Shawn Williams led the way with six goals as the Rochester Knighthawks rallied back with five goals in the final five minutes to oust the Toronto Rock, 13-11, Friday night, winning in Toronto for the first time in team history and clinching a home playoff game next week against the Buffalo Bandits.

Aaron Wilson bagged four goals for the Rock, who went down before a sellout crowd of 18,821.

It was an extraordinary finish to what had seemed, for most of the night, to be a pretty straight-forward lacrosse game. The Knighthawks were hanging in, but seemed to have been fairly and professionally defeated. The Rock just don't blow big leads at home in the dying moments. Or do they?

Toronto started very well, building a 3-0 lead in the opening ten minutes. Rookie Marc Landriault got it going with a high-slot screener, converting a nice pass from Blaine Manning.

Wilson then made it 2-0, cashing in a power-play goal from just off the left post. Seconds later, Wilson struck again, beating Knighthawk netkeep Pat O'Toole off another nice feed from Manning.

Chris Schiller got the quarter's only goal for Rochester, sprung to beat Bob Watson on a blazing counterbreak by a heads-up downfloor outletter from defender Andy Turner.

3-1 Rock after one.

No more scoring till the midway point of the new quarter, when Williams opened his account running into the slot and scoring, capping some excellent sustained pressure by the K'Hawks.

But then Rochester took a penalty, and their generally excellent man-down unit could do nothing but watch as the Rock completed five passes in five seconds before Wilson zipped home his hat trick goal, once again from just off the left post.

The Knighthawks the lost young scoring sparkplug Scott Evans, who was cut for stitches, beaten to the floor and cold-cocked in an ugly fight with Rock defender dan Ladouceur. They rallied, though, with Williams netting an eye-popping behind-the-shoulder running gem of a goal as 12:06.

Just nineteen seconds later, Ryan O'Connor tied the game with a looping run through the Toronto defence, essentially right off the draw.

But the Rock power play stuck again just before the break, scoring low to the inside post.

5-4 Toronto at the half.

The Rock pressed hard early, and built what should have been a decisive lead. Sandy Chapman delighted the home crowd with a twisting, all-hustle scoring run from center. Then Manning worked hard to sneak around a defender, wicketing O'Toole from in close.

Five minutes in, Kim Squire broke free on a breakaway for the Knighthawks, only to have Watson shut him down. Next time down the floor, a surging Williams scored on the run from the doorstep, cutting Toronto's lead to 7-5.

Back came the Rock. Manning squibbed one home off O'Toole's foot at 8:21, and then Colin Doyle scored yet another of his unorthodox originals. Completely blocked out by two defenders, he somehow muscled home a wheeling underhand bouncer.

Mat Giles answered for Rochester, and then Kim Squire scored a beaut of his own. The former Kid Rock snagged a loose ball in the corner, wove his way to the right point, twisted two defenders until they formed a double screen, then fired over both of them, baffling Watson with a truly wonderful goal.

9-7 Rock after three.

Glenn Clark put the Rock three-up, coaxing one home from right out front. Tim Soudan responded with a 25-foot diagonal scoring rip for Rochester, but Aaron Wilson answered right back -- surprise, surprise -- from the left post on the power play.

Three up, five minutes to go. Cue the roof, which fell in on the defending champs.

• Shawn Williams, scoring with a tight-angle rip at 10:42.
• Mat Giles, neatly over Watson's left shoulder at 11:01.
• Williams, tying the game from way out at 11:31. The shot hit Watson and dropped just over the line.
• Williams, winning the game at 12:09, snaking unmolested down the middle, scoring with one hand!
• Chris Schiller into an empty net, 14:50.

Goalie O'Toole tried to add one more, but the buzzer went off and his shot eventually kicked wide.

Wow! Makes you wonder what might happen two weeks from now, if these teams meet again for the East Division championship.

Ben Knight is lacrosse columnist for Sportsnet.ca.

BOX SUMMARY
                                      1  2  3  4     TOT
Rochester Knighthawks (8-8)           1  3  3  6  --  13
Toronto Rock (10-6)                   3  2  4  2  --  11

ROCHESTER KNIGHTHAWKS         TORONTO ROCK
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS
S Williams     6 - 2     8    Manning        2 - 5     7
Giles          2 - 2     4    A Wilson       4 - 1     5
O'Connor       1 - 3     4    J Veltman      0 - 5     5
D Malawsky     0 - 4     4    Doyle          1 - 3     4
Schiller       2 - 1     3    Millin         1 - 2     3
Soudan         1 - 2     3    Coyle          0 - 3     3
Hoar           0 - 2     2    Chapman        1 - 1     2
Penny          0 - 2     2    G Clark        1 - 0     1
K Squire       1 - 0     1    Landriault     1 - 0     1
Hollenbeck     0 - 1     1    Suddons        0 - 1     1
O'Toole        0 - 1     1    
Turner         0 - 1     1    

Shots on goal           46    Shots on goal           53
Saves made by (GA)      42    Saves made by (GA)      33
   O'Toole (11)      42          Watson (12)       33
                                 TEAM (1)           0
Penalties                8    Penalties                8
Penalty Minutes         22    Penalty Minutes         22
Power Play Chances       5    Power Play Chances       5
Power Play Goals         3    Power Play Goals         4
   S Williams         2          A Wilson           3
   Giles              1          Millin             1
Shorthanded Goals        0    Shorthanded Goals        1
   (None)                        Doyle              1
Loose Balls             78    Loose Balls             65
   Hoar              10          Toll              10
   D Malawsky        10          J Veltman          7
   Schiller           9          Coyle              6
                                 Gibson             6
                                 Millin             6
Faceoffs Won            11    Faceoffs Won            18
   Hoar         ( 7-13)          Millin       (12- 6)
   Thorpe       ( 4- 5)          Toll         ( 6- 5)

   *** STATS OFFICIAL BY VERIFY WITH TORONTO ROCK ***