NLL leading scorer Jeff Teat recorded a game-high five goals to lead the Ottawa Black Bears to a 10-9 win over the Buffalo Bandits on Friday at KeyBank Center.  

The Bandits dropped their second straight game and fell to 3-3 on the season. They went scoreless for a span of 15:16 in the second half, from the 2:24 point of the third quarter to the 2:08 mark of the fourth quarter, and trailed 10-7 with just over two minutes to play. 

The Bandits cut Ottawa’s lead down to 10-9 with two 6-on-5 goals from Josh Byrne and Kyle Buchanan but were unable to find the equalizer despite a high-danger chance from Dhane Smith – who had a hat trick – which missed the mark in the final seconds.  

“I can appreciate the last-ditch effort, but close is only good in horseshoes and grenades and we’re not playing either one of them,” head coach John Tavares said. “We have to put the ball in the net. I thought we worked hard, we seem to be running into the hot goalie right now and the other team scored more goals than us. We had plenty chances to score and [Zach] Higgins stood on his head.”  

The Bandits are 0-3 when scoring 10 or less goals this season. They had a scoring drought of 14:07 during the first half, which ended with the two teams tied 4-4.  

Buffalo led 7-6 entering the fourth quarter before giving up four straight goals, a trio of tallies from Teat and one from Rob Hellyer.

Ottawa – which entered Friday having allowed the most goals in the NLL – shut down Buffalo’s key pieces as Byrne was held scoreless until his late fourth-quarter goal and Kyle Buchanan, who had a combined eight goals in the previous two games, was held to just one tally.  

Higgins was dominant for the Black Bears as he held Buffalo without a goal for the first 12:52 of the fourth quarter. He made 44 saves including a myriad of stops on high-quality opportunities by the Bandits.  

“Feel like we were just kind of going back and forth for a while there, couldn’t go on a run there,” Smith said. “It’s just how it goes. Our offense has been struggling a little bit the past two games. And I mean this bye week is probably coming a good time. We need to find a way. Every team’s great, we’re gonna get every team’s best so we need to step it up a little bit, and we’ll figure it out.” 

Conversely, the Bandits held Ottawa – which entered with the highest scoring offense in the NLL – to its second fewest goals in a game this season despite seven-point performances from Teat and Hellyer. The Bandits forced 16 Ottawa turnovers in the first half, including four from Teat.  

Bandits’ goaltender Matt Vinc held Ottawa scoreless for the first 11:39 by stopping the first 10 shots he faced. Vinc went on to make 37 total saves.  

Tavares said the defense “did a phenomenal job” against the deep and balanced Ottawa offense. Buffalo held second-leading scorer Reilly O’Connor without a goal and held Hellyer scoreless in the first half.  

However, it was Ottawa’s defense that nullified Buffalo’s opportunities in transition. The Bandits scored their first goal in transition as Smith took a pass from Nick Weiss – who had a team-high 10 loose ball recoveries – and scored one-on-one against his defender but Ottawa clamped down on ensuing Bandits’ chances in transition.  

The Bandits went without a power play for the second consecutive game and the Black Bears converted on two of their four opportunities, including a 5-on-3. Smith said simply that they have to earn their power-play chances and improve on running the floor.  

“It comes down to an effort thing,” Smith said. “I feel like we could be better cutting off transition. And they did a great job tonight of cutting off our transition. Those are momentum goals, and we were unable to get a few tonight, but again it’s early in the season, so those are things that we can work on. It’s tough because there’s new guys in the lineup every game. That being said, not making that an excuse, it’s just tough to kind of get on the same page, but we’ll figure it out. … We’ve been in this position before, and we’re up for the challenge.” 

Mike McCannell makes Bandits debut  

Transition player Mike McCannell said he took an extra look around at the over 17,000 fans in attendance prior to his debut with the Bandits.

McCannell was acquired by Buffalo from the Philadelphia Wings on Monday and said he he was surprised when he found out about the trade on Friday, Jan. 9. He watched the Bandits’ last game against Rochester to help get acclimated to the defensive systems and had one practice with the group to get ready.  

McCannell is back in New York after he played his college lacrosse at Stony Brook and had three loose-ball recoveries, a blocked shot and one created turnover against Ottawa.  

The former first-round pick praised veterans like Steve Priolo, who had a goal and eight loose-ball recoveries, and Dylan Robinson, who added seven loose balls, for helping him get acclimated. The four-year player said he’s looking forward to being on a group where, “everyone’s a world class professional.”  

“It’s definitely a change, obviously, but these guys are great,” McCannell said. “Communicated with me a ton. Basically what we were looking to do schematically. Our talk, our terminology, and it really got me up to speed quick. Shoot around this morning, we went through a lot, I felt confident, felt good. Really working on getting that chemistry clicking with the guys. I know that’s just gonna grow as the weeks go on here.” 

Ryan Benesch returns to the lineup  

Veteran forward Ryan Benesch was back in the lineup for the Bandits after missing the last two games due to injury. He last played against the Calgary Roughnecks and shined on Friday night.  

Benesch matched Smith with a team-high four assists and despite going scoreless, he had a season-high four points in his return.  

Up next  

The Bandits have a week hiatus before taking the road to Colorado to face the Mammoth on Jan. 31 at 9 p.m. at Ball Arena.