Buffalo Bandits Escape Round One
The Buffalo Bandits defeated the San Diego Seals by a playoff record low score of 5-4 to advance to the semi-finals. It was a strange game as the winning goal came with one tenth of a second left in the first half. The Bandits finished the year scoring the most goals in the league, the Seals finished 5th. It didn’t appear that way during the game as the defense and goalies were the stars of the night.
The offense only scored 4 goals as Nick Weiss scored one in transition. Normally, I would consider this a cause for alarm. However, there are plenty of factors that go into such a low output by the offense. For one, the referees were not calling any penalties, which I will get to later, but this makes it much tougher on the offense than the defense. With the defense given the green light to hold players and be extra physical with no consequences, the offense is forced to play much harder with a lot less room to work with. Christopher Origlieri played an incredible game. The Bandits were not given many great opportunities, but the ones they did have were often met with an even better save by Orig. The Seals also took their typical defensive strategy to the max. San Diego used a full court press making the Bandits entries into the zone uncomfortable and forcing them to regroup with less time left on the shot clock. This strategy also cut down on nearly all of Buffalo’s transition opportunities. As much all of this sounds like excuses, I don’t believe they are. The offense will take a hard look at what they could have done better and make necessary adjustments. On the positive side of things, Josh Byrne hit the post what seemed like at least 4 times and Kyle Buchanan uncharacteristically missed three nearly empty net chances. A few inches here and there and the Bandits could have been sitting with closer to 10 goals without any adjustments. Another positive for the offense was the large amount of shot clock resets they were able to get both early and late in the game. These chances did not always amount to goals, but they did eat the clock, give the defense time to rest, and in the future, could result in more goals. Ian MacKay (2g, 0a) continued his hot season by leading the team with two goals. I am not sure where this team would be without him. It’s also worth noting the Chris Cloutier missed the game due to injury. I believe Clay Scanlan has gotten better as the season has gone on. However, given how physical this game was, I don’t believe he matched up well against the Seals defense. Despite only scoring 4 goals on offense, and none on the powerplay, I am not worried about this team in the slightest. The offense is too talented to be held down for long.
As great as Orig played in this game, the ageless wonder Matt Vinc was even better. It would be a disservice to his game to start this segment by talking about anyone else. We talked on the podcast about how playoff Vinc is a different animal. As great of a season as Vinc had, this was by far his best performance. Not only did Vinc allow just 3 goals until 1 second left in the game, on the penalty kill, when he allowed his 4th, but he also had a sparkling 92.3 save percentage. Even when Vinc had his personal best 62 save performance earlier in the season, his save percentage was “only” 91.1 percent. There are games where the defense is playing so well that the saves Vinc is asked to make are routine. While there were plenty of those saves in this game, there were countless big saves Vinc had to make to bail the team out and he was there every time. The defense played a great game as well. Sure, there were breakdowns where Vinc had to come up big, but for the most part the defense was aggressive and used great positioning to limit the Seals high quality chances. Cam Wyers had a solid performance. He was coming off a few rough performances and an injury in the third quarter of the final game of the season. Not only was it important that he played well, but it was important that he was able to play at all. Had he been forced to miss the game due to injury, MacKay may have had to shift back to defense. If that happened the offense would have been very thin. Wyers deserves a shout out for his gritty performance. The defense was able to block 17 shots. Assuming those would have been shots on goal, that would have given the Seals 69 shots in the game. That happens when they are down for the entire second half, but the defense and Vinc held on tight. I’ll say it again, essentially allowing only three goals for an entire game is impressive.
The power play continues to be an issue. They had a few great opportunities that were saved or missed, but in a low scoring game, even one goal on the power play could have made the difference. However, the Bandits did allow a golden opportunity for the Seals to score shorthanded, again, another aspect that needs to be fixed moving forward. The penalty kill did an incredible job. Technically the Seals scored once on the power play, but that was with one second left in the middle of a scramble. Priolo did a great job using a solo effort to draw a penalty while the Bandits were on a 5-on-3 penalty kill. It is those kinds of plays that can change a game.
The Buffalo Bandits escaped round one by one goal. That makes two seasons in a row that it has taken a one goal victory to advance out of the first round. That is the key word though, victory. They don’t ask how, they ask how many. The Bandits will need to bring their A game going up against a red-hot Vancouver Warriors team. If Vinc and the defense can continue playing like they did in this game, it will be tough to bet against Buffalo.
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.
Christopher Origlieri
Inside – 4
Mid-Range - 1
Outside –
Transition -
* goals were on the penalty kill
* empty net goals
Matt Vinc
Inside – 2
Mid-Range - 2
Outside –
Transition -
*1 of the goals was on the penalty kill
Goal 1 – Belter could have been a bit tighter with his coverage, but he was briefly picked as Currier finds enough room to pick the far post on Vinc
Goal 2 – A bit of a slow switch or miscommunication as Berg runs a pick and roll, receives the pass and quickly fires a shot on net. Not horrible defense as it needed a near perfect play to work and they got it.
Goal 3 – LeClaire came sprinting in from the bench and makes a nice fake shot move to get past John, gets inside and buries a nice goal (D)
Goal 4 – PP Goal - End of the game scramble, wish this didn’t go in simply to see Vinc finish with only 3 goals against, nice shot by Currier
0/4 on Vinc
0/4 on the defense
Challenges by the Bandits – None
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 – 0-3 on the PP
Seals – 1-5 on the PP
C. Fraser – Illegal Body Check – To me this should have been a change of possession call, not a penalty, especially with how the game was being refereed to that point. I can possibly see how the referee saw the head of the Seals player snap back making it appear to be a body check that hit the head, but upon review Fraser did not seem to contact the head. Chase seems to be picked on for these calls – bad call
D. Smith – Illegal Substitution – This is simply inexcusable. It was not even close and either the bench coaches or the player’s need to watch this much closer – good call
N. Weiss – Roughing - Weiss and DiCicco were going at each other, nice job by the refs pulling both players – good call
Z. Belter – Illegal Equipment – Listen to the podcast episode for a long rant by PK and me about this call, both in this game and throughout the league. Long story short, if the referees are being very strict this is the correct call. However, Belter quickly put his helmet back on and was not part of the main play, it could have been let go. It is also not fair to Belter, or Whitty later in the game, when the offensive player knocks their helmet off. It is simply a bad rule – goodish call
D. Robinson – Illegal Cross Checking – After being suspended just a game ago for an illegal cross check to the head, Robinson does it again. Robinson misses the empty net, Whitty misses the loose ball and then Robinson hits the Seals player in the head. He appeared to be going for the stick, not a cross check, so I could see this maybe have been let go with a minor penalty. Robinson better hope he does not get suspended again. He should have learned his lesson last time, and this once again was not the time or place for that kind of hit. The hit against Nanticoke seemed to hit shoulder first and then go to the head which, in my opinion, is why it was reduced to a two-minute minor. As for Robinson, his hit made direct contact with the head – good call
3.5/5 – good calls
Overall, I thought the referees did a great job. It took the Bandits a few minutes to realize the refs were keeping their whistles in their pockets, but once they did, they joined in on the physical play. I would much rather have a game with less calls, than a game with ticky tacky calls all game long, especially in playoffs.