi. With 19 seconds left in the quarter, Stephen Keogh joined in on the scoring and gave the Knighthawks a 7-5 lead, with 9,277 in a Rochesterian frenzy. Powless got a second goal to open the fourth quarter. While Ryan Ward ended the 7-0 run (hey it’s that number again), it was all that the Rush had left in the goal scoring department on the season. Jamieson added one more insurance goal with 32 seconds left, and then all there was left to do was run out the clock, and by a 9-6 score, the Rochester Knighthawks had their third title in franchise history and first clinched at home.

The roster changes had paid off. Cody Jamieson literally and figuratively took over the reigns of the offense and registered points on 8 of the team’s 9 goals with 4 goals and 4 assists. The other goal scorers? The free agent returning Mike Accursi with 2, the 5th overall pick Johnny Powless with 2, and the second overall pick Stephen Keogh with 1. And after 12 seasons of Pat O’Toole dominating the league between the Rochester pipes, Matt Vinc had made a statement that he was indeed going to continue that legacy and track record started all the way back with Steve Dietrich at the team’s inception in 1995. In a game where Edmonton outshout Rochester 52-35, Vinc made 46 saves and joined those prior goalies in the lore of Rochester lacrosse, matching the championships each of them had picked up along the way (Dietrich 1997, O’Toole 2007).

The path to sustained success had a foundation and results to build upon, but as they proved themselves this season, any team in the NLL can make their way to the finals and win it. And as they looked ahead to 2013, they reminded the lacrosse world that champions are never satisfied.

(Photo Credit: National Lacrosse League)