Buffalo Bandits Start Spring Cleaning Early
Buffalo Bandits Earn Series Sweep Against Rochester
The Buffalo Bandits narrowly defeated the Rochester Knighthawks 15-14 to sweep the season series. The Bandits used an early lead and consistent offense to hang on for the victory. Outside of a four-goal run by the Bandits in the first quarter and a four-goal run by Rochester in the fourth quarter the game was back and forth. The game opened with each team getting a goal. That was the closest Rochester would be until their four-goal run in the fourth quarter allowed them to get within one.
The offense continues to look incredible. Coming into this game they were third in the league, averaging about twelve goals per game. They were able to score a modest 15 goals in this game and they needed every one of them. The key the last few games for the offense has been the ability to spread the scoring out among multiple players. Josh Byrne (3g, 4a) and Dhane Smith (2g, 4a) scored 5 of the 15 goals for the Bandits. If you look at Rochester, Connor Fields (4g, 5a) and Ryan Smith (5g, 6a) scored 9 of their 14 goals. It is great to have players that can score a lot, but it is better when you can get production across the board. The Bandits had five players with multiple goals.
Kyle Buchanan (3g, 1a) was the player of the night. Buchanan had six goals over the first seven games and was able to score three in this game alone. However, his play of the night came on the Bandits 15th goal of the game. With the shot clock down to only five seconds, Buchanan was able to fire a shot on net and scoop up his own rebound resetting the shot clock. Buchanan took the ball and passed it to Dhane Smith, who passed it to Cloutier, who scored the game winning goal. It is this kind of hustle and style of play that goes unnoticed and underappreciated around the league.
A player who played the first NLL game of his career, Christian Watts (0g, 1a), has a similar play style as Buchanan. He was consistently hustling on every shift. Even though he did not produce much in the stats department, he did a great job clearing lanes and setting picks for his teammates. It may not happen this season, but if Watts continues this style of play when he has the opportunity, and Buchanan retires, I can see Watts stepping into that role.
The defense continues to be a bit of an enigma. For the most part, I thought they played well. Two players for Rochester did most of their team’s damage. Last game, it was Ryan Smith and Kyle Waters. This game, it was Connor Fields and once again Ryan Smith. The Bandits did not stop Smith as much as I would have liked but Rochester did a nice job setting picks allowing Smith to consistently get open. The defense continues to have lapses throughout the game. This game, it did not seem as if it came in one specific stretch but multiple times in the game. Vinc continues to play at a high level. However, I do believe he is not making as many incredible, defense saving saves, as he made last year. Either the defense needs to tighten up, or Vinc needs to find some magic. This team cannot continue to allow 13 plus goals a game, as they have in their last four games.
I am going to leave special teams alone for this game and bring up an interesting point that was made in the press box. This season, the league changed the way five-minute majors are called. The league reviews every five-minute major to see if the call should stand as a five-minute major or be reduced to a two-minute minor. Because of this, there seems to be more five-minute major calls than ever before. I do not believe I have ever witnessed a five-minute major penalty on a goalie interference call but that is exactly what we saw in this game. There seems to be at least one five-minute major call or review every game. On one hand, it is great that the league is trying to eliminate these hits from the game by making more calls. On the other hand, they may have swung the needle a little too far in the other direction and are slowing the game down. It is the first year of this rule. I hope we will continue to see the league adjust it as time goes on.
The Bandits head into a bye week having won the first two of their four game stretch against top of the league opponents. After eight games the Bandits are fourth in the league. If they can win their next two games, against the Halifax Thunderbirds and Albany Firewolves, they will continue to put themselves in a good position for playoffs as we approach the halfway point of the season. The defense needs to tighten things up, the offense needs to keep rolling and Vinc needs to keep being Vinc. The Bandits don’t need to make many adjustments after the break but a few on defense wouldn’t hurt.
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 Hutchcraft
Inside – 6
Mid-Range - 4
Outside – 5
Transition - 2
*1 of the goals was on the penalty kill
Matt Vinc
Inside – 7
Mid-Range - 4
Outside – 3
*2 of the goals was on the penalty kill
1st goal – Wyers lost Smith in transition, nice in tight goal
2nd goal – The defense could not pick the ball up after a few chances and Fields scored in tight
3rd goal - PP goal – bad defense, allowed Fields to walk in uncontested without attacking the man, bad play by Wyers
4th goal – Long shot by Fields but it was a great shot
5th goal – Long shot at the end of the half, looked like Vinc was slightly out of position, should have had it
6th goal – Long shot by Smith, a nice pick by Waters gave Smith time and space, picked a corner
7th goal – Pick and roll led to an in tight opportunity that was buried, good goal
8th goal – Mid range shot by Smith through traffic, looked like a skipper off the turf
9th goal – Great pass by Lanchberry on an offensive rotation, defense left Smith open who was behind the net
10th goal – A nicely timed pick freed up Smith for a good look on net
11th goal – PP goal - A bad series of defense (three turnovers) led to a breakaway for Fields who buried it
12th goal – An unfortunate deflection off MacKay’s blocked pass, right to Waters who turned and fired
13th goal – Breakdown in defense allowed an in tight opportunity that snuck past Vinc
14th goal – Behind the back shot with a defender all over him, just a nice play with a bit of luck
2/14 on Vinc
6/14 on the defense
Challenges by the Bandits – 0
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 – 2-4 on the PP
Brandon Robinson – Tripping – The feet of Robinson got lightly tangled with the Rochester player. It did not seem intentional and did not look like tripping – bad call
Ian MacKay – Holding – This was unfortunate for MacKay. His stick got wedged between the Rochester player’s neck and arm which caused the hold – good call
Brandon Robinson – Holding – Another weak call against Robinson. I am not sure why they had it out for him in this game, but this was barely a hold, and it was far away from the net or interrupting the play in any way – bad call.
Nick Weiss – Roughing – Joe Post seemingly on accident, who knows, pushed his stick onto Nick Weiss’s neck and Weiss was having none of that. The second guy in is usually the one called for the penalty – good call
2/4 – good calls
I always find it hard to believe that a team has only one infraction the entire game, so I assume the referees missed a few calls on Rochester while getting Robinson on a couple of soft calls. However, only five calls all game and that I will accept.