Halifax Thunderbirds 14 – Buffalo Bandits 12

The Bandits neutralized the Thunderbirds crowd out of the gate as Chris Cloutier scored from outside three minutes into the quarter. Ryan Benesch countered from his office to tie the game at one with 10:21 left in the quarter, but then the Bandits were able to go on a three-goal run over three minutes in the middle of the quarter, with Dhane Smith improvising to find space for his first of the night, an outside quick stick from Chase Fraser, and a powerplay quick stick from Josh Byrne to Kyle Buchanan on the side of the crease. Dawson Theede finished off a post back down with 1:14 left in the quarter to make it 4-2 Buffalo after 1.

Another run developed into the second quarter for the Bandits, starting with Chase Fraser swimming past Johnny Pearson for a clear lane to the net to bury his second goal of the game. After getting a stop off the ensuing faceoff, Buffalo came back the other way and Josh Byrne buried from outside with 11:51 left in the half. Out of the under-10 timeout, Matt Vinc stopped Clarke Petterson, leading to the Bandits getting a 3 on 2 and Matt Spanger feeding Steve Priolo for the transition goal, chasing Warren Hill after 20:40. Play settled down until Dhane Smith crossed past Jordan Trottier and got a clear lane of his own, extending the score to 8-2 with 5:58 left in the half. Spanger and Cam Wyers took a pair of cross-checking penalties on the next possession, and Austin Shanks ended the 4-0 run with a powerplay tally while up two men. Two more open righty goals from Petterson and Aaron Woods before the end of the half brought the game deficit back to a respectable 3 goals before heading to the locker room.

The vets Ryan Benesch and Kyle Buchanan exchange goals in the first half of the third quarter as part of a relatively tame stanza, but that very quickly changed in the final three minutes. In the waning seconds of a powerplay, Dhane Smith took a penalty of his own on a little too aggressive illegal screen, and the Thunderbirds buried 20 seconds later, as Austin Shanks found the smallest of holes between Matt Vinc and the near post to make it 9-7. After forcing a shot clock violation on the next Bandit possession, the Thunderbirds came back in transition with Dawson Theede circling the net and scoring with his offhand. During the next possession, Theede went to the net for a crease dive and drew a penalty on Steve Priolo, who landed on him in the crease as well. The two large lads exchanged shoves and it led to all ten players joining in on the shoves and five total penalties given out. Since Priolo got two of those on his own, Halifax went back on the powerplay, and Benesch tied the game up 3 seconds into the man advantage with a low-to-high rip over Vinc’s shoulder.

With the game at 4-on-4, Josh Byrne scored from around the same spot on the floor he buried his first on the run, but the Thunderbirds had answers from Clarke Petterson and a fourth goal from Ryan Benesch for the first Halifax lead of the game at 11-10 with 11:26 to go. Buffalo tied the game back up on their next possession as Chris Cloutier fought through traffic on his way to the net for his second of the game. A Nick Weiss cross-check with 8:01 left put the Thunderbirds back on the powerplay, where Dawson Theede got back on the scoreboard on a quick stick pass from Petterson. Kyle Buchanan evened the game back up in the waning seconds of possession with 4:43 left, but a pick and roll from Austin Shanks to Aaron Woods put Woods alone in front to take the lead back 15 seconds later, and the on the next possession, Petterson to Benesch for his fifth pushed the lead back to two. Vinc stopped Benesch on a penalty shot after an illegal substitution with 1:48 left to keep the Bandits in it, but the Thunderbirds’ defense and Drew Hutchison held down the for for the comeback win.

A pair of 2 goal 7 assist games from Clarke Petterson and Austin Shanks led the way for the Thunderbirds to join with 5 goals and an assist from Ryan Benesch to pace the offense. Dawson Theede added 3 goals and 2 assists, and Drew Hutchison made 22 saves on 27 shots faced in relief of Warren Hill. However, the story for the Thunderbirds, who improved to 6-4 in the victory, was a perfect 32 for 32 night in the faceoff circle, with 30 of those from Jake Withers and 2 from Graeme Hossack. Withers had 29 loose balls as well. For Buffalo, who fell to 5-4, Dhane Smith had 2 goals and 7 assists, while Josh Byrne had 2 goals and 6 assists.

NLL Week 12 Around The League

Toronto Rock 16 – New York Riptide 10

The Rock pulled away after a tight first quarter with a 7-0 run across the late second and early fourth on their way to a convincing victory over the red-hot Riptide in the NLL Unboxed Game in Laval. Mark Matthews turned back the clock with 4 goals and 7 assists, and Tom Schreiber continued to return to form after injury with a goal and 8 assists. Receiving most of those assists were 4 goals from Corey Small and 3 from Dan Craig. Jeff Teat led the Riptide with 3 goals and 5 assists, while Larson Sundown, Stephen Keogh, and Connor Kearnan each had 4 points.

Philadelphia Wings 10 – Las Vegas Desert Dogs 8

A 5-goal game from Joe Resetarits paced the Wings to their first win of 2024 over the Desert Dogs. Mitch Jones had 8 assists for the game-high in points, and Ben McIntosh had 2 goals and 3 assists. The offensive production was fairly spread out for Vegas, as Rob Hellyer had the team-high in points with a goal and 3 assists, while Dylan Watson had 2 goals.

Albany FireWolves 13 – Colorado Mammoth 11

The FireWolves got back in the win column after a pair of losses, holding off the Mammoth in a back-and-forth affair. After the rookie tandem struggled in those previous two games, Alex Simmons had 4 goals and an assist and Tye Kurtz had 3 goals and 4 assists. Ethan Walker added 3 goals and 2 assists, and Doug Jamieson returned from injury and stopped 51 shots. Eli McLaughlin had 3 goals and 3 assists for the Mammoth, while Connor Kelly had 2 goals and 3 assists and Zed Williams had 2 goals and 2 assists.

Calgary Roughnecks 17 – Halifax Thunderbirds 11

A 22-goal first half helped the Roughnecks break out to a 13-9 lead after 30 minutes, and then they scored the final 4 goals of the game to frustrate the Thunderbirds in their second game of the weekend. Jesse King had 3 goals and 6 assists to lead his team to a second straight win against a top Eastern contender, while Tyler Pace had 3 goals and 3 assists and Josh Currier had 3 goals and an assist. Ryan Benesch had 2 goals and 3 assists for the Thunderbirds, and Clarke Petterson had 2 goals and 2 assists. Once again, both Warren Hill and Drew Hutchison played for Halifax.

News!

Deals!

Toronto announced that Challen Rogers will miss 4-6 weeks with an upper-body injury, and after taking the practice player tag off of Zack Kearney and adding Marley Angus to the active roster, Jamie Dawick used that open place on the practice roster to call Steve Dietrich and send the Bandits their 2024 6th round pick in exchange for Alex Kew. The 24-year-old transition player was signed to the Bandits practice squad during training camp. He is an Oakville native, who played with the Oakville Rock in Sr. B last offseason.

Buffalo made one more deal on the week, sending their 2024 second and 2025 third-round picks to Rochester for Cory Highfield. The first pick in the second round of the 2019 draft, Highfield has played 23 career games for the Knighthawks, registering 12 goals and 7 assists in that time. He missed the final two months of the 2022 season and all of the 2023 season with an injury, and he has appeared in 3 games this season, playing mostly defense in his return to NLL play. With the Bandits banged up on defense as they have been all season, this trade gives them another body to slot into the mix, hoping he will return to his promising pre-injury form.

Ottawa!

GF Sports and the Ottawa Senators organization announced that starting next season, the New York Riptide will be relocating to Canada’s capital, playing at the Canadian Tire Center as the Ottawa Black Bears. Riptide GM and executive of GF sports, Rich Lisk, explained the move on Teddy Jenner and Pat Gregoire’s Off The Crossbar Podcast this week if you are interested in learning more. The move is a traditional relocation, as GF Sports will continue to own the team, although they will work with the Senators organization. Ottawa last had an NLL team from 2001-2003 as the Ottawa Rebel, who was previously the Syracuse Smash and became the Edmonton and then Saskatchewan Rush. They lost all four matchups that they had with the Bandits and all three with the Knighthawks during their 46 games.

Also, look who was on play-by-play for their inaugural home game!

NLL Week 13 Preview

Everyone is in action this week to kick off 40 games in 5 weeks. Buckle up, friends.

Las Vegas Desert Dogs (3-6) – Rochester Knighthawks (3-5) – Saturday February 24, 7:00 pm

After losing to the Desert Dogs in their first all-time matchup last season, the Knighthawks will need to defend their home floor on Casino Knight at Blue Cross Arena to snap their five-game losing streak and keep pace with the rest of the pack. Also, Curtis Knight is a pro poker player, which we learned this week.

Albany FireWolves (7-2) @ Buffalo Bandits (5-4) – Saturday, February 24, 7:30 pm

Well…different lead into this one compared to their first meeting in Week 2. The FireWolves who pulled off what at the time felt like a huge upset to improve to 2-0 are now 7-2 and are close to if not the favorite at KeyBank Center this weekend, where they won in Week One last season as well. The Albany offense can score in bunches, and Doug Jamieson has been solid all season, so each of those presents a challenge to a Bandits team that has struggled late in games for the past month or so. The Bandits will be celebrating Native American Heritage Night, which you can learn more about here.

New York Riptide (5-5) @ Colorado Mammoth (3-7) – Friday February 23, 9:00 pm

Time is running out for the Mammoth to work their way back into the playoff picture with a hungry Riptide team coming to town looking to avenge their loss last week to Toronto. The Mammoth beat the Riptide 10-7 at Ball Arena in their only other head-to-head matchup, which does mean that it looks like the Mammoth will not be headed to Nassau Coliseum. They had taken a trip to Long Island back on February 6, 2003, where they lost to the New York Saints 20-12. Their last trip to NYC was April 12, 2008, at MSG where they lost to the New York Titans 14-10.

Georgia Swarm (6-4) @ San Diego Seals (6-3) – Friday, February 23, 11:00 pm (ESPNU)

Both teams are coming off a bye last week and will be refreshed as they will test the East Coast’s ability to stay awake for an 8:00 game in San Diego. Veteran offenses with young breakout goalies set up a pretty good head-to-head matchup with two teams looking for their seventh win. The lone matchup between the Seals and Swarm took place on April 5, 2019, in Georgia, where the Swarm won 17-10.

Vancouver Warriors (2-7) @ Toronto Rock (7-2) – Saturday February 24, 7:00 pm

Toronto will look to overcome the loss of Challen Rogers as they take on a stumbling Warriors team aiming to escape the basement of the unified standings. The Rock have won each matchup with the Warriors since the rebrand in Vancouver, winning last season’s opener 19-8. Even back to the Stealth Era, Toronto won all but one of the 9 head to head matchups, with that lone loss taking place at the Langley Events Centre on March 31, 2017, by a 14-11 score where current Rock forward Corey Small was the Stealth’s leading scorer.

Halifax Thunderbirds (6-4) @ Saskatchewan Rush (3-4) – Saturday February 24, 8:00 pm

The Rush look for their third win in a row to improve to .500, but the Thunderbirds have won four of their last five and took the opening week matchup 17-12. The Thunderbirds won last season’s matchup in Saskatoon 15-11.

Philadelphia Wings (3-5) @ Calgary Roughnecks (4-5) – Saturday February 24, 9:00 pm

Philadelphia and Calgary kick off their first of back-to-back matchups as part of a home and home over the next two weeks, with their first head-to-head matchup since December 28, 2019. The last time the Roughnecks won two games in a row, they dropped three straight, so this game can help them overcome that and improve to .500. At the same time, each of Philly’s wins has been followed by multiple losses, so once again, big pair of games between these two teams.

Georgia Swarm (6-4) @ Panther City (4-4) – Sunday, February 25, 4:00 pm

Panther City has climbed out of the 1-3 hole they started the season with and is now 4-4, inviting the Swarm to town for their second matchup of the weekend for a matinee in Fort Worth. Georgia won the home leg of their head-to-head this season by a 12-10 score.

Photo Credit: Trevor MacMillan/Halifax Thunderbirds