A Win is a Win…Right?

The Buffalo Bandits defeated the New York Riptide in a nail biting overtime victory. All PK and I have been asking for these last few months is a convincing victory. The Riptide are not a good team. They will not be making playoffs this year, their defense is average and they have one incredible offensive stud. The Bandits had every opportunity to run away with this game and get their season back on track. However, once again it took extra time to defeat an inferior opponent. 

I know most people would like me to start by talking about the offensive performance. I am not going to do that. I think this game is the perfect example of a player being overlooked. That player is Matt Vinc. I understand that Cameron Dunkerley was going up against the seemingly better offense. I understand that he is playing in only the ninth game of his career. Vinc and Dunkerley battled it out all night, finishing the game with 47 saves each. As previously stated, the Bandits won this game in overtime. Yet, the goalie being talked about is Dunkerley and the players being talked about are Josh Byrne and Dhane Smith while Vinc puts up yet another solid performance in goal. According to my estimation, Vinc allowed only two goals that he possibly should have saved. Outside of that, the defense let him down as the Riptide scored nine of their ten goals from in tight. I am not saying Vinc would ever ask for credit for this victory or the Bandits 12-4 record while the offense has been falling apart, but he deserves a lot of it. 

Speaking of perfect examples, there is another big one from this game. Here at the BSC we have our feelings about face-offs. For the most part, we feel they do not make a large impact on the game. However, there are situations in the game that are critical to having a face-off specialist like Max Adler. Adler has done an excellent job this year either winning face-offs or not allowing the other team to win them cleanly giving the Bandits time to get the correct personnel on the field. There were two critical face-offs late in this game. After Dhane Smith scored the game-tying goal with 29 seconds left, Adler was able to pass the following faceoff to McKay for a Bandits timeout and final possession. In overtime, Adler was able to win the first faceoff cleanly once again allowing the Bandits to call a timeout and set up an offensive opportunity. Neither of these chances resulted in goals for the Bandits but at the same time, it did not allow the Riptide the final offensive opportunity of the game or the first in overtime. It is these situations where it is great to have a player like Adler (the heavyweight player of the game) on the Bandits. 

Let us shift gears and move over to the offensive side of the floor. There were plenty of things to be excited about from what the offense was able to do in this game. One of the most encouraging things I noticed was the amount of physical picks being set by Brad McCulley and Sam La Roue. A few times the picks were a little too physical and they were called for an illegal pick. However, from what we have seen from the offense recently I will take that in this style of game. As previously mentioned Dunkerley played out of his mind in this game. He made plenty of great saves to keep the Riptide in the game all the way until the overtime winner by Byrne. The offense also hit the post many times. They had a decent mix of inside and outside goals but occasionally were forced to the outside too often against a weaker defense. I thought they did a good job trying to move the ball around and move players around as well. The team was a bit sloppy here and there with catching passes and picking up simple loose balls. Luckily, it did not cost them in this game but it will in a game against a team like the Toronto Rock. 

The biggest concern for the offense right now, outside of Brandon Robinson being done for the year, is how top heavy it is. Tehoka Nanticoke has played in only 11 of 16 games this season. He is still fourth on the team in points. Dhane Smith leads the team with an incredible 119 points. Josh Byrne is second with 79 points. Before the season started, I would not have picked Kyle Buchanan to be third on the team in points (51 points) 16 games into the season but thank goodness he is here. As the season winds down Chris Cloutier, Chase Fraser and hopefully Tehoka Nanticoke need to get on a roll quickly if this team is going to have a chance at the title. The depth scoring is going to be a critical part of this team’s success. I would not be at all surprised to see a higher paced transition game with Ian MacKay as he has continued to prove he can be a useful offensive weapon.  

Dhane Smith finished the game with 11 points as the Bandits scored 11 goals. During our pregame show, I joked with PK that the Bandits would score 13 goals and that Dhane would have 13 points. I was not far off. It is incredible what he continues to do for this team. We saw two potential MVP finalists battle it out head to head between Jeff Teat and Dhane Smith. To me, as great as Teat is, Smith won this battle. It is not too often you can get a point on every goal your team scores. On top of that, with only 29 seconds remaining in the game, Dhane called his own number to get the game-tying goal and send it to overtime. Moments like that define a team and potential league MVP. 

The Bandits made it through yet another challenge with a victory. Next is the biggest challenge of the entire season. The Toronto Rock roll into town in a season deciding game. We all know what happened the last time these two teams met. It is up to the Bandits to prove that that was a onetime fluke. This game will set the pace for the remaining game of the season and playoffs. With a win, the Bandits have an opportunity to take first place in the league. With a loss, there will likely be more questions than answers headed into the post season. The march to May continues this Saturday and it is a big one.  

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.        

Cameron Dunkerley 

Inside – 5  

Outside – 6  

*1 goal was on the penalty kill             

Matt Vinc         

Inside – 9 

Outside – 1 

*1 goal was on the penalty kill            

Goal 1 – Quick transition goal, poor defense  

Goal 2 – Jeff Teat is really good 

Goal 3 – Defense, what the fluff was that 

Goal 4 – Teat with a beautiful pass to Sundown behind the net for the dunk 

Goal 5 – Teat picked the pass and set up a great transition goal 

Goal 6 – PP goal 

Goal 7 – Great shot by Burke 

Goal 8 – Tough angle inside shot that I thought Vinc should have had 

Goal 9 – Great pass by Teat, good goal by Kearnan 

Goal 10 – Transition goal, possibly could have been saved but a good shot 

2/10 on Vinc    

Vinc finished the game with 47 saves and had an incredible bounce back from the Toronto loss a couple of weeks ago. The defense allowed a few too many transition and in close opportunities.  

The offense played its best game in a long time. I understand they only scored 11 goals and 10 in regulation. However, they had 58 shots on goal, hit quite a few posts and Dunkerley played outstanding for NY.     

Challenges 1  

The Bandits challenged an Ian McKay crease dive and won it. It was only the second goal of the game but ended up meaning a lot. His foot did not look all that close to the crease so I am surprised the ref right there called it in the crease but that is why they have the ability to challenge. 

1/1   

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 – 1-3 on the PP       

Halifax – 1-2 on the PP              

Dalton Sulver – Slashing –– Sulver was trying to hit the player’s stick but accidentally missed and got the players face instead - good call         

Ethan O’Connor – Holding – First off, this should have been an 8-second violation on NY before the penalty occurred. I froze the image on the replay and NY was not over the line when the time was at 21 seconds, but I digress. Second, I do not agree this was holding. I do not think anything illegal happened on this play except maybe the fact that the NY player hit Vinc on his dive into the crease.  

1/2 – good calls      

Overall, I thought the refs did a good job in this game. They stayed hands off and a few times called penalties on both players to keep the game five on five. I do think the late play against Byrne was a holding penalty but every referee misses a play here and there. That one did seem obvious but it is what it is.