On a night when the Rochester defense all but shut down Toronto's high-octane attack, Phil Sanderson scrambled home a late winner and John Rosa added some insurance on a breakaway from his own zone as the Rock bagged the East Division championship with a hard-fought 12-10 win over the Knighthawks.

Josh Sanderson, Brian Beisel and Nick Trudeau had two goals each for the winners, in front of an announced crowd of 17,289 at the Air Canada Centre. John Grant and Scott Evans scored hat tricks for the visitors.

Chris Driscoll got the home side on the board first three minutes in, snagging and converting a looping lollipop blooper off the backboards. Grant tied the game for Rochester at the midpoint of the period, beating Bob Watson in the Toronto net with a hard step-in shot from the restraining line.

Nick Trudeau -- whose moves are amazingly similar to Jim Veltman's if you watch him out of the corner of your eye -- put the Rock back in front with a running step-around shot that baffled Pat O'Toole in the K-Hawk cage. Evans quickly tied it on a thirty-five-foot rip that hit the post -- and Watson -- before going in.

Sandy Chapman scored Toronto's third on the doorstep at 11:29, finishing off a superb needle-threading pass from Aaron Wilson. Knighthawk defensive whiz and team MVP Andy Turner closed the quarter with a controversial goal. He beat Watson clean on the breakaway, then crashed hard into the goalie. He was assessed a penalty, yet somehow the goal counted. Rule 49-D if anyone wants to check it. See also my game story from Rochester two weeks ago.

3-3 tie after one.

The Knighthawks were finally able to gain some advantage after the break. Grant got them going at 2:15, racing off the bench to snag O'Toole's perfect downfloor pass, a carbon copy of the goal that beat Colorado in the regular-season finale.

Josh Sanderson retied the game with a forty-foot, head-on slot bomb at 2:54, but then former Rock transition star Steve Toll reintroduced himself to the ACC faithful with a brilliant goal for Rochester. Snagging a loose ball at full speed midfloor, he needed to put three moves on the referee just to get past him, before racing home to bury the ball in the net behind Watson. Grant soon gave the K-Hawks a 6-4 lead with a look-what-I-found rebound conversion at 6:14.

Rock scoring stars Blaine Manning and Colin Doyle were each held to single goals tonight. They both came now, knotting the game at six. Manning zipped home a high backhander in traffic at 8:24, and Doyle touched off a thirty-foot diagonal boom job at 11:06.

But it would be the Knighthawks who would carry the lead into the dressing room, after Evans caught Rock captain Jim Veltman wrong-footed and scored from in close.

7-6 Rochester at the half.

Evans needed less than a minute to build on the lead after the restart, cashing in a hard sidearmer. It was all Rock the rest of the quarter, though. Brian Beisel cashed in a shorthander out in front, following some great -- and ultimately uncredited -- transition work from Sandy Chapman.

Trudeau tied the game -- again -- at 6:35 when he blazed one right through O'Toole. Josh Sanderson put Toronto back in front with a short diagonal scoring shot on the power play, and Beisel got his second on a floor-length breakaway, fed by a perfect pump pass from John Rosa.

10-8 Rock after three.

But this contest was far from won. Shawn Williams brought the Knighthawks back to only one goal down when he zipped one over Watson's left shoulder following a perfect long-bomb pass from Toll. That took just 28 seconds, and was followed by eight grinding minutes of scoreless, high-tension lacrosse.

With Rochester pouring on the pressure, Rock goalie Bob Watson was rising brilliantly to the occasion. But Doyle, Manning, Sanderson and Wilson were getting nowhere against the pounding, incessant attention of the Rochester defense.

The big play, when it came, was one for the ages. Chris Driscoll snagged a loose ball in the Rock end, and took off for glory. Throwing caution onto a trash truck bound for Michigan (local joke, sorry), two of his teammates took off after him. O'Toole slammed the door, only to find three Toronto defensive players entrenched on his doorstep, hacking hard for rebounds.

Phil Sanderson, leaping high, snags the ball and slams it goalward. It hits the floor, the post, O'Toole's leg - and rolls in for what ends up being the game-winning goal. Not long after, John Rosa goes coast-to-coast for the insurance goal. Williams gets one back for Rochester right at the end, but it's never going to be enough and the Rock win.

NOTES:

Uncannily similar to the Rock's 2002 championship-game win in Albany against the Attack. In both games, inspired opposing defense throttled the Toronto offense. That day, it was Darryl Gibson, Dan Ladouceur and Drew Candy. This time, is was Beisel, Rosa and Phil Sanderson. Sandy Chapman, a surprise starter in both games, scored in both games.

This was also Terry Sanderson's first NLL playoff win behind the bench. Whatever happens in the title game against Arizona, it won't be his last.

Onward!

Ben Knight is lacrosse and soccer columnist for Sportsnet.ca.