Buffalo Bandits Plow Through Rochester Knighthawks

The Buffalo Bandits defeated the Rochester Knighthawks 15-13 in what started as a high scoring affair and turned into a defensive battle. They say lacrosse is a game of runs and it was proven once again in this game. Personally, I consider a run when a team scores three or more goals in a row. At the same time, I think it is important to stop a two-goal run before it gets to three or more. In this game, Buffalo had runs of three, three and ended the game on a five-goal run. The Knighthawks only had one five-goal run and scored the only two goals in the third quarter. It was the Bandits last run of five goals that allowed them to not only tie the game but also take the lead. A lead they would not give up the rest of the game.

No Brad McCulley, no problem for the offense. In all honesty, I do think the Bandits will miss McCulley and it is sad to see him go. However, Brandon Robinson did a nice job stepping back into the pick role on the left side of the offense. If you watch Brandon closely, he is a player that does not give up on plays and works very hard. He was able to score one goal and had one assist. I think this was a good feeling out game for him. I understand he has played a few shifts here and there on offense, but this was his first game back on offense full-time. Next game, I expect Robinson and the left side of the offense to take another step forward. The rest of the offense played as expected. Josh Byrne (3g, 3a, 17sog) and Dhane Smith (0g, 6a) once again led the team in scoring with Chris Cloutier (3g, 2a) close behind. Smith is still struggling to score with 7 shots on goal and zero goals to show for it. Chase Fraser is letting it rip and scored two goals on 11 shots. Cloutier scored three goals on only four shots. Now, that is an unrealistic pace to keep up, but it would be nice if other players could raise their shooting percentages up just a smidge. I would also like to see Tehoka Nanticoke (2g, 0a) find a way to become more of a staple on this offense. He has too much talent to only have two points in a 15-goal game. If the right side of the offense could find a way to work off each other in similar ways to the left side, this team would be a bit more balanced.

Normally this is the time I talk about the defense, and I will get to that. But first, I want to talk about one player specifically. Ian MacKay is off to another incredible start to the season. MacKay currently has 3 goals and five assists for eight points, to go along with fifty loose balls, seven caused turnovers and has taken over 113 face offs. Last year, here at the Buffalo Sports Collective, we believed he deserved to be among the transition players of the year. This year, adding faceoffs to his already incredible resume has raised his game to another level. He may only be winning thirty percent of them, but he does not allow the opposing players to win them cleanly. He is one of the most important and valuable players on this team. I do not believe he gets quite the attention he deserves for what he does on a game-by-game basis. As for the defense, they struggled in the first half. They were allowing too much time and space for the Rochester shooters to walk in and fire uncontested shots at Matt Vinc. In the second half, they tightened everything up and only allowed one late game 5-on-5 goal. The other two goals were on the powerplay. Quite the turnaround after allowing 10 goals in the first half. Despite allowing thirteen goals, I thought Vinc had quite a good game. There were only one or two goals that I thought he might want back. Other than that, either his defense let him down, Rochester was very good, or he was making big one on one saves. According to LaxMetrics, Vinc saved eight of nine 1v1 opportunities against Rochester. He is currently second in the league with a .758 save percentage in 1v1 opportunities.

The Buffalo Bandits power play unit continues to roll as one of the best in the league. In this game they finished with two goals on three chances. The penalty kill on the other hand struggled allowing four goals on six chances. This is an obvious statement, but the Bandits need to do a better job of staying out of the box. In the last four games the Bandits have given up 26 power play chances to opposing teams. This included two five-minute majors in separate games. The team needs to try to do a better job of limiting the opposing chances to three or four a game, not five or six or seven. However, both special teams' units are still doing a good job.

The Bandits win over Rochester was a nice statement victory against a good team. The game started a bit rough for both teams, but the Bandits did a great job coming on strong in the second half to earn the victory. Matt Vinc and the defense found a way to almost completely eliminate the Rochester attack in the second half allowing just one even strength goal. The offense went on a great five goal run to pull ahead and seal the victory. The Bandits schedule does not get much easier over the next five games after the New York Riptide. There are a lot of critical matchups on the horizon, but the Bandits cannot overlook their next game. With the unified standings, every win 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.

Riley Hutchcraft

Inside – 5

Mid-Range - 2

Outside – 3

*1 goal was on the penalty kill

Matt Vinc

Inside – 3

Mid-Range - 4

Outside – 4

*2 of the goals were on the penalty kill

*2 goals on delayed penalties

Goal 1 – Great inside goal, great feed

Goal 2 – PP goal, low bounce shot but one Vinc possibly could have saved if he saw it better

Goal 3 – Quick pass and shot, Priolo was running across Vinc as the shot came in

Goal 4 – Rebound goal by Gilray, bang bang play, nice goal

Goal 5 – 6v5 by Rochester, Waters was able to walk in and take a hard shot

Goal 6 – Fields with a great shot from the outside, puts it in the only spot it could go in

Goal 7 – Bad end of quarter scramble, nice change of angle shot fooled Vinc

Goal 8 – Great goal by Smith

Goal 9 – PP goal, great high shot

Goal 10 – Defense seemed confused on the play, no one challenged Waters, nice shot

Goal 11 – PP goal, nice bounce shot from the outside

Goal 12 – PP goal, Fields with a hard high shot

Goal 13 – McConvey with a great solo effort and a twist shot

1/13 on Vinc

2/13 on the defense

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 – 2-3 on the PP

Rochester – 4-6 on the PP

Dylan Robinson – Goaltender Interference – After Dylan scored his goal he ran through the crease and into Hutchcraft. Normally, you would like to see Robinson run across the crease, not at the angle he took – good call

Josh Byrne – Goaltender Interference – This call was not as clear cut as the first one. Hutchcraft came sliding out of his net and Byrne attempted to dive over Hutchcraft to avoid hitting him. However, I understand the referees wanting to play it safe and make the call – good call

Ian MacKay – Roughing – MacKay got hit into the boards very hard by Rees. MacKay retaliated and that was the penalty. Both players went to the box – good call

Nick Weiss – Roughing – While still on the bench, Weiss grabbed a Rochester player who was on the field. The Rochester player went to hit MacKay from behind in the scrum, Weiss was trying to defend him – good call

Emerson Clark – Illegal Cross Check – This looked more like an illegal body check, but Clark got up high on an unnecessary hit – good call

Cam Wyers – High Sticking – I was a little surprised this was upheld after the review. Wyers had a stick/body check that first hit McConvey’s body and slide up to his head. I think the helmet flying off was what upheld the call. It was at least a minor and could have gone either way for a major – good call

6/6 – good calls

The referees called a relatively tight game. With the way the game started I think this was necessary to keep both teams under control. In the 4th quarter with the game on the line there were zero penalties called. I did not think there were too many, if any, obviously missed calls by the refs.