John Tavares didn’t want his team to be overly conceited after earning a dominant 15-5 win over the first-place Vancouver Warriors and clinching a sixth straight NLL playoff berth.
The Bandits (10-6) had their largest margin of victory of the season in their sixth consecutive win. Buffalo has won five of its last six games against teams in the top six of the standings, setting up a Fan Appreciation Night clash against the Rochester Knighthawks on Saturday at 7 p.m. from KeyBank Center.
The Knighthawks beat the Bandits 12-9 back on Jan. 10 in Rochester, one of four games the Bandits have lost against teams below them in the NLL standings. Tavares recognized that they have to take the Knighthawks – who are a game back of the final playoff spot – seriously if they want to continue their hopes for a first-round home game.
“After the last game against Vancouver, I don’t want guys to think just because it was a lopsided affair, that we’re just gonna show up next week and beat Rochester because Rochester is below us in the standings,” Tavares said. “Our record against teams that are below us in the standings doesn’t look very good. We have losses against Rochester, Halifax, Philadelphia, Ottawa. … We can’t be taking this team lightly or all this hard work against the top teams in the last four or five weeks literally would just go to waste. So, we gotta make them count against Rochester. We can’t take them lightly. They’re fighting for a playoff spot, they’re desperate, they got nothing to lose.”
Josh Byrne had the 10th 10-point performance of his career with four goals and six assists against the Warriors. Dhane Smith added nine points (2+7) and Joe Resetarits had his first hat trick since returning to the Bandits.
The Bandits defense dominated and kept the Warriors to a season-low five goals, including just one in the second half. Buffalo moved to 24-4 in April and May since 2023 with a group that knows how to dial up their game when it matters.
“Gearing up towards the playoffs, you want to be starting to play your best lacrosse and hopefully peak at the right time,” Tavares said. “Having a veteran squad, guys know when to pick it up. Unfortunately for this year, we got off to a slow start, and we had no choice but to start playing playoff lacrosse in the 11th game of the season. … I don’t know if there’s a secret ingredient at this time of the year. We get better as the year progresses, and that’s a positive because you want to prepare and start improving as a team heading in towards the playoffs.”
Smith has 105 points (35+70) for the ninth 100-point season of his career, his fifth straight year eclipsing that threshold. No player in NLL history has more than five seasons over 100 points per Adam Levi of InsideLacrosse.
Smith is tied for third in the NLL with 105 points while Byrne – who has his third straight 100-point campaign – is fifth with 101. The duo is tied for third in the league with 70 assists while Byrne has at least seven points in each of his last six games with 48 points in that span.
Byrne said after the Vancouver game that it took time for the Bandits to adjust to the offensive system with a host of players in and out of the lineup. Tavares agreed and said they’ve found a seven-man unit that’s clicking with Resetarits sliding in and Scanlan “establishing himself.”
“We’ve had so many different pieces of the puzzle trying to figure out what’s a good combination where guys feel comfortable, have some chemistry, everybody understands their role, and they can fit in and chip in,” Tavares said. “It’s very finicky on the offensive end, you have to have the right combination. It’s important to have that right mix of each ingredient. Right now is probably the best combination we’ve found all year with the seven we played last game but it’s taken time to get there. It’s not easy being productive when there’s not a lot of chemistry. We’ve been looking for that all year long.”
The Bandits blocked 13 shots against Vancouver and will go up against a Rochester team that’s second in the league in shots on goal. Buffalo has blocked 139 shots which leads the NLL and is 29 higher than the next closest team.
Blocking shots is a key reason why the Warriors scored just one goal in the last 42:44 of the game as Mitch de Snoo and Matt Spanger each blocked three. The Bandits are 10-2 with de Snoo in the lineup compared to 0-4 without him and the defenseman has 2.3 blocked shots per game, 10.6 loose ball recoveries per game and 1.3 caused turnovers per game. He’s one of three players in the league that’s top 15 in each category this season.
The Bandits have four players in the top 15 of blocked shots with Paul Dawson (33) and de Snoo (28) in first and second, respectively. Steve Priolo is seventh (18) and Cam Wyers is tied for 12th (15).
Dawson – who began his career as a goalie – is the all-time leader in blocked shots with 137, Priolo is third with 96 and de Snoo is fifth with 92. That dynamic has become a key fabric of the Bandits’ defensive identity.
“When a bunch of guys on our team are willing to sacrifice their bodies, it makes it hard on everybody else not to sacrifice their bodies in any situations like loose balls,” Tavares said. “If it’s your opportunity to block a shot, you don’t want to be that one guy that’s shying away. You want to fit in with the team and the consensus is, ‘Hey, we’re blocking shots, everybody needs to jump on board.’ If you got a couple guys doing it, especially your veterans, young guys have no choice, they got to follow along. They’re leading by example and the younger guys are starting to do it as well.”
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Where the Bandits stand
The Bandits remain in fifth place at 10-6 with the head-to-head tiebreaker over the sixth-place Toronto Rock. The Bandits and Rock are one game back of first place, which currently has a three-way tie between Colorado, Saskatchewan and Vancouver.
Each of the top six teams have clinched a playoff berth as five teams separated by 1.5 games jockey for the final two spots including Rochester. On Friday, the Rock take on the Ottawa Black Bears while the Halifax Thunderbirds – who are a half game back of the final spot – play the Warriors.
The Bandits are a half game out of the final first-round hosting spot, which is controlled by the fourth-place Georgia Swarm (who have a game in hand). Buffalo has the tiebreaker over Georgia and Saskatchewan, meaning Banditland will want the Mammoth to take down the Rush on Saturday and the San Diego Seals to beat the Swarm on Sunday.
The Bandits could still finish first even in the possibility where five teams finish 12-6 as they control head-to-head winning percentage. The Bandits winning out and one loss for Saskatchewan or Georgia will have Banditland hosting first round.
Full NLL standings:
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- Colorado Mammoth (11-5)
- Saskatchewan Rush (11-5)
- Vancouver Warriors (11-5)
- Georgia Swarm (10-5)
- Buffalo Bandits (10-6)
- Toronto Rock (10-6)
- Ottawa Black Bears (8-8)
- Las Vegas Desert Dogs (7-8)
- Halifax Thunderbirds (7-9)
- Rochester Knighthawks (6-9)
- San Diego Seals (6-9)
- Oshawa FireWolves (5-11)
- Calgary Roughnecks (4-12)
- Philadelphia Wings (4-12)
Scouting the Knighthawks
It’s been a tale of two seasons for the Knighthawks, who married a 4-1 start with a 2-8 record since. Head coach Mike Hasen and assistant coach Pat O’Toole were fired on March 9 and longtime Canisius coach Randy Mearns was named the interim coach the next day.
The Knighthawks fended off a fourth-quarter comeback by the Bandits, who went scoreless in the third quarter of the first matchup. Rochester goaltender Rylan Hartley made 42 saves, but he’s only played two full games since as he’s split time with Riley Hutchcraft.
The Knighthawks lost 15-10 to the Thunderbirds last week which allowed the Bandits to clinch a playoff berth. Rochester has scored the fourth most goals in the NLL (181) but have allowed the most goals (197) with the league’s worst save percentage (75%) and have given up 14 or more goals in four of their last five games.
The Knighthawks offense is paced by 2025 MVP Connor Fields who is fourth in the league in both points (104) and goals (39). Ryan Lanchbury is second in the NLL with 71 assists and seventh with 93 points.