Blazers Stay Hot, Beat Rochester for Third-Straight Victory
Dan Ventresca
Boston, MA (Feb 6, 2010) -After an 0-3 start to the season, the Boston Blazers have clawed their way back to .500 after a 14-8 victory over the division rival Rochester Knighthawks tonight at the TD Garden.
“It was a huge game tonight, having Rochester two weeks in a row,” Blazers head coach Tom Ryan said. “Obviously we dug ourselves a bit of a hole losing the first three, but I think we're happy to be back to .500, and the future's open from here.”
Captain Dan Dawson led all scorers with four goals and four assists. The reigning league MVP moved into 11th place in the league in scoring, passing teammate Daryl Veltman for the team lead in points. Veltman notched two goals and four assists on the night.
Dawson tallied three of his goals in the second quarter. The veteran forward success with bounce shots in front of the Rochester cage.
“We watched a lot of game film and we thought maybe they'd have some trouble with bounce shots around screens,” Dawson said. “Any goalie in this league is going to have trouble. The ball was going in tonight, which is always a great feeling.”
In his Blazers debut forward Jamie Rooney scored twice and picked up an assist against his former team. Boston acquired Rooney in a trade with Rochester earlier this week. Ryan added Rooney to the top line and the power-play unit.
“Building some chemistry out there with Jamie Rooney was a great thing,” Dawson said. “He was opening up some space for me. I'm just fortunate to be able to play with so many great players.
“[Rooney] did a fantastic job. Jamie had to learn all the plays last night,” Dawson said. “We threw him right there on the power-play, and he took a little while to get going on the game sheet, but he was getting offensive loose balls, and those are the intangibles that don't come up on the game sheet.”
After only playing one game this season for Rochester, Rooney welcomed the change of scenery this week.
“Obviously you want to come in and be a part of the puzzle, not a distraction or anything like that,” Rooney said. “You're going against your former team so you can give a little bit of information – anything helps, really.”
Rochester opened the scoring just over two minutes into the game when forward Craig Point blew one past Blazer goalie Anthony Cosmo. It was the only tally Cosmo allowed in the first quarter and the Boston goaltender would make 42 saves on the night. Cosmo now has the third best save percentage in the league.
After Dawson gave the Blazers a 4-1 advantage with 12:02 remaining in the first half, the Knighthawks wouldn't come within two goals of the Blazers until forward Gary Gait made the score 10-8 with 7:37 remaining in the game. Boston closed out the game with four consecutive strikes, including an empty-netter, to seal the W