The Buffalo Bandits Streak Reaches Lucky Number Seven
The Buffalo Bandits defeated the Rochester Knighthawks in a smothering 12 to 6 victory. Rochester came into the game fighting for their playoff hopes while Buffalo was looking to keep their fight for a home playoff game alive. It was Buffalo that came out looking like the more desperate team as they jumped out to a 4-1 lead before the first quarter was over, and Rochester had no response.
The offense looked great once again despite missing Tehoka Nanticoke who was out due to injury. The Bandits ran just six forwards and decided not to replace Tehoka on the right side. The offense did not skip a beat as they would get 7 goals past Rylan Hartley (42sv, 79.1%) in the first half alone. Hartley honestly played a great game. The score could have been much worse had he not made as many big saves as he did. Dhane Smith (2g, 5a) and Josh Byrne (3g, 4a) did what we’ve become a bit too accustomed to as both are fighting for the scoring title with one game to go. Ian MacKay (2g, 2a) continues his strong play as he has a new personal best single season point record with 58 points, good for third on the team. MacKay has been an understated part of this team as Chris Cloutier left a massive hole on the left side of the offense. For MacKay to not only reproduce what he was able to do last season on offense but beat it, cannot be talked about enough. MacKay’s offensive ability was no longer a secret heading into this season. He has missed a few games due to injury, has found himself on defense or at the very least split shifting and has still found a way to produce offensively at a high level. Joe Resetarits (1g, 2a) continues to integrate himself into the offense. Despite only scoring one goal in the game, he had plenty of great opportunities.
The defense could not be playing much better. Despite their recent struggles, the Knighthawks offense has remained a force scoring at least 10 goals in their previous four games. However, the Bandits defense and Matt Vinc (43sv, 87.8%) did something it has done multiple times in recent games and held Rochester to only six goals tying their lowest offensive output of the season. The Bandits defense also held the Saskatchewan Rush to seven goals tying their lowest output, and the Vancouver Warriors to only five goals, their worst performance of the season. Buffalo has only allowed more than 10 goals in a game one time in their last 9 games. They have an 8-1 record during that span. The Bandits second ranked penalty kill went up against the Knighthawks second ranked powerplay and they dominated. Rochester was given five powerplay opportunities but could only capitalize on one of them. The Bandits have every aspect of their game running like a finely tuned machine. Taylor Dooley (6lb, 2cto) was able to get his sixth start of the season as Nick Weiss was out of the lineup due to an injury. The more Dooley plays, the more he looks like he belongs on an NLL floor. He is a great reminder of how difficult it is for any younger player to crack the Bandits starting roster. That is no shot at him or his talent, but there are limited spots on a team that has been to five straight finals, winning the last three. In four games with the Philadelphia Wings, Lukas Nielsen has 11 goals and 4 assists. In the same number of games with Buffalo this season, Nielsen was only able to score 1 goal and add 4 assists for Buffalo. The talent hasn’t changed, but his role has. It is the same as Dooley. When he gets his chance to be a full-time defender for Buffalo, he has shown plenty in his limited opportunities to prove he can be the real deal for the Bandits.
The Buffalo Bandits continued their win streak and once again did it in a dominating fashion. It feels like a lifetime ago the Bandits were 4-6 deciding if they were going to be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline. Now, seven straight wins later, the Bandits are one win away from clinching a first round home playoff game. The Bandits may be on no one’s list of teams they want to see in the post-season, but having the single elimination game at home would be massive.
Goaltender Breakdown
In this segment, I will breakdown how the goalies, offense and defense all performed on the goals in the game. How many were impressive goals, breakdowns in the defense or on the goalie.
Rylan Hartley
Inside – 3
Mid-Range - 1
Outside – 7
Transition - 0
*1 of the goals was on the penalty kill
*1 empty net goals
Matt Vinc
Inside – 1
Mid-Range - 2
Outside – 3
Transition - 1
*1 of the goals was on the penalty kill
Goal 1 – De Snoo and Whitty are a little slow to switch on a nice play by Rochester that frees Williams for a hard outside shot
Goal 2 – Dylan Robinson looked a bit confused on who to cover giving Lanchbury time and space to whip a hard low shot (D)
Goal 3 – PP Goal – Great passing by the second-best power-play in the league just sneaks one past Vinc
Goal 4 – Transition Goal – Great passing by Rochester as Buffalo is caught a bit lost in transition and Piseno fires one past Vinc
Goal 5 – Williams sets a nice pick and Smith fires a tricky outside shot past Vinc
Goal 6 – Fields with an outside shot that pops up off Vinc and Blaze is there to slam home the rebound
0/6 on Vinc
1/6 on the defense
Challenges by the Bandits – 1/1
The Buffalo Bandits challenged what would have been the Knighthawks fourth goal of the game. Right off the face-off victory by Thompson, he gets a pass over to Piseno who just sneaks it past Vinc low and on top of the crease. However, Vinc gets enough of the ball to slow it down, and Piseno runs through the crease before it crosses the goal line. The referees correctly overturned the call to no goal.
Referee Corner
Like many of the fans out there, I find myself often questioning what the refs are doing on the field. From no goals and players being ejected, to calls that simply do not make sense. In this segment, I will attempt to use the rulebook and my best judgement to understand some hot topics from the previous game.
Bandits – 1-1 on the PP
Rochester – 1-5 on the PP
J. Byrne – Holding – Byrne wraps his hand around Williams shoulder and pulls him down. For how big and tough Zed is, he went down a bit easy, but it was the correct call – good call
D. Robinson – Slashing – I thought this was a bit of a weak call but Robinson did get his crosscheck up a bit high on McConvey – good call
D. Robinson – Unsportsmanlike Conduct – Robinson was unhappy with the call and chirped at the referee quite a bit earning his double minor – good call
S. Priolo – Slashing – Priolo takes a bit of a wild hack at Fields and catches him in the face – good call
M. McCannell – Delay of Game/Acting as a Goalie – McCannell was in the crease when he stuck his stick out in an attempt to block the shot. To me, this is not why the rule was created, but it is technically the correct call – good call
5/5 – good calls
The referees did a fine job in an otherwise rather uneventful game. The Bandits penalties were earned and Rochester wasn’t doing much to earn penalties of their own.