The Buffalo Bandits will look to follow up an impressive 15-7 season-opening victory when they take on the Ottawa Black Bears at Canadian Tire Centre at 7 p.m. on Friday.
The game will be broadcast locally on CW23 and nationally on ESPN+ (U.S.) and TSN (Canada), and Canadian viewers can watch the game live on the new NLL+ streaming platform. The game will be on the radio locally in Buffalo on 1520 AM.
Following four seasons in New York as the Riptide, the team moved to Ottawa this season, becoming the Black Bears.
In their only meeting with the Bandits last season, the Riptide won 15-13 on Jan. 19. The teams were tied at three after the first quarter, but New York ripped off a seven-goal run to make it 10-3. The Bandits slowly ate away at the lead before tying it with 2:09 left in the game.
Jeff Teat scored 22 seconds later to cap off a 10-point performance before Matt Marinier scored an empty-net goal to cap off the win.
Chase Fraser (4+2), Dhane Smith (2+5) and Josh Byrne (3+4) all recorded six-plus points in the loss.
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the Bandits second game of the season:
Rockin’ in Rochester
An eight-goal fourth quarter from the Bandits pushed them to the 15-7 win in the season opener in Rochester on Saturday at Blue Cross Arena.
The first quarter featured just one goal for either team, with Tehoka Nanticoke scoring the first goal of the 2024-25 season for the Bandits. Then, after the Knighthawks answered with a goal of their own, the Bandits went on a 3-0 run to end the first half featuring two goals from Smith and one from Byrne.
Rochester came back in the third quarter, scoring four consecutive goals to take their first and only lead of the game, 5-4. Following this, Buffalo went on an 11-2 run to close out the game, including Smith recording a goal and five assists in the final frame to complete his 11-point (3+8) performance.
“It felt amazing. Anytime you can get a win, especially on the road, it’s incredible,” Smith said. “We started off a little bit slow and that’s a great team over there. We were flat-footed, but it’s going to take a little bit of time obviously from preseason to now, but we’re going to learn from it and get better next week.”
Milestone Moments
Against Rochester, Smith and Kyle Buchanan both notched milestones. With his eight assists in the game, Smith (713) moved past former Bandit Shawn Williams (705) for ninth place on the NLL career assists list.
When Buchanan scored his first goal of the season to make it 12-7, he also notched his 600th career NLL point.
Buchanan is in his 12th NLL season and fourth with Buffalo and is coming off a 2023-24 season in which he finished fifth on the team in goals (23) and points (47) and sixth on the team in assists (24).
“Kyle Buchanan is an ageless wonder and he keeps getting better with age,” Smith said. “I hope he keeps playing as much as long as possible because I love playing with him.”
A big milestone for 9️⃣1️⃣
Congratulations @KyleBuchanan9! 👏 pic.twitter.com/zcAMGKoRP3
— Buffalo Bandits (@NLLBandits) December 8, 2024
Scouting the Black Bears
In Ottawa’s week one 11-5 win over the Toronto Rock, they led the entire game, including scoring the first five goals and shutting out Toronto for the first 35:09 of the opening week matchup.
Jacob Dunbar (3+3), Teat (1+4) and Connor Kearnan (3+2) all notched five-plus points in the game while Zach Higgins caused problems for the Rock, saving 37 of 42 shots he faced.
“We play Ottawa, which was the New York team, and they play us very well. They seem to match up well against our team,” head coach John Tavares said. “We definitely have to prepare. I watched the game from last week that they won. Both of us are 1-0, so it’s a big game and you just win small battles one at a time.”