Crawford, Leblanc reach milestones as Wolves win

Mohegan — Callum Crawford had five goals and five assists and Stephan Leblanc added three goals and five assists as the New England Black Wolves defeated the Rochester Knighthawks 16-13 on Saturday night at Mohegan Sun Arena.

It was a milestone evening for both Crawford and Leblanc, who went over 900 and 700 career points, respectively, in the win.

Tyler Digby had a hat trick and two assists while Reilly O'Connor had a goal and four helpers in the win for New England (4-3). Alex Buque added 37 saves in the win for the Black Wolves, which snapped a two-game losing streak.

Joe Resetarits had four goals and three assists in the loss for Rochester (2-6) while Kyle Jackson added two goals and six assists. Angus Goodleaf took the loss for the Knighthawks while making 35 saves.

Rochester got things started with a goal from Scott Campbell 3 minutes, 47 seconds into the first, but Crawford picked up his first of the night just 32 seconds later to tie it at 1-1. Rochester scored twice more over the next 1:34 to take a 3-1 advantage.

Crawford found the back of the net for his second of the night, and the 900th point of his career, with 6:49 left in the quarter and scored again 1:20 later to tie the score at 3-3. The Knighthawks took a 4-3 lead with 2:11 left in the first to go up 4-3.

Leblanc got the scoring started for New England in the second, tying the game at 4-4 with 12:42 left. That's where the score would stand until Digby scored twice in a span of 48 seconds put New England up 6-4 with 11:37 left.

Crawford followed with his fourth of the night with 2:49 left and Dereck Downs found the back of the net with just under two minutes to play in the half to give New England an 8-4 lead.

David Brock put the Black Wolves up 9-4 just 1:29 into the third and the New England streak continued 30 seconds later on another goal by Digby.

Leblanc found the back of the net for the Black Wolves 10:57 to put New England up 11-4, but Rochester scored twice to cut the lead to five, 11-6, with 8:28 left to play in the frame. Andrew Suitor scored to put the Black Wolves back up by six with 6:39 remaining in the third.

Adam Vitarelli found the back of the net with 18.3 seconds left in the quarter to start a four goal run by the Knighthawks over a three minute span to cut the New England lead to just two, 12-10, with 12:54 to play.

Leblanc scored his third of the night with 11:16 remaining to put the Black Wolves up 13-10, but Rochester again found the back of the net with 9:32 to play to cut it down to two again. Just over a minute later, Jackson Nishimura scored his first career NLL goal in transition to put the Black Wolves up 14-11.