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Bandits and Knighthawks each Win in Week 7 – Will Matchup Friday in Rochester for First Place | NLL Week 7 Recap

by Eddy Tabone - 0

When the clock struck zero in Calgary, as the Roughnecks defeated the San Diego Seals 14-10, the Seals officially had their first loss. With that, there was one undefeated team left: The Rochester Knighthawks

With their game taking place on the last day of the first three-day NLL weekend of the season, the Knighthawks at least had the guarantee of a good 15 or so hours with that honor of the best record in the league, but of course, they weren’t going to let that interfere to take care of business on Long Island against the 0-3 Riptide. And taking care of business they did as bested the Riptide by an 11-8 score.

It was the second quarter that made the difference in the game. After a 2-2 first quarter, the Knighthawks scored two powerplay goals to open the scoring in the second courtesy of Holden Cattoni and Connor Fields. After hitting the post on a penalty shot after the third penalty taken by New York in 31 seconds (If a team is already down 3 on 5, subsequent penalties will result in a penalty shot), Fields had a natural hat trick in the second quarter to increase his goal total on the afternoon to four. Akron High School alum Larson Sundown added his second goal in the final minute of the half to make it 6-3.

After an extended halftime due to a malfunction in the fire alarm system at Nassau Coliseum, the Knighthawks’ defense took the spotlight in the third. Ethan Schott scored his first NLL goal to make it 7-3 and then the two teams exchanged two more goals to make it 9-5 Knighthawks after 45, with Ryland Rees and Matt Gilray adding transition goals of their own. Much of the Riptide’s success on offense came from crashing the net for rebounds and quick sticks on the afternoon, and that continued to start the fourth where Callum Crawford scored his second and third goal in the first minute to cut the Riptide deficit to two. However, Ryan Smith helped squash the comeback effort with a goal 22 seconds later. Holden Cattoni added an insurance goal halfway through the quarter, and aside from Connor Kearnan scoring with 62 seconds left, that would solidify the victory for Rochester.

The trio of Connor Fields (4G), Holden Cattoni (2G 2A), and Ryan Smith (2G 2A) led the Knighthawks in points, and Rylan Hartley was once again strong, making 33 saves on the 41 shots he faced. For New York, Jeff Teat was limited by Ryland Rees and company to no goals on 5 recorded shots on goal, but he had 5 assists to share the team lead in scoring with Callum Crawford who had 3 goals and 2 assists. Connor Kearnan, Larson Sundown, and Reilly O’Connor were the other goal-scorers for New York. Steven Orleman had an even 40 saves in the loss, which was the team’s first time allowing less than 15 goals.

From here, the Knighthawks will be entering their toughest stretch of the season, one that will truly test their current status as a contender not only in the East but across the league. Between Friday and February 11, the Knighthawks’ schedule goes home Buffalo, road Halifax, road Buffalo, home Halifax. While the Thunderbirds went 0-2 in their lone back-to-back weekend of the season, the Bandits were able to continue their winning ways and have now won four straight since losing on opening weekend.

How about that Transition to the Bandits Game

In no way was it as routine as last week’s win in Georgia, but the Bandits prevailed in a pretty even rematch with the Swarm in Buffalo by a score of 11-9. Buffalo scored the first three goals of the night but a run of three powerplay goals from the Swarm, only broken up by Byrne’s second of the night, allowed Georgia to keep pace and neutralize the quick start from the Bandits. Lyle Thompson bookended those three powerplay goals. The first quarter also saw Brad McCulley get into his first professional fight.

Buffalo again had a chance to breakaway in the second quarter with a transition goal from Steve Priolo and Josh Byrne’s third. Still, three goals in the final four minutes of the second quarter allowed Georgia to even up the score, and then Brendan Bomberry scored in the opening minute of the second half to give Georgia their first lead at 7-6.

Fortunately for the Bandits, that Swarm lead wouldn’t last for too long thanks to Josh Byrne, who countered Bomberry’s goal and then Lyle Thompson’s goal which had made it 8-7. But Byrne wasn’t done at 5 goals, as with 21 seconds to go in the quarter, Byrne added to his ever-growing catalog of ridiculous goals on the front door of the crease to complete the sock trick.

Kyle Buchanan extended the Bandits’ lead to 10-8 with seven minutes to go, Bryan Cole was able to cut the deficit back to one a few minutes later, but Byrne secured his ninth point of the night with 1:20 left, feeding Ian MacKay for the icing on the cake in an 11-9 final.

Bryne’s 9 points increased his point total through 5 games to 37, which leads the NLL through 7 weeks. Byrne’s 20 goals leads the league in that category as well. Dhane Smith finds himself only one point behind Byrne at the top of the point leaderboard, keeping pace with a 1G 5A performance (Stats below from NLL.com). Through 5 games, Smith is up to 31 assists to lead the league in that category. Kyle Buchanan added 2 goals and 2 assists of his own, and Matt Vinc made 47 saves as the Bandits’ defense once again held the Swarm to 9 points.

NLL Stats Page

For Georgia, Lyle Thompson finished with 4 goals and 2 assists to lead the team and was the only one on the team to eclipse 10 SOG on the night, finishing with 16. Shayne Jackson (4) and Andrew Kew (3) combined for 7 assists but were held scoreless. Brendan Bomberry was the only other Swarm player with multiple goals with 2 goals and an assist. Brett Dobson bounced back well after being pulled in last week’s rout, making 45 saves.

Top of the East

So after the dust settled on this weekend of lacrosse, it was Western New York’s teams at the top of the standings, each with similar scripts to get there, as Rochester’s 5-0 record comes with 69 goals for and 49 goals against, and Buffalo’s 4-1 record coming with 68 goals for and 50 against. We will have more later in the week to serve as a primer for Friday’s big matchup. That game will take place at 7:30 Friday night at Blue Cross Arena. The Knighthawks are hosting a Knight of Beer as a promotion to those looking to attend, whether from Rochester or those looking to take a drive down the 90 to check out the matchup.

For now, however, let’s see what else happened across the league in an 8 game weekend.

Around The League

Albany FireWolves 11 – Halifax Thunderbirds 10 (F/OT) Doug Jamieson returned to the pipes for the FireWolves in their rematch against the Thunderbirds and it proved to have a big impact on the matchup, as he made 53 saves to neutralize a Thunderbirds offense that outshot the FireWolves 63-50 on goal. Kieran McArdle and Ethan Walker erased a 10-8 Thunderbirds lead in the final 2:48 of the game to force OT, and McArdle scored his team-high fourth goal of the night to give Albany their second win of the season.

Colorado Mammoth 11 – Saskatchewan Rush 10 (F/OT)

In another overtime game on Friday, Rhys Duch was the one who called the game as the Mammoth evened up their season series with the Rush. His goal was his lone on the night to put his team lead in points on the night at 7. Zed Williams had 3 goals in his return to the lineup and Connor Robinson had 4 goals and an assist. For the Rush, Dan Lintner (4G 2A) and Robert Church (3G 3A) had 6 points each.

Toronto Rock 17 – Halifax Thunderbirds 8

Toronto used strong second and fourth quarters on offense and a consistent defense to hand Halifax their second-weekend loss. Tom Schreiber had 5 goals and 2 assists and Mitch de Snoo had another offensive explosion out of the back door with 3 goals and 2 assists of his own.

Panther City 12 – Philadelphia Wings 10

Panther City surprised many when they forced overtime in their first-ever game on the road in Philadelphia last year. In that one, Matt Rambo scored the OT winner as the Wings escaped the upset bid. This season, again in Philadelphia’s first home game of the season, Panther City was able to finish what they started, erasing a 6-2 deficit at halftime and scoring two goals in the final minute to win 12-10, led by Will Malcom’s 4 goals and 3 assists and Nick Damude’s 40 saves. Malcolm’s game-winning goal was, shall we say, a memorable one.

Calgary Roughnecks 14 – San Diego Seals 10

Josh Currier scored 30 seconds into his first game with the Roughnecks and then brother Zach scored 14 seconds later as part of a 5-0 run in the first 5:17 of the game to set the tone in the Roughnecks’ upset win over the Seals. Jesse King and Shane Simpson each had 3 goals for Calgary while Christian Del Bianco made 40 saves. Curtis Dickson and Dane Dobbie countered with three goals of their own. Chris Origlieri made 33 saves in relief after Frank Scigliano was pulled after the 4th goal of the game, 4:45 into the game.

Vancouver Warriors 19 – Las Vegas Desert Dogs 16

Both teams saw their biggest offensive explosion of the season, but the Warriors’ 8 first quarter goals ended up being the difference as Vegas couldn’t extend to get back a goal the rest of the game. Three Warriors had 8-point performances, including Shawn Evans having 3 goals and 5 assists in his Welcome to Vancouver game. Mitch Jones (2G 6A) and Keegan Bal (5G 3A) were the other 8-point getters. For Vegas, Rob Hellyer had a goal and 10 assists to help pace the Desert Dogs, while Zack Greer had 4 of his 5 goals in the last 16:44 as Vegas attempted their late comeback.

Photo Credit: Photo by Joe Hrycych
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