Buffalo Bandits 16 – Albany FireWolves 10

From the opening draw, it was evident the Bandits offense was focused on getting their offense right headed into the playoffs, and the results reflected this on the scoreboard. Secondary scoring told the story of the first quarter, as Chase Fraser, Kyle Buchanan, and Chris Cloutier each found the back of the net and got an additional tally in transition from Nick Weiss. The problem was that Albany was also eager to keep pace, and with 3 straight goals from Connor Kelly, the FireWolves kept pace in the first quarter into the second. However after Hiana Thompson gave Albany the lead with 11:32 to go in the first half, the Bandits took back over from there.

Cloutier got himself two more goals in the middle of the quarter, putting the Bandits up two with help from a second on the night from Chase Fraser. Jake Fox scored following the second Cloutier goal to get it back within one, but Josh Byrne scored twice to finish the half and give the Bandits a three goal game after 30.

Buffalo built off the two Byrne goals by coming out for the third quarter and not letting Albany even think about getting back into the game. Tehoka Nanticoke and Chase Fraser scored back-to-back in the second minute of the quarter, and then Chris Cloutier got his fourth goal and Adam Bomberry got his first as a Bandit against his former team before the six minute mark, extending their lead to 7 and chasing Doug Jamieson. In the fourth, the stars took it from there, with Dhane Smith getting two goals and Josh Byrne scoring his second of the night on the way to a 16-10 victory to close out the regular season and officially claim hold of the top record in the NLL and secure home floor over any West team in addition to being atop the East.

Smith’s 2 goals and 4 assists placed him at 132 points to finish up the regular season. While three less points than he had last season, his 96 assists broke the previous single season record that he set last year. Josh Byrne’s 3 goals and 5 assists led the Bandits on the evening, while Chase Fraser had 3 goals and 3 assists and Chris Cloutier had 4 goals and an assist. Matt Vinc made 48 saves in 51 minutes before Devlin Shanahan came in to finish up the game in his third appearance of the season. For Albany, Connor Kelly finished with 4 goals and 3 assists, finishing as the team leader in points with 35 goals and 33 assists. Ethan Walker had 2 goals and 3 assists, while Hiana Thompson and Jake Fox each had a goal and 3 assists

Philadelphia Wings 14 – Rochester Knighthawks 11

Thomas Hoggarth scored on the Knighthawks first shot on goal of the game 71 seconds into the game, and that was their only highlight the rest of the first half…literally. Philadelphia rattled off 4 straight goals in the first and then 5 more in the second to go up 9-1 at the half. And while Rochester was able to weather the storm in the third quarter and then start a storm of their own with 7 goals in the fourth to get as close as 13-11 with 18 seconds left, there was not enough time left, and the regular season came to an end.

The big guns led the way for the Wings, who will certainly be excited to open next season with this core having a full training camp together in the fall in year two with Jeff McComb’s offense, as Mitch Jones had 3 goals and 5 assists, Ben McIntosh had 3 goals and 4 assists, and Joe Resetarits had 2 goals and 5 assists. Zach Higgins made 48 saves in a win where he was a wall for near the entirety of the first half. For Rochester, who was missing Ryan Smith and Brad Gillies, Thomas Hoggarth (4G 1A) and Holden Cattoni (3G 1A) showed to be ready for the playoffs where they will look to replicate their success from last summer’s Mann Cup for Peterborough, while Connor Fields had 2 goals and 2 assists of his own.

Because of it being the final game of the regular season and how poorly it began, that’s really all there is to say for this one from my end. The NLL is no exception to potential weirdness in the final week of the season, so we won’t know if there are any ramifications to either the first half or the fourth quarter headed into the playoffs.

What it did do, however, is put their first round matchup into the hands of the winner of the win-and-in game in Duluth. If Georgia won, they’d still go to Toronto in the 2v3 matchup, but if the Thunderbirds won, they’d be setting themselves up for a matchup in Banditland…

Halfiax Thunderbirds 17- Georgia Swarm 11

…And that’s exactly how it played out, as the Thunderbirds pulled away from the pesky Swarm with a 7-1 fourth quarter to stun the home Swarm crowd. For Thunderbirds fans, the game will certainly be remembered as The Chris Boushy Game, as the 25 year old righty went off for 5 goals and 8 assists for 13 points. His first double-digit point game came in what may have been the most important game of his career to this point. With the team up 12-10, Boushy scored three straight goals in the fourth to give his team the buffer room to get to the finish line and back-to-back postseason berths.

Cody Jamieson had 2 goals and 5 assists in a big time captain performance. Randy Staats also had 7 points with a goal and 6 assists against his former team, and Clarke Petterson had 4 goals and 2 assists. For the Swarm, who were once again without Andrew Kew, got 2 goals and 3 assists from Lyle Thompson and a goal and 6 assists from Zach Miller, but they were unable to hang on in that final quarter, and their springtime run to playoff contention came to a halt.

The East Bracket:

(Previews coming later in the week)

• Friday May 5 – Halifax Thunderbirds (3) vs Toronto Rock (2) – 7:30pm (TSN)
• Saturday May 6 – Rochester Knighthawks (4) vs Buffalo Bandits (1) – 7:00pm (ESPNU)

Back to the Game Recaps

San Diego Seals 11 – Colorado Mammoth 8

Colorado made a 5-0 run to get back to only trailing 9-8 in the fourth, but the early success of the Seals offense with some help from two Patrick Shoemay goals in the final 1:02 gave them the 11-8 victory. Austin Staats had 4 goals and 2 assists to lead the Seals, and Frank Scigliano made 49 saves, as it looks like the Seals will be riding with him at least to start the playoffs when these two teams meet again in San Diego on Friday. For Colorado, Zed Williams led the way with 3 goals and 3 assists, while Connor Robinson had 2 goals and 3 assists of his own.

New York Riptide 16 – Vancouver Warriors 8

A matchup between 4-13 teams usually wouldn’t warrant a national TV appearance, as this game was slated as the TSN Game of the Week, but with Jeff Teat chasing potential history, he did not disappoint. While his 5 goals and 5 assists fell one point short of Dhane Smith’s record in 2016, it did more than enough to erase a halftime lead and use a streak of 8 straight goals between the second and third quarters to give the Riptide a win to end their disappointing season on a high note. Connor Kearnan had 4 goals and 5 assists of his own, and Steven Orleman returned to the starters net and made 57 saves. Adam Charalambides led the Warriors with 2 goals and 3 assists, while Shawn Evans had a goal and 3 assists.

Saskatchewan Rush 13 – Las Vegas Desert Dogs 12

The last game of the 2022-23 NLL regular season was the closest and the most exciting finish of the NLL slate, as the Rush erased a 12-10 deficit with 3:24 to go with 2 goals from Ryan Keenan and then a go-ahead tally from Mark Matthews with 39 seconds left to secure a road victory. Keenan was the high point getter for the Rush with 4 goals and 2 assists, while Matthews added 4 assists to go along with his GWG. Laine Hruska improved to 2-0 in starts on his career. For Vegas, Rob Hellyer distributed 8 assists, while Jack Hannah finished a breakout rookie season with 3 goals and 4 assists.

The West Bracket:

• Friday May 5 – Colorado Mammoth (4) vs San Diego Seals (1) – 10:00pm
• Saturday May 6 – Panther City Lacrosse Club (3) vs Calgary Roughnecks (2) – 9:30pm (TSN and ESPNU)

As a reminder, the first round is single elimination, and then the semifinals and finals are both best-of-3.

Photo Credit: NLL