In 180 minutes of play this season, the Buffalo Bandits have trailed in just six thanks to their offense and defense being a two-headed monster.
On Saturday night, that monster was headed by Josh Byrne and Matt Vinc.
As a sixth championship banner was lifted to the rafters of KeyBank Center, a career-high and team-record 62 saves from Vinc and 11 points from Byrne (2+9) lifted Buffalo over the Rochester Knighthawks, 13-6.
“I was a little nervous going into the game that the guys would lose focus because of (the banner raising),” head coach John Tavares said. “They did a great job today for 60 minutes from Matt to the defense to the offense.”
Forever champions! 🤩#LetsGoBandits | @NLL pic.twitter.com/sqJbm7cQRF
— Buffalo Bandits (@NLLBandits) December 28, 2024
The Bandits capitalized on the momentum of the banner raising ceremony and noise from the sellout crowd of 19,070 fans, scoring 22 seconds into the game on a Dhane Smith goal. Six minutes later, Byrne reignited the crowd and doubled the goal total for Buffalo.
“It’s amazing,” Smith said. “Whenever you’re an offensive guy and the first one falls, it gets you into the game early. I didn’t really expect it, but it was amazing to hear the crowd go crazy.”
Vinc saved eight shots in the opening quarter to hold Rochester scoreless through 15 minutes and keep the score to 2-0.
Just less than five minutes into the second quarter, the Bandits went on a four-goal run in a 1:50 span, punishing the Rochester goalies. Buffalo scored three goals on Riley Hutchcraft before he was pulled momentarily for Kevin Orleman, who within 22 seconds gave up a goal and was pulled after just more than two minutes of play.
Kyle Buchanan and Tehoka Nanticoke scored back-to-back spectacular goals during the run. Buchanan faked a shot and then went behind the back, freezing Hutchcraft in place.
Twenty-two seconds later, Nanticoke rebounded his own shot off the glass amid numerous Rochester defenders and spun around until he had a shooting lane and scored to make the score 6-0.
“We have a great offense. We’re able to score goals and it’s tough to play against our team,” Vinc said. “Once they get rolling, we’re a tough team to stop.”
Rochester responded with three goals of their own to bring the Buffalo lead down to three, but Clay Scanlan scored his first career NLL goal to bring the Bandits’ lead back to 7-3 going into halftime.
Byrne (2+3) and Smith (1+4) were tied at halftime with five points apiece while Vinc saved 20 shots in the second quarter to bring his total to 28.
Rochester scored a minute into the second half to close the gap to three goals, but that’s as close as they’d get all game as Buffalo dominated the rest of the way.
Ian MacKay scored just more than a minute after the Rochester goal to widen the gap back to four. Five minutes later, Chase Fraser added on after dodging from the left wing, splitting two defenders and scoring. Nanticoke scored his second of the game to make it 10-4. Scanlan scored his second career goal with a tenth of a second left in the quarter to make it 11-4.
“(Scanlan’s) excited to play in Buffalo,” Tavares said. “I thought he had a great game in Ottawa and backed it up with an even better game here at home.”
Byrne assisted on each of Buffalo’s four goals in the quarter while Buchanan and Smith assisted on two each.
In the final frame, Rochester again opened the scoring but aside from a goal in the final minute, was shut out for the rest of the quarter, due in part to 23 fourth-quarter saves from Vinc.
Smith scored his second goal of the game to give him eight points on the night. Nanticoke notched a hat-trick by way of diving from X to score the Bandits 13th goal of the night on Byrne’s ninth and final assist in the game.
“It’s a lot easier to be in net when we’re finishing fourth quarters the way we have been,” Vinc said. “We’re not always going to have those types of games but we’re pretty fortunate we’ve had that the past couple games.”