A prominent message from head coach John Tavares and the rest of Buffalo Bandits since their 3-5 start was to find a way into the playoffs.
That could happen this Saturday as a win over the Vancouver Warriors and a Rochester Knighthawks loss to the Halifax Thunderbirds would send the Bandits back to the playoffs for the fifth straight season. Faceoff with the Warriors is set for 7 p.m. at KeyBank Center as the Bandits host Marvel Superhero Night.
The Bandits have won five straight games, which is the longest active win streak in the NLL. The stakes rise once again for the Bandits, but Tavares said they’ve embodied a one-game-at-a-time mentality during the streak.
“The next game is the most important game regardless of the situation,” Tavares said. “We want to make a playoff spot but this game against Vancouver is huge because it gives us an opportunity to make a top-four playoff spot. Not to be greedy about the situation but realistically, if we want to get a home playoff game in the first round, this is a big game for us to win. That’s the approach I’m looking at it. Yes, we’re still fighting for a playoff spot, but this is a great opportunity to possibly make a top-four spot. That just puts a little extra fire in your belly because everybody knows how important that home playoff game is in the first round.”
The Bandits are coming off their second straight road comeback win as they as they erased a 7-4 fourth-quarter deficit with four straight goals to beat the Saskatchewan Rush 8-7.
Josh Byrne had a game-high seven points, including a secondary assist on Joe Resetarits’ game-winning goal with 46 seconds remaining. Byrne has a minimum of seven points in each of his last five games with 38 points in that span. Byrne became the 14th player in NLL history with four or more seasons with 60-plus assists per Adam Levi of InsideLacrosse.
The Bandits defense spearheaded the late-game surge as Saskatchewan – which leads the NLL in scoring – had just two second-half goals, none in the third quarter and no 5-on-5 goals in the second half.
The Rush managed just two goals on traditional 5-on-5 shifts as three were in transition and two were on the power play. This hard-nosed defensive style has become an integral fabric of the Bandits’ playing style where winning close games has become customary.
Three of the last five games have been decided by one goal with all five featuring a one-goal difference in the second half.
“I think the result of the first 10 games, we’re built for it,” Tavares said. “We have a great goalie in Matt [Vinc], our defense is big and strong and protects the prime scoring area. … If teams can’t score 5-on-5, that should be our strategy. Stay out of the box, offense get off the floor and let the defense play 5-on-5. If the offense is slow getting off the floor, then the defense is chasing numbers so that makes it more complicated. We’re built for low-scoring games, and we have the potential to score a lot on offense with the players that we have.”
Vinc continued his recent dominant stretch against the Rush as he made 43 saves. Vinc stopped 25 of 27 shots (92.6 percent) in the second half with a perfect 9-for-9 mark in the third quarter and a 16-for-18 stretch in the fourth.
Vinc had a single-game season high 86.3 save percentage, his fifth straight game with a save percentage above 81 percent. Vinc has stopped over 80 percent of shots in six of the last seven games with his last time being below that mark coming in the first meeting against Vancouver
Much like Saskatchewan’s offense with three 30-plus goal scorers, the Warriors have a dynamic group led by MVP candidate Keegan Bal, Curtis Dickson and Jesse King. Vinc will once again be challenged by a talented group of shooters that only managed 11 goals the first time against Buffalo.
“I feel like the way he’s playing right now, he just seems dialed in and very focused,” Tavares said. “He made one kick save last game where he just seems to be seeing the ball right now. The ball has probably looked like a beach ball to him and he just seems to be making big save after big save and you need that, you need to get those saves. Every team that’s successful has the goalie making big saves. I’m sure if you go down the list, the number one criteria to success is your goals-against average. The defense is going to break down once in a while and Matt’s been there with some big saves on a few occasions, and it gives the defense some confidence that they can take a little bit more risk if they have to.”
Bandits’ defense dialed into the details
The Bandits haven’t allowed more than 10 goals in any of the last five games and gave up less than 10 in three of those contests, including each of the last two against San Diego and Saskatchewan.
In fact, the last time the Bandits gave up over 10 goals was the last time they played against Vancouver in an 11-9 loss back on Feb. 20.
The Bandits held the Rush to a season-low seven goals last week as Cam Wyers tallied five blocked shots and Paul Dawson had a team-high 10 loose ball recoveries.
Buffalo leads the league with 122 blocked shots and has four players in the top 10 including Dawson, who leads the NLL with 32 blocked shots. Mitch de Snoo is third with 25, Steve Priolo is tied for eighth with 16 and Wyers is tied for 10th with 15.
“We’re big, we’re tough and we get in the lanes and guys love absorbing those shots,” Tavares said. “… If you’re being physical, guys aren’t going to want to come into the middle. If you’re stick checking and being easy on the offense, they’re going to try to do whatever they want. But if you make the prime scoring area a tough place to live offensively, no one’s going to want to enter that zone. We’ve been doing a great job of protecting the prime scoring area and forcing the offensive players into bad shooting lanes.”
Where the Bandits stand
The Philadelphia Wings helped the Bandits with a 12-9 win over the Toronto Rock on Sunday. Former Bandit Lukas Nielsen – who was part of the package to acquire Resetarits – had his first NLL hat trick and Buffalo moved into fifth place with the head-to-head tiebreaker over Toronto.
The Rush and Swarm are off this week, but Toronto plays San Diego who’s lost four in a row,. Colorado plays Las Vegas on Friday, so you’ll want the latter to win in that one.
The Bandits are only two games back of first place and one back of fourth with three games left against Vancouver, Rochester and Oshawa. The Bandits have the head-to-head tiebreaker against Saskatchewan and Georgia.
With Rochester playing against Halifax at 6 p.m., Banditland could know if their Bandits are playoff bound at the conclusion of Saturday’s game.
Full NLL standings:
-
- Vancouver Warriors (11-4)
- Saskatchewan Rush (11-5)
- Georgia Swarm (10-5)
- Colorado Mammoth (10-5)
- Buffalo Bandits (9-6)
- Toronto Rock (9-6)
- Ottawa Black Bears (8-8)
- Las Vegas Desert Dogs (7-7)
- Rochester Knighthawks (6-8)
- San Diego Seals (6-8)
- Halifax Thunderbirds (6-9)
- Calgary Roughnecks (4-11)
- Oshawa FireWolves (4-11)
- Philadelphia Wings (4-12)
Scouting the Warriors
The Bandits scored six straight goals in the second quarter and led 7-6 at halftime but had just two goals in the second half as Vancouver won 11-9 in the first matchup on Feb. 20.
Dickson had four goals, Bal had six points and King had a hat trick as goaltender Christian Del Bianco made 39 saves including 16 of 18 in the second half.
Del Bianco is first in the NLL among qualified goaltenders in saves (615) and is second in both goals-against average (9.13) and save percentage (82%).
Bal leads the NLL with 107 points and 71 assists to go along with his 36 goals, which rank sixth in the league. Dickson’s 38 goals are tied for fourth in the NLL and King has 67 points.
“They have a lot of threats obviously led by Keegan Bal,” Tavares said. “He’s having another phenomenal year. Every guy on their offense is a threat. They have a good mix of youth and veterans and all of them can put the ball in the net. They create havoc for any defense. I thought we did a really good job on them in Vancouver. I do remember thinking we held these guys to a number that was very respectable for the offense. We got to continue to cross-check and play tough in the prime scoring area and not let them roam through there.”