The Buffalo Bandits Are Not Dead Yet

The Buffalo Bandits held on to beat the Halifax Thunderbirds by a score of 11-10. It wasn’t the prettiest victory, but the Bandits did what they had to do to keep their season alive. Everyone on the field was pitching in as the Bandits scored in transition, shorthanded, and even Cam Wyers scored his third career goal on an impressive crease dive. Buffalo was leading 8-5 at half time and were on their way to a dominant victory, but Drew Hutchison shut the door allowing Halifax to stay alive while tying the game 10-10 with 3:43 remaining in the game. It would take a Dhane Smith shorthanded game winning goal at the 2:25 mark for the Bandits to steal the game from Halifax.  

The offense is a bit tricky to breakdown in this game. Halifax was allowing exactly 10 goals per game, good for 5th in the league, headed into this matchup. The Thunderbirds offense has been the reason the team is struggling, not defense or goaltending. In theory, the Bandits scoring 11 goals should sound like a win. In some ways, it was. Josh Byrne (2g, 3a) looked more like himself than we have seen since the game against the Las Vegas Desert Dogs. After being held to no goals last game, he was able to not only score twice, but the first of his two goals was a vintage jab step to beat his man and crease dive to score the goal. We have not seen a goal like that from Byrne in quite some time. Hopefully this is a good sign of things to come. The Bandits need Dhane Smith (1g, 6a) and Byrne to play at elite levels now more than ever. As for the rest of the offense, it was an evenly spread-out night of production. Ian MacKay (1g, 5a) was second on the team in points while double shifting on offense and defense. Tehoka Nanticoke (2g, 0a), Ryan Benesch (1g, 0a), Clay Scanlan (1g, 1a) and Kyle Buchanan (1g, 1a) all pitched in as well. The offense as a whole looked better in this game. They were able to chase out one of the better goalies in the league this year in Warren Hill and there were plenty of great scoring opportunities that were shut down by Hutchison. However, there is still plenty of room for improvement. The team needed a shorthanded goal and goals by Matt Spanger and Cam Wyers to reach 11. If this team wants to not only compete for playoffs, but compete for a championship, they need everything they had in this game and more. Hopefully the offense can continue to improve with a game against the Vancouver Warriors looming.  

As for the defense, I was once again not overly impressed. If it weren’t for Matt Vinc (41sv, 80.5sv%) playing as well as he did, this team likely would have lost the game. 7 of the 10 goals came from on top of the crease. What used to be a strength for Buffalo is now a weakness. The last three games teams have found ways to beat the Bandits down low with not enough back side help and players being left alone on an island. Entering this game, Halifax had only scored double digit goals in two of their eight games this season, and zero of their last three games. Allowing 10 goals, including needing 3 goals in the fourth to get there, isn’t the worst thing in the world, but I simply didn’t see much improvement from the last game. The Philadelphia Wings and the Thunderbirds are the two lowest scoring teams in the league, and Buffalo allowed both to reach double digit goals. This defense is simply too talented to allow bad offenses to beat them the way they are. Mitch de Snoo looked incredible in his return, leading the team with 14 loose balls. He was all over the floor in a good way. Only a handful of times did he show signs of this being his first game back from an injury. The defense needs to find a way to figure out their issues and fast. It only gets harder from here. On the positive side, the penalty kill was a massive factor in this game holding the Thunderbirds to one goal on five opportunities including a two-minute minor to de Snoo with only 3 minutes left in the game.  

The Buffalo Bandits were halfway down in the grave after their loss to the Wings. Now, they are climbing out. The schedule becomes a gauntlet that no team in the league would want to go through. However, if there is a team that can pull together and win a few games that maybe they aren’t supposed to, it’s the Bandits. This championship caliber roster is still capable when they put it all together. Maybe this win was just the one they needed to get their season back on track.  

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.          

Warren Hill 

Inside – 6 

Mid-Range - 1 

Outside – 0 

Transition - 2 

*1 goals were on the penalty kill      

*0 empty net goals  

Drew Hutchinson 

Inside – 2 

Mid-Range - 1 

Outside – 1 

Transition - 1 

*0 goals were on the penalty kill      

*0 empty net goals  

Matt Vinc           

Inside – 7 

Mid-Range - 2 

Outside – 1 

Transition - 1 

*0 of the goals were on the penalty kill        

Goal 1 – The Bandits defense gives up on a shot clock a bit early and loses form as Petterson gets a shot off and Staats gets the wide open rebound (D) 

Goal 2 – Wyers gets beat by Staats on a fake shot and who fires a twisting bouncer between Vinc’s legs, probably one he should have been able to pinch off (V) 

Goal 3 – During 4-on-4 play Halifax set up an excellent 2-on-1 transition goal 

Goal 4 – Jamieson goes 1-on-1 with Smith who was caught on defense and after a low fake shot gets Vinc moving, he fires a high to low shot that just gets past Vinc 

Goal 5 – De Snoo can’t keep up with Petterson who cuts across the middle and fires a hard low shot that gets under Vinc 

Goal 6 – Knox beats Dawson 1-on-1 and just sneaks it past Vinc on the inside (D) 

Goal 7 – PP Goal – Behind the back pass by Staats to Petterson who just gets it past a moving Vinc on the quick stock 

Goal 8 – Vinc goes after a loose ball just outside of the crease. He is unable to retrieve the ball and gets beat by Keogh who scoops the loose ball and wraps around the net before Vinc can make it back to the other side of the net (V) 

Goal 9 – Bowhunter with time and space fires a low side missile that beats Vinc 

Goal 10 – Bandits were on a 4-on-3 power play and they allow Keogh to get up from the ground with the ball, he goes 1-on-1 with Vinc who makes the save and then Knox follows up, grabs the rebound and buries it (D) 

2/10 on Vinc      

3/10 on the defense    

Challenges by the Bandits – 3/3 

Buffalo challenged the good goal call for what would have been Halifax’s third goal. Peterson was stepping through the crease before he released the shot. The referees correctly overturned the call. 

Buffalo challenged the no goal call for what would have been Buffalo’s fourth goal. Nanticoke was able to scoop the loose ball with one hand on his stick while keeping his feet out of the crease and buried the goal. The referees correctly overturned the call.  

Buffalo challenged the no goal call for what would have been Buffalo’s sixth goal. Byrne made a great move to get inside and scored a goal that clearly crossed the line but shot out of the net quickly. The referees correctly overturned the call.  

Auto challenge by the referees with conflicting calls for what would have been Buffalo’s ninth goal. Wyers had a great crease diving goal after flying out of the penalty box. His foot was clearly out of the crease, and the ball easily crossed the line. The referees made the correct call for a good 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 – 1-4 on the PP         

Thunderbirds – 1-5 on the PP              

J. Byrne – Tripping – Tripping or holding either way Byrne took the player down. I thought it was a necessary penalty that ended up working in his favor as the Bandits killed off the penalty – good call 

N. Weiss – Slashing – Weiss got a bit aggressive on defense and took three healthy slashes at the Halifax player – good call 

Not Sure – Illegal Substitution - This was too difficult to find on the video, so we’ll give it to the referees, but it was weird that Halifax had the ball and they called the penalty anyway – good call 

C. Wyers – Holding – Wyers rips the Halifax player’s stick out of his hand, even if it was dropped a bit easily, the referees will call that every time – good call 

M. de Snoo – Holding – This was a poorly called penalty. Simply an incredible move and stick check by de Snoo. It was so good it looked like a penalty – bad call  

4/5 – good calls     

Outside of the goal calls that had to be challenged by the Bandits, and the holding call against de Snoo the referees did a nice job in a heated game.