After another week-long hiatus, the Buffalo Bandits are back with their first road contest of the season against the Calgary Roughnecks at WestJet Field at Scotiabank Saddledome on Sunday at 8 p.m.
The Bandits (1-1) are coming off a 9-8 overtime loss to the Halifax Thunderbirds, who stormed back with five of the final seven goals in the second half.
Buffalo is tasked with facing another successful second-half team in Calgary which – despite being 0-2 – scored five in the final quarter of its Week 1 game against the Saskatchewan Rush and was tied 10-10 with the Toronto Rock in the final five minutes on Dec. 13.
“They definitely seem to be a resilient bunch,” Bandits coach John Tavares said. “They’ve had two tough games. One they had a lead, and one they showed that they can play from behind as well. They played against two very good teams in Saskatchewan and Toronto. We definitely have our work cut out for us.”
Calgary demonstrated its second-half success last year at KeyBank Center against the Bandits as a 9-9 tie late in the third quarter blossomed into a 17-11 Roughnecks win.
The Roughnecks scored seven times in the fourth quarter of the contest last year. These are the kinds of situations assistant captain Nick Weiss said his group needs to improve in after allowing three pivotal fourth-quarter tallies to Halifax.
“It was really little mental mistakes that we made that they capitalized on,” Weiss said of the Halifax game. “Just positionally, we wanted to be able to force them out and not sit. I think we sat too much, and I think we just need to clean up some of our communication. … We’re a veteran group that has played together for a while, so we just need to be better in the big moments.”
Tavares said last season’s loss to the Roughnecks will be something he talks about to the team pregame.
“The fact that they came into Buffalo and beat us on our own turf, now we get the opportunity to get them back for what they did to us last year,” Tavares said. “Guys definitely remember the past and how games went, and this is a game that gives us an opportunity.”
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the Bandits’ clash with the Roughnecks.
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Bandits searching for “winning combination”
The Bandits will have played just two games in 27 days when they take the floor on Sunday.
Those two weeks off have provided Tavares and the coaching staff the opportunity to take an extensive deep dive into the film from the opening two games of the 2025-26 season.
It also offered the chance to have an additional practice which the Bandits held on Monday in search of building more continuity on the floor despite the extensive time off.
“Ask a basketball player to play a basketball game without practicing or shooting a ball for two weeks, you lose that rhythm,” Tavares said. “It’s the same thing with lacrosse. That feel of the stick and being dialed in is important individually and as a team offensively. … The practices give us an opportunity to try to get on the same page.
“The back-to-back weekends off is definitely a detriment to developing chemistry a little quicker this season than we’ve liked it. After this, we don’t have much time off and we get to it, so we should have no excuses to develop chemistry, because we’ll both be practicing and playing games every weekend.”
Tavares said he’s still looking for a “winning combination” with his lineup that’s featured eight defensemen and eight forwards in both games this year.
The Bandits have traditionally used nine defensemen and seven forwards in the past and could return to that format as defensemen Matt Spanger and Zack Belter work their way back from injury.
Offensive players such as second-year forwards Clay Scanlan and Lukas Nielsen have both gotten some run while veteran newcomers Mike Triolo and Ryan Benesch have also been part of the rotation.
“Right now, we’re just juggling the offensive lineup up a little bit and seeing what works best for us,” Tavares said. “When we get that winning combination, we’ll probably stick to it for the most part with some minor changes. Right now, there’s some opportunity for guys to make an impression and right now, all the offensive guys have played at least one game.”
Scouting the Roughnecks
Bandits transition player Connor Farrell will have another challenge in the faceoff dot on Sunday against Justin Inacio, who is second in the NLL in faceoff percentage (79.3%) and wins (46).
Inacio helps ignite a Calgary offense that’s powered by leading goal scorer Noah Manning, who has the most goals of any NLL rookie.
Tanner Cook, Haiden Dickson and Brayden Mayea all have 10 points while Tyler Pace – who is fifth in the NLL with 10 assists – is one of the league’s best distributors.
“Tyler [Pace] is a really good player and as much as he’s passing the ball he’s also a really good goal scorer, too, so we can’t forget about that,” Tavares said.