The Bandits have had a lot of close calls at KeyBank Center recently.

There was San Diego’s Wesley Berg scoring with six seconds left to force overtime, a game that wound up being the Buffalo Bandits’ first loss of the season, or the seven-goal fourth quarter from the Calgary Roughnecks in Buffalo’s sole multi-goal loss. Or, more recently, there was Vancouver’s Christian Del Bianco saving four shots in 36 seconds to give the Bandits their second consecutive one-goal loss.

All of those games ended as heartbreakers for Buffalo. The Bandits flipped that script against the Halifax Thunderbirds on Saturday, responding to each issue that Halifax gave them and winning 15-12 in a game that had the potential to end in misery.

“It’s never easy losing at home in front of a sold-out crowd,” Dhane Smith said. “I think we did that two or three times this season and I think we put a little bit of pressure on ourselves to play a little tight and then obviously here tonight we were able to figure it out.”

For head coach John Tavares, the solution to these losses has always been simple – score.

The Bandits scored a combined two goals in the final nine minutes of the fourth quarter during those three aforementioned losses, while the opposition capitalized on the scoring drought to either come back or pull away with the game.

Against Halifax, the Bandits scored three goals in the final 6:31.

“In those [losses], I don’t think we scored enough goals. We didn’t capitalize on our opportunities,” Tavares said. “Today, we put up 15 goals and you put up 15 goals, you’re more than likely going to win than lose and that was the difference. The guys put the ball in the net. We didn’t really do anything different other than we capitalized on our opportunities.”

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Ten of those goals were created by Smith, including having the primary assist on seven of them. His 10 assists against Halifax set a season-high for him.

On the receiving end of four of those primary assists was Kyle Buchanan, with every single pass he caught coming right at the doorstep of the goal.

At 37 years old, Buchanan is experiencing a rejuvenation in his scoring ability, having scored a career-high 34 goals. Buchanan has Smith to partially thank for this, with the two-time NLL MVP assisting on 21 of Buchanan’s goals. He’s had the primary assist on all but three of them.

With four seasons spent together on the turf, according to Buchanan, it comes down to trust between the two NLL veterans.

“It’s just trust in each other,” Buchanan said. “It took us probably a year to build that properly and understand what I like to do and what he likes to do. I know where his eyes are and what he’s trying to do in each situation and I think more and more as we continue to play together and the ball continues to go in the back of the net, we just trust each other.”

While Smith has helped Buchanan have a career year, Buchanan’s finishing has also helped Smith’s numbers. Smith joked during his press conference that he needs to let Buchanan’s wife know that he wants him back for as many seasons as possible.

With a game to go, Smith has 99 assists and is three away from breaking his own NLL single-season assist record of 101.

This season, only Josh Byrne (22) has more goals assisted by Smith than Buchanan does (21), showcasing the trust Smith has in the two forwards. Like Buchanan, Smith has been getting better with age at 32 years old.

Smith has broken his own assist record each of the past four seasons. In 2022, he set the record with 94, then it was 96 in 2023. He became the first player to hit triple digits with 101 last season.

“Dhane’s a playmaker, he sees the floor really well and if you give him too much space, he can put the ball in the net,” Tavares said. “He creates a lot of space for himself, and teams have to respect that, so he draws a lot of slides and he’s really good at dishing the ball off.”

The aforementioned trust between Buchanan and Smith extends to the team’s success this season, having now clinched the regular-season with one game remaining.

“I think trust is a huge part of (how we play) and why we’re successful is because there is a lot of trust back there,” Buchanan said. “Vinc wants to trust Paul Dawson is in the lane or wants to trust that Priolo is going to get out on somebody, and on the offensive side, they want to trust that we’re going to move the ball and see who’s open.”

That trust will be crucial for the Bandits as they inch closer toward their goal of a three-peat. With just a game left before the playoffs, it all comes down to using the lessons learned during this season and playing as a team with a win-or-go-home mentality.

“We have one more game against Georgia, and that’s another game that is gearing up for the playoffs, so we have to treat it like a playoff game,” Tavares said. “It might be Georgia that we play in the first round. We’re going into that game to win and use it as prep for our playoff game.”