Ian MacKay recalled Nick Weiss’ speech in the Buffalo Bandits’ locker room following their second consecutive one-goal loss.
“No one’s going to give us a championship,” MacKay said. “No one’s just going to put a banner up in our crowd, so we have to work hard for those and find ways to win.”
The 13-12 loss to the Vancouver Warriors on Saturday night at KeyBank Center was Buffalo’s third one-goal loss of the season, as well as their third loss in five games, delaying clinching a home playoff game with a win for the second week in a row.
“One-goal game, ten-goal game, it doesn’t matter at all, it’s a loss, so it’s never a good feeling,” Ian MacKay said.
The Bandits have found themselves in one-goal games often this season, having played five of them this season, including three in an eight-day period from Feb. 14 to Feb. 22.
After an average win differential of 6.5 goals during their 6-0 start, Buffalo’s last nine games have been decided by an average of 2.33 goals. All but one of their losses have been decided by a single goal.
“We’re trying to ramp up into the playoffs. We’re trying to maintain that first playoff spot,” head coach John Tavares said. “I reminded the guys that it’s a tough league and there’s a lot of parity and it doesn’t matter where you are in the standings, it’s going to be a tight, tough game.”
In tough, tight games, the margin for error is thin and in the game against Vancouver, errors built on top of each other, most notably a five-minute major penalty on Dylan Robinson with under 10 minutes remaining following a game-tying Vancouver goal.
“I remind the guys, most of these games are one-goal games, so that one mistake you make could be the reason why (you lose),” Tavares said. “It’s easy to pile on the five-minute majors. We have to stay out of the box. I’m good with good, tough penalties in the prime scoring area, but we don’t need penalties after the play.”
On top of Robinson’s penalty, Weiss was booked for a five-minute major earlier in the game in the second quarter, allowing Vancouver the opportunity to take a lead with two goals on the ensuing power play.
“Those are two things in a 60-minute game, a fast-paced game where there’s a whole lot of things that happened,” MacKay said. “Obviously those are the two that stand out, but overrunning loose balls, not hitting your shots, missing passes, that’s all a part of it, so you can’t just pin it on that.”
Like MacKay alluded to, the Bandits had their chance to win, or at least give themselves more time to win, on Saturday.
With 36 seconds left, down 13-12, Matt Vinc on the bench and an extra attacker on the field for what was already a power play for the Bandits, they had every opportunity to score.
However, Vancouver’s deadline acquisition, goalkeeper Christian Del Bianco, stayed tall in net, saving four shots in the final moments to strengthen Vancouver’s playoff positioning while the Bandits’ lead at the top was reduced.
“It comes down to, we need to shoot the ball better,” Tavares said. “If we win by one, there’s no issues. We lose by one or two, there are a lot of issues. Sometimes you’re looking for reasons, you’re looking for excuses – it’s just put the ball in the net. That solves a lot of problems.”
Despite the losses, the Bandits still control their destiny this season with three games to play. They remain the top seed in the NLL standings by virtue of a tiebreaker over Saskatchewan, two games ahead of third-place Halifax. A home playoff game – and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs – remain well within reach.
“It could be one game or losing 10 games in a row, it sucks,” MacKay said. “The situation we’re in — we were 7-0 to start the year and now we’re 4-4 — so obviously not where we want to be, especially going into the playoffs. The good thing about that is that we have three games left.”