But first, Deals.

The Buffalo Bandits acquire Mike McCannell from the Philadelphia Wings in exchange for a 2028 3rd Round Pick

Injuries for Zack Belter and Mitch de Snoo have led Steve Dietrich to make Buffalo’s first trade of the regular season, adding Mike McCannell to the group. The Orangeville native was the 5th overall pick in the 2021 draft by the Seals but only played one season for them, being traded to Philadelphia in the summer of 2023 when San Diego acquired Trevor Baptiste. Across 50 career games, he has caused 28 turnovers, blocked 11 shots, and scooped up 174 loose balls to go along with 6 goals and 17 assists.

Both Belter and de Snoo are expected back within the next couple of weeks, but the move does help add some depth to the lefty defense.

The Buffalo Bandits trade Steven Orleman to the Toronto Rock in exchange for a 2026 3rd Round Pick

This move was less about the Bandits and more about Toronto, who lost Nick Rose to injury Saturday Night (more on that later). Orleman will now back up Troy Holowchuk until Rose returns. Since being traded to the Bandits before the 2024 season, Orleman has only appeared in 6 games in relief of Matt Vinc and only once for more than 5 minutes of floor time when he relieved Devlin Shanahan in Vancouver while Vinc was hurt on March 1, 2024. In 58:59, he finished his Bandits tenure with an 11.19 GAA and .792 SV%. The move will also mean Evan Constantopoulos will be added to the practice roster for the first time in his career after two+ seasons as the team’s practice roster goalie.

The Rock currently own two 2026 third round picks, Vancouver’s and their own. Buffalo will receive the latter of the two picks. The Warriors pick came from a trade back by Toronto from 41st overall to 47th in the 2024 draft.

Okay have to stop stalling. We’ll keep it short and sweet this week because of the losses.

Ottawa Black Bears 10 – Buffalo Bandits 9

It was going to be a Dhane night from the start, as with the Bandits shorthanded 77 seconds into the game, Smith went in 1-on-1 in transition to score the opening goal of the game. While Tehoka Nanticoke scored a classic contested goal to extend the lead to two, the Black Bears would get back even before the end of the opening quarter thanks to a shot from Jeff Teat that barely squeaked past Matt Vinc and a hard cut to the net from Jacob Dunbar. While Smith scored a very opportune goal to re-take the lead early in the second, with a pass to Kyle Buchanan going off target but making its way into the net past Zach Higgins as well, Ottawa got even right away some quick gentle hands from Sam Firth. The Black Bears would take their first lead of the game on a two man advantage courtesy of Teat’s second of the game. Steve Priolo evened the game up with 1:47 to play rebounding a Ryan Benesch shot in transition with Higgins sprawled on the ground. The captain was also about half a second away from scoring a three-quarters full shot on the empty net in the closing seconds of the half, but time had expired, meaning the teams would head to the locker room tied at 4.

Goals came quickly to start the second half, once again starting out with a Dhane Smith marker 1:04 in, but a transition goal from Callum Jones followed by Rob Hellyer finding space from outside gave Ottawa the lead back, only to have it be relinquished on the next Bandit possession after Ian MacKay rebounded a shot by Clay Scanlan. Tehoka Nanticoke scored with 2:25 left to put the Bandits up 7-6, but the fourth quarter this season has been Jeff Teat time. 2:06 into the new quarter, he found space over Vinc’s right shoulder to finish the hat trick, and then a minute later with Nick Weiss in the box, Teat scored from the point to give the Black Bears an 8-7 lead. Almost two minutes later, Rob Hellyer joined in on the scoring to give Ottawa their first two goal lead of the game. They took the largest lead of the night on the other side of the 4 minute mark with Teat’s third of the quarter.

The Bandits went 6-on-5 for the first time with just over 2 to play, and Josh Byrne finally got himself on the board for the first time to make it 10-8. Two possessions later, Ryan Benesch found an open Kyle Buchanan for a quick stick, and with 1:04 left, it was back to a one goal game. After Connor Farrell won the ensuing faceoff cleanly, Buffalo called their second half timeout, but Dhane Smith’s shot from outside was blocked by Kevin Brownell, who was able to kill off about 15 seconds before the succumbing to the Bandits pressure. The Black Bears offense interrupted a pair of passes which killed off more time before Dhane Smith shot wide from midrange, the ball was picked up and run out by Callum Jones, and the horn sounded with the Black Bears getting a road win and handing the Bandits a second straight loss.

Teat’s 3 goals and assist in the fourth quarter brought his stat line on the night to 5 goals and 2 assists, also adding 9 loose balls. 25 (13G 12A) of his 51 points through 7 games have come in the fourth quarter. Rob Hellyer also had 7 points with 2 goals and 5 assists and Reilly O’Connor had 6 assists. Zach Higgins finished with 45 saves, serving as the back line of a defense that was able to, most notably, limit Josh Byrne to a single goal and assist.

For the Bandits, who are off next week, Dhane Smith had 3 goals and 4 assists, while Ryan Benesch had 4 assists in his return from injury.

Toronto Rock 11 – Rochester Knighthawks 10

Sometimes coaches plead to their teams to not get in a track meet. Other times, the first period of the Knighthawks-Rock game commences. Thomas McConvey got the scoring started 2:27 in before a show commenced in between the pipes, starting with a breakaway save off the ensuing faceoff by Rylan Hartley on Sam English, who would be stopped in transition again a minute and a half later. Hartley added a shorthanded transition save in front on Challen Rogers to the ledger with 6:18 to play. With two minutes left in the quarter, it was Nick Rose’s turn for a breakaway save, denying Connor Fields in front. Hartley had one more net-front save in the final 25 seconds on CJ Kirst and the Rose stopped Taylor Jensen alone in front with 3 seconds left in the opening 15 to keep the score 1-0 Rochester after 1. Looking up at the scoreboard after the horn sounded, Nick Rose had 16 saves, while Rylan Hartley had 13.

After CJ Kirst got his first goal of the game 1:16 into the new quarter, the Knighthawks appeared to have escaped what Mike Hasen described postgame as a not sharp stretch of play, as Connor Fields scored two straight goals from outside to extend the lead to 3-1 before Ryan Lanchbury got in on the scoring on the run and then Fields again from outside made it 5-1 with 6:24 left. While Dan Craig scored to end the Rochester run, Ryan Smith scored shorthanded in the closing seconds to bring the lead back to 4.

Toronto got back in the goal column first in the new quarter on a shorthanded goal from Mark Matthews before Dan Craig got his first of the game from around the same spot as Fields was picking up his hat trick. On the next possession, Graydon Hogg drove to the net and scored to extend the lead back up to 3 with 7:42 left in the quarter, but after Brad Kri checked him as he was diving to the net, Hogg landed on Nick Rose who went down hard. While he got up on his own power, he did not return to the game. Troy Holowchuk would make 4 saves to finish out the quarter, and Owen Hiltz would get on the scoreboard with a powerplay goal to make it 7-5. The good vibes were not completed either for Hiltz and his former Syracuse Lacrosse teammates who had a suite for the game. As was the case for their other former teammate Sam English.

Chris Boushy and Thomas McConvey exchanged goals in the early fourth quarter, with Boushy’s goal reminding a certain fan in the stands of his glory days with a wrap around dunk (Screenshots from game broadcast).

A transition goal from Hugh Kelleher (a Cornell guy this time not Syracuse) ended up sparking a game-changing run, with Josh Jubenville forcing a turnover off the ensuing faceoff and feeding the aforementioned English for the game-tying goal. After a faceoff win for Jubenville, the Rock offense got Hiltz an open shot from midrange, and the Rock got their first lead of the game with 8:03 left. Ryan Lanchbury scored on the powerplay to make it 9-9 before Connor Fields got Rochester’s lead back on the next possession with a little bit of a shush for the Orange on the other end of the floor. But on the next possession, Challen Rogers trail checked Matt Gilray off a rebound to keep possession, and Hiltz picked it up and scored right away to make it 10-10.

With a minute left, Mark Matthews was left unattended popping open off a screen and heading to the net to give the Rock the lead back. A couple shot blocks, albeit controversial ones, by the Rock in the final minute helped to seal the deal, with the Rock getting a road win of their own in Rochester.

The fourth quarter heroes Mark Matthews (2G 3A) and Owen Hiltz (3G 1A) were the leaders for the Rock on the night, with CJ Kirst scoring once and adding 3 assists, while Troy Holowchuk’s 9 fourth quarter saves helped ensure the Toronto fourth quarter run.

For Rochester, Connor Fields had 4 goals and 2 assists to leave the Knighthawks, with Ryan Lanchbury had 2 goals and 3 assists and Ryan Smith had a goal and 4 assists. Kyle Waters also had 4 assists. They have their second last bye week of their season coming up.

NLL Week 8 Review

Colorado Mammoth 11 – Halifax Thunderbirds 6

In Andrew Kew’s return from injury, he, Will Malcom, and Jack Hannah combined for 8 goals as their new big 3 paired with 50 saves from Dillon Ward gave the Mammoth a road win over the Thunderbirds to move up to second place in the standings. Randy Staats led the Thunderbirds with a goal and 4 assist, while Cody Jamieson had 3 goals.

Georgia Swarm 19 – Calgary Roughnecks 9

A fresh change of scenery gave the Swarm’s offense a breath of fresh air, as they got out to a 7-1 first quarter lead and then led as much as 16-3 onto an UnBOXed win in Edmonton over the Roughnecks. Lyle Thompson had a seaosn-high 4 goals and 6 assists, while Toron Eccleston had 4 goals and an assist in his first game of the season following injury. Bryan Cole and Shayne Jackson combined for another 6 goals. For Calgary, Tanner Cook had 3 goals and 3 assists in what was an otherwise frustrating night for the Roughnecks offense.

San Diego Seals 11 – Vancouver Warriors 9

The Seals led 10-7 with a little over a minute left before Keegan Bal and Marcus Klarich scored in quick succession to cut the deficit to 1. In the closing seconds, Curtis Dickson looked to have tied the game up but was called for being in the crease. After a lengthy review, the officials declared inconclusive evidence, stunning the 10,000+ at Rogers Arena before Eli Gobrecht added an empty netter for the final 11-9 road win. Tre LeClaire, Zach Currier, Pat Kavanagh, and Dylan Watson combined for 8 of the 11 goals, with Chris Origlieri got the win in his return rom injury with 41 saves. Christian Del Bianco had 46 saves despite the loss. His offense was led by 2 goals and 2 assists by Keegan Bal.

Saskatchewan Rush 15 – Oshawa FireWolves 10

By taking care of business at home and getting help on the out of town scoreboard, the Rush extended their lead atop the NLL standing, led by 4 goals and 4 assists from the red hot Ryan Keenan. Austin Shanks added 2 goals and 5 assists. Oshawa was led by 4 goals and 2 assists. In the days following another loss, the FireWolves went out and made more moves to look to evolve their struggling lefty offense, sending their 2028 first round pick to Halifax for local talent Dawson Theede. They also signed Emerson Clark, the enforcer who last appeared for the 2024 Bandits.

Las Vegas Desert Dogs 10 – Philadelphia Wings 7

After the expectation of a high scoring affair in Henderson to cap off the weekend, the defenses came through, with the Desert Dogs getting the best of the Wings. Landon Kells bounced back from his rough night against the Rush last week with 37 saves in the win. Nick Damude had 48 saves to keep the game close, but a natural hat trick in the late-third and early-fourth by Adam Poitras ended up becoming the difference. Connor Kirst led the Desert Dogs with 2 goals and 2 assists. For Philly, Brennan O’Neill led with 2 goals and 3 assists, while Joe Resetarits had 4 assists and Eric Fannell had 2 goals and 2 assists.

NLL Week 9 Preview

San Diego Seals (2-3) @ Philadelphia Wings (1-4) – Friday January 23, 7:00 pm

The Seals look to return to .500 against a Wings team that has struggled to start the season, but the Wings could say use the same logic looking at the Seals to get back in the win column. San Diego has won 4 of the 5 all time meetings, including January 27, 2024 in Philly and December 1, 2024 in San Diego.

Vancouver Warriors (3-2) @ Ottawa Black Bears (4-3) – Friday January 23, 7:30 pm, TSN

After a big win against the preseason championship favorites last week, and a win earlier in the season against the Rush, the Black Bears aim to complete a trifecta of wins over the most popular finals picks with the Vancouver Warriors coming to town. The two teams split last season’s series with the home team winning both matchups in low scoring affairs, a game script that would be good for Vancouver with the struggles their offense has had out of the gate.

Georgia Swarm (3-3) @ Toronto Rock (3-2) – Saturday January 24, 7:00 pm

After winning both games in last season’s series, the Swarm look to continue the roll that accelerated last weekend on both ends of the floor. The similar roster builds of these two teams make this a very interesting matchup, with each of them including solid rookie cores to go along with their seasoned vets on both sides of the floor.

Oshawa FireWolves (2-5) @ Colorado Mammoth (4-2) – Saturday January 24, 9:00 pm

Another series where the home team won both games, the FireWolves anad Mammoth faceoff in Denver this weekend to close the smaller slate, with Oshawa hoping their extra tenacity up front can help them against a defense that is playing at an elite level to start their season.

(Photo Credit: Buffalo Bandits)