Round Two Revenge
The Buffalo Bandits defeated the Rochester Knighthawks in their second matchup of the season. The Bandits were down 1-5 early but stormed back to win 13-10. The win put the Bandits back on top of the East division. These two teams only meet twice this year making this win even more important as the first half of the season ends.
Often times in sports, games are broken down by a “tale of two halves”, for the Bandits it has been a tale of one very specific quarter. In their last three games, the Buffalo Bandits have outscored their opponent 20-5 in the third quarter alone. The Bandits have been tied or down at the halfway point in each of the last three games. However, coming out of the locker room and into the third quarter the Bandits often find themselves on the right side of a goal run. The game against Rochester was no different. I will admit, when the Bandits were down 1-5 early in the second quarter I was quite worried. The Knighthawks defense has looked impressive this year and Rylan Hartley is as talented as he is fun to watch. On the other side, the Buffalo Bandits came out flat and looked bad early in the game. Typically, a four-goal deficit is not too scary in the NLL but for a Bandits team without one of its best offensive weapons in Josh Byrne, it looked like a tough uphill battle. Luckily for Buffalo, the third quarter once again arrived in style. The Bandits were able to outscore Rochester 7-1 in the third quarter including a 6-goal run that started in the second quarter. At one point in the first half, the Bandits were being outshot 12-24 but with only four minutes remaining in the third quarter the Bandits had flipped it around and were outshooting the Knighthawks 41-32. After the third quarter, the Bandits were able to put away an impressive victory against a tough Knighthawks team.
The Bandits offense was forced to mix things up in this game playing without Josh Byrne for the first game all year. Even after this weekend of action has concluded, Byrne is still leading the league in goals while sitting fourth in the league in points. That is not an easy player to replace. The Bandits have needed to use their offensive depth all season and that continued again in this game. Outside of Dhane Smith, who we will discuss shortly, no Bandits player had more than two goals showing how spread out the scoring needed to be. The Bandits offense looked crisp and fast. They played a different style offense than we are used to seeing from them. It looked like they played a similar style to Rochester in this game using anyone and everyone to score a goal. It worked quite well. I am interested to see if they continue to use a similar style of offense when Byrne returns.
Dhane Smith…that is all that needs to be said. We mentioned it on the podcast, Rochester’s focus on defense in this game was finding a way to stop Dhane Smith. When Byrne is on the field, he compliments Dhane extremely well and gives the defense another alpha player to focus on. This gives both players more time and space. In this game, there was no Byrne and all Dhane was able to do was score four goals and add six assists. It seems like the reigning MVP is at the point where his achievements are overlooked and his disappointments are emphasized. In a way, this is where you want to be as a player. We have become accustomed to seeing Smith find a way to put up 31 points in three games, in the same way that we have become accustomed to seeing Matt Vinc play incredible night in and night out. When players reach this level, their accomplishments are overlooked because it becomes expected. It is only when Smith has a pedestrian five-point night or Vinc allows an inconceivable thirteen goals that we really take notice. Dhane Smith is an early favorite for MVP again and is on pace to break a few of his own NLL records. All said and done, I am very happy that Smith is a Buffalo Bandit.
The Buffalo Bandits were able to split the season series with the Rochester Knighthawks. After the first nine games of the season, the Bandits are sitting in first place in the East with a 7-2 record. The Bandits have fought through multiple injuries on offense this year. This game saw the Bandits go through their biggest injury yet in what was arguably the biggest game of the season so far. It is hard to imagine what this team could look like if Josh Byrne, Chris Cloutier and Chase Fraser all return healthy later in the season. The defense is coming together well and the offense has been a pleasant surprise finding new ways to score each game. It feels good to be back on top.
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 – 5
Outside – 8
*1 goal was on the penalty kill
Matt Vinc
Inside – 3
Outside – 7
*2 of the goals were on the penalty kill
Goal 1 – penalty kill, good shot inside by Hoggarth
Goal 2 – impressive fade away jumper by Smith
Goal 3 – bad defense leaving Fields wide open in front
Goal 4 – what the fluff defense, allowed Knight to literally run past the entire defense and get inside
Goal 5 – Vinc was screened by four players with a good shot from Fields
Goal 6 – Smith with another great outside shot, tough save but might have wanted it
Goal 7 – Smith again with a snipe, another one Vinc might want but another great shot
Goal 8 – Fields guarded by Buchanan was a mismatch, good shot by Fields
Goal 9 – Another good outside shot, Vinc likely wants that one back
Goal 10 – Empty net, this is a goal Vinc absolutely wants back
Vinc finished the game with 47 saves and played great. The defense as a whole played very well. Occasionally they allowed some great in tight opportunities but they were rare. My biggest criticism of the defense is not closing in and challenging outside shots quick enough.
The offense was kept a bit more to the outside this game but still had a nice variety of inside goals as well. The depth on the offense showed off once again with no Josh Byrne in the lineup. Given everything the Bandits offense was dealing with they looked great.
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
Knighthawks – 2-3 on the PP
Bryce Sweeting – slashing – Sweeting had a nice body check on Fields as Fields went into the crease after a shot on Vinc. After Fields was down Sweeting slashed Fields in the head for no reason – good call
Steve Priolo – Unsportsmanlike Conduct – Long story short, the man is officially marked after last game. He will need to stay as Zen as possible the next few games to take some of the heat off him – no idea
Bryce Sweeting – checking from behind – Sweeting came off the bench and checked Smith from behind, it was obvious – good call
Adam Bomberry – slashing – this was not on video but watching it live I thought this was a weak call. I am not sure what the refs have against Bomberry but he seems to be called on penalties that do not seem like penalties – bad call
Two of the three calls against the Bandits were the correct calls. On the other side, in a game this physical I find it incredibly hard to believe the Knighthawks only had one infraction the entire game. I remember watching a few plays live that seemed like obvious penalties against the Knighthawks that were not called.
Breakdown of the Bryce Sweeting Check from Behind
Rule 76: CHECKING FROM BEHIND - A check from behind is a check made on the back of the body. When a player intentionally turns his body to create contact with his back, no penalty shall be assessed. The 99 League may at their discretion, review any penalty assessed under this rule.
76.1 MINOR PENALTY - The referee, at his discretion, may assess a minor penalty, based on the degree of violence to the player who is guilty of checking from behind.
The definition of the minor penalty is exactly where the penalty comes from. Players are checked in the back on a lot of plays throughout the game. The penalty is assessed when the violence of the hit takes it to a level that deserves a penalty. In this case it was an obvious check from behind with the player not seeing it coming and getting hit hard. Do I believe there were other plays, made by Rochester players against the Bandits, that could have been called penalties? Yes, yes I do, but in the end, there were only three penalties called against the Bandits and zero called in the entire second half.