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Oshawa, Ontario, Canada

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Streak Extends With Cup Win


John Grant Jr. led Rochester to the Knighthawks’ second ever Champion’s Cup and the team’s 15th straight win. For his three goals and five assists performance, Grant was named game MVP. Pat O’Toole was also solid in net for Rochester making 42 saves in the win.

Both teams had trouble finding the back of the net early in the first quarter, despite some good scoring chances by both sides. Rochester finally got the scoring started at … of the first quarter then extended their lead to two on a spectacular over the shoulder goal by John Grant Jr. The first quarter ended with a 2-1 score after Dan Dawson scored a goal late in the opening quarter for Arizona. The second quarter started with Arizona on the power play where they promptly scored to tie the game. The score remained tied for just over two minutes when Shawn Williams scored the first of five straight goals to give Rochester a 7-2 lead. Craig Conn scored his second of the game and reduced Arizona’s deficit to four goals and after one more goal by Arizona, the second quarter ended with Arizona trailing by three in a 7-4 game.

The third quarter began much like the first as it took almost five minutes for the first goal of the quarter. Mike Accursi scored his third goal of the game for Rochester … seconds before Arizona answered back. Rochester then scored two straight goals to gain a five-goal lead before Arizona scored their sixth goal of the game to take a 10-6 deficit into the last quarter. Less than a minute into the fourth quarter, Rochester gets back their five-goal lead with a goal by … Arizona, leg by Craig Conn, then took over and scored four straight goals to climb back to within one goal with nine minutes to go. Regaining their composure, Rochester gets back a two-goal lead on Bill Greer’s first goal of the playoffs. Despite outscoring Rochester 5-3 in the last quarter, Arizona could not complete the comeback and fell to the Knighthawks 13-11.

Along with John Grant Jr., two other Knighthawks scored a hat trick, Mike Accursi (3G, 2A) and Shawn Williams (3G, 3A) while Craig Conn was the only player from Arizona to complete the hat trick, finishing with five goals and three assists. Dan Dawson was held to just one goal in the game but had seven helpers for eight points and his Arizona teammate, Derek Malawsky, amassed seven points on six assists and one goal. Rob Blasdell made 48 saves for Arizona in the loss.

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