Knighthawks Fall In Opener, 16-13

The Rochester Knighthawks fell to the Philadelphia Wings 16-13 tonight at The Blue Cross Arena. The Knighthawks are now 7-8 lifetime in their home openers and start the season 0-1. In his first game out of retirement Gary Gait led the way for the Knighthawks scoring five times. Knighthawks captain, Shawn Williams also had an excellent night posting eight points (2+6). Leading the way for the Wings was Kyle Wailes who collected a goal and six assists throughout the contest. Scoring five points (4+1) on the night for the Wings was Merrick Thompson. The wings open the scoring with back-to-back goal from David Mitchell and Thompson. Rochester came right back with three of their own when Gait netted two and Aaron Wilson his first Knighthawk goal. The wings tied the game at three when Mat Giles netted his first goal of the night. Rochester took a two goal lead after Shawn Evens and Steve Toll each depoites the ball into the goal. Wrapping up the first quarter in scoring was the Wings Kyle Sweeney. In the second quarter the wings got the first three goals, one from Wailes and two from M. Thompson. Gait and Williams anwsered the wings goal to knot the game at seven. The wings proceed to take back their two goal lead when Sean and Merrick Thompson both found the back of the net. Once again Gait and Williams anwsered to tie the game at nine heading into halftime. Coming out of halftime Chris Shiller marched the ball down the field to score for the Knighthawks 20 seconds into the frame. The Wings caught fire after that talling three more goals to take a 12-10 lead. Gait got his fifth goal of the night to pull within one. The Wings got their two goal lead back not even a minute later when Geoff Snider scored. In the fourth quarter Rochster scored back-toback goals to tie the game at 13 when rookie, Joe Walters and Ken Millian each lit the lamb. At this point it was all Wings as the tallied the next three goals to round out the scoreing at 16-13